Team SoloMid has announced that for the 2019 LCS Summer Split both Jonathan “Grig” Armao and Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham will play on the starting roster, splitting time as the team’s primary jungler.
At the start of the 2019 season, TSM expected Grig to be the starting jungler for the team with Akaadian playing on the academy team. However, Grig developed a pain in his wrist that got progressively worse, eventually forcing him out of action.
Akaadian was promoted to the starting lineup while the issue was investigated and put in a surprisingly good performance. So good was Akaadian in fact that when Grig was cleared to play again the team decided to stick with Akaadian for the final weeks of the spring split. Grig then ended up playing out the spring with the organization’s academy team.
Now with the summer split set to kick off, the team has decided to make use of both junglers in the LCS. It is still being deciding exactly how this timeshare will work, and TSM will continue to figure out the best way to make it work in the first few weeks of the split, but both players will apparently see playing time in the coming months.
Of course, this leaves the TSM organisation without a jungler to consistently use in the academy team. To solve this issue the organization has signed Mingyi “Spica” Lu, a player TSM discovered at the 2017 Scouting Grounds event. Having since finished up high school, Spica has now joined TSM with the teem seemingly having high hopes for him.
TSM also invited trainee AD carry Johnson “Johnsun” Nguyen to work with the academy team as soon as his US visa is approved.
Being able to use both junglers in the LCS will not only offer the main team more options in team composition and style, but has also opened up space elsewhere in the TSM organisation for up and coming talent to get a chance to play for one of the biggest esports organizations in the world. Spica and Johnsun could turn out to be the next generation of TSM stars.
