Berjericson Talks About Victory Agains Tl

Bjergsen: The Golden Mean

In the middle of Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg's debut year as a motorcoach, he got an crawling.

He had retired from professional play a yr prior, stepping down from the mid lane position he had filled at TSM for nearly seven years - the longest partnership between actor and team in LCS history. Bjergsen was looking for a change in perspective - ane he establish close to habitation, as TSM's new coach.

But Bjergsen's new indicate of view gave rise to an unexpected thought - that perhaps he could still perform in the LCS outside of the mid lane position. "At that place was a part during my season of coaching that I thought about maybe playing another role competitively," Bjergsen says. "Information technology was kind of like playing the game... I wouldn't say for the first fourth dimension, merely just learning a lot of bones things around other roles, which I thought was really fun."

However, Bjergsen already had a job to do and no plans on abandoning his post. "But I was even so really committed to fully doing the 1 year of coaching and putting my all into it."

Bjergsen continued to put his all into coaching, primarily using his dalliances with other roles to inform his oversight of the TSM squad. Under his guidance, TSM embarked on a volatile entrada that saw them fall just short of Worlds subsequently an impressive regular season. A skillful result for a skillful player. And then again - Bjergsen has never been just a "good" player.

Bjergsen entered the off-season with one goal: to join the squad that gave him the best chance of winning big, doing something great, no matter the role. "I came into the offseason with the intention of looking at both coaching and playing, seeing what my options would look like for both," he says of his time off. "My mindset was that I simply want to exist on a winning team and I want to fulfill the position that's going to give me the highest gamble of winning and being successful, whether the team needs a head coach, or whether the team needs an assistant coach or a mid laner."

But with time to cool his heels, Bjergsen did what whatsoever League of Legends thespian with an early on offseason does: he watched Worlds and played solo queue. And as he did, he came to a realization.

A shift in perspective had rejuvenated him, granted him the benefits of time and distance, a wealth of new knowledge but possible from a higher vantage point. But the best position for him to win wouldn't come up from a new lane, a new role, a spot on a coaching staff.

He'd fabricated a change, simply mayhap information technology wasn't exactly the correct 1. Bjergsen's best shot at winning was still in the mid lane.

It just might not be on TSM.

— Evidence it to yourself, start

Bjergsen would like to make one thing clear - not only anyone can retire for a year and come back to the highest level of contest. "I recollect a lot of coaches that I've seen [who are] ex-pro players are like, 'oh, I could hands play once more…' and maybe they're a petty bit delusional," he chuckles.

Bjergsen wasn't sure how smooth the climb dorsum to his elevation would be - acutely aware of what it takes to maintain the caste of execution he once had. During his time coaching, he barely touched the mid lane, and he could feel the degradation of his skill when he returned to his former position. But after a year of beingness on the outside looking in, he was still convinced he could find that old superlative. "I really wanted to prove to myself that I'm not that guy that just says that I notwithstanding tin can, but I don't really have it in me to play at a high level - to sit and simply play the game for 10 hours straight and exercise that over multiple days," he says.

To that end, he packed upwards for a Korean bootcamp in Nov, adamant to testify he had what it took to return to pro play.

(Bjergsen speaks with Ashley Kang of Korizon nearly short-term goals and returning to course)

In typical Bjergsen mode, he had a well-considered, rational plan for getting dorsum in class: he would reconstruct his play support slice by piece, focusing on the most clear cut parts of the game first and so moving on to the next edifice cake. As such, he dedicated his time in Korea to laning stage, the "almost consistent thing that y'all can practice."

Every day, Bjergsen tried to make the League of Legends he was playing look like the League of Legends he was imagining. "That was a large reason why I went to Korea," he comments, "to merely try to become as much of that out of my system every bit possible: where I feel similar my brain knows what to do, but my hands just can't go along upwards."

But laning wasn't the only matter Bjergsen was testing - he was too seeing if he could however tum the demanding practice schedule of a pro. He grinded the game nonstop, consistently clocking in xv hours days, reaching over four hundred games on the server in just a few weeks. "That was kind of the exam for myself - to see both if I enjoyed it, because if I don't relish that, then I'm not going to enjoy the long flavor of grinding, and [to see] if I still had it in me… And I kind of proved both those things to myself and and so actually, just concluded up enjoying information technology a lot more."

