Former TL coach André Guilhoto explains how the team crumbled in 2022

It’s not often that we get first-hand information about the inner workings of competitive esports, but Team Liquid is one of those few open-minded organizations.

In what feels like an eternity since the League of Legends offseason started for 80% of the teams, Team Liquid have been the most active. Their CEO addressed the public regarding the disappointing season, their entire roster is exploring options and now we have an exit interview from the coach. Apart from genuinely being a good read, the latest article Team Liquid posted also gives a lot of insight into how things went downhill for them this season.

Scapegoats in professional League of Legends

A sore topic when discussing the functioning of competitive League of Legends is coaching. Many notable figures in the community have voiced their concerns regarding the unfair treatment coaches receive following a dismissal. Despite it being an open secret that drafts are not solely a coach’s decision, it’s much easier to blame a coach when you don’t know what’s happening inside the organization. Contrary to traditional sports, there is no clear way to gauge a coach’s impact on a team in esports. Apart from results, adjustments throughout a series and player testimony, nobody outside of the team can know. Team Liquid’s coaching staff went from Coaching Staff of the Split in Spring 2022 to being fired in less than four months.

Breaking points

The first sign we saw of the downward spiral were the 2022 LCS Spring playoffs. After securing the first seed with a 12-4 record, Team Liquid were pushed to the edge. Two five-game series in a row, one of which they lost to 100 Thieves. If that didn’t shake up their confidence as a first seed, the lower bracket finals surely did. Getting swept by the eventual LCS champions in Evil Geniuses came as a shock to everyone, with a piece of cursed memorabilia. 

Coming back two weeks later and preparing for a Korean boot camp, Guilhoto says their first order of business was getting a sports psychologist. But after a bag of mixed results on their pleasant vacation, it all went downhill. Their coach highlighted their week two loss against TSM in the 2022 LCS Summer split as a turning point. Their esteemed bot lane getting two versus two killed by a team scraped together amid their own controversy, ruined their mental. The next five weeks were public displays of dysfunctionality that Team Liquid never managed to recover from.

A team torn apart

In theory, the explanation is simple. With confidence shaken up, and the team trying to find a common ground on how to approach the game, everyone goes back to the fundamentals. The issue with Team Liquid was that everyone went back to what they knew best before joining the team.

Guilhoto highlights this in his final words to his now former players. He wanted Bwipo to define his role on the team but not shy away from trying a different approach. His reluctance to embrace a carry top lane style didn’t help Team Liquid through the dark times. He told Santorin to be more willing to take risks as a jungler without the permission of his teammates. In the competitive scene, a jungler should set the tone and make plays apart from fundamentally solid execution. He told Hans Sama to be himself and get rid of the mental block but more tellingly is his advice towards mid-laner Bjergsen.

The greatest LCS player of all time took a lot of flak for his role in the team’s demise and his coach’s last words afirm this. His reluctance to change his playstyle, champion pool, and view of the game clogged the entire team. As great as he was throughout his career, 2022 was not a good time for Bjergsen to leave coaching.

Header: Twitter/ Team Liquid Honda