Every word about Bjergsen's return has started with the aforementioned question: volition he be able to play at his summit again? Sure, Bjergsen may be one of the greatest players in history of the LCS, only is he worth picking up while players like Jensen or Jiizuke ride the bench? Are we getting threescore percent of Bjergsen's potential? Can he perform? When will he get back to his old quotient?

— One-time Bjergsen

To some, Bjergsen has deteriorated simply past merit of being in NA - never getting amend than in those first few years on TSM. Bjergsen debuted as an explosive deport threat, one who sat downwards North America's best and said in no uncertain terms, "this is my throne now." Information technology was potency different annihilation the LCS had ever seen. He was at his best when he could pump out massive damage, whether on assassins like Zed and LeBlanc or control mages such equally the Syndra on which he garnered his outset pentakill - in his commencement-e'er professional win, to boot.

Yous already know the memes - that Bjergsen was keeping TSM truthful to its old name of "Team Solo Mid," that the team was Bjergsen and 4 wards. It didn't affair who his teammates were - in those early days he was capable of singlehandedly putting TSM on the podium.

According to Bjergsen, there were obvious downsides to wearing the solo carry mantle. "I think I was a flake of a baby," he says of his get-go few seasons, laughing. "I was 18 years old, 19 years old, and I mostly just cared about myself. If I didn't have a proficient game, I would just not talk at all. Not contribute at all. I would just become upset and quiet, and complain to the coaching staff about like, "I don't like that this thespian is doing this" or... I just wasn't very emotionally mature, and probably not a very good teammate as a outcome of that."

("I don't really wanna name myself MVP because I think that'southward really cocky." Bjergsen acknowledges immaturity just even when he was young, he rarely fabricated public shows of ego. Jot it down, it'll come up back around.)

Simply every bit time went on, Bjergsen remained TSM's one constant - and matured in playstyle and personality while beyond swapping rosters. Bjergsen may be Danish, but he became the ultimate Swiss Army Knife, equally willing to support his Ad Carry on Karma or Lulu as he was to carry a game himself. Whatever his part, Bjergsen would play information technology.

"The mid laner kind of needs to practise information technology all," Bjergsen says. "There are metas where yous are the guy that needs to carry, and there are metas where you are the guy that'southward creating space, having early priority to aid other roles scale, where you have more than of a facilitator part, engager role. And I think that's one of my strengths, is that I can play all those different roles." That versatility certainly paid off. In Bjergsen's first 4 years in the LCS, TSM won the title five times, including a three split-string from 2016 to 2017, and he picked up MVP hardware iv times - at least once every single twelvemonth.

But at that place are downsides to flexibility, as well. The TSM roster continued to evolve, and Bjergsen, always the squad histrion, connected to do his duty. He went from Zed to Zilean, finding himself on supportive champions more than and more than often. In his Run Information technology video serial, Tim Sevenhuysen of Oracle'southward Elixir bankrupt down how the shift in Bjergsen's champion pool led to a reject in his personal harm numbers. In the 2018 Summer Split, his damage per minute fell below 500 for the get-go fourth dimension in his career - the anomaly would become the average after he repeated it for the next four splits.

A new narrative cropped upwards around Bjergsen. On a domestic level, he was however clearly outclassing NA mids, who couldn't punish his Zilean weak early game, who got stymied past his rubber laning. But at an international level, fans started to single out Bjergsen - that he was too passive compared to international mids, too cautious, never the 1 to suspension a game open.

The Bjergsen of sometime? He could get things done. The i playing a literal old man? Not so much.

(Xiye fully exploits Zilean's weak landing phase, solo killing Bjergsen.)

When I ask Bjergsen about this idea, he grows quiet, taking a long time to consider his answer. "I mean, I recall... I but wanted to practise whatever it takes to win, and I felt like I was the most adaptable."

"So like, in the 2020 roster, both Doublelift and Broken Blade are very demanding players in terms of resources. I feel similar I can be the guy who doesn't need resource from my own lane, but so is roaming around the map and playing these champions to give them even more resources to carry. Because these are players who practice very well with resources, know how to carry games - but if they are left without resource, at least at that time, wouldn't perform too in the game or wouldn't feel as comfy in the game."

To Bjergsen, the determination was simple. Playing the supportive role would maximize his squad's chances of success; any other pick was out of the question. His job was to win splits, and so he would do it. Supporting or carrying - that wasn't and so important.

And all the same - Bjergsen still has his reservations. "I've always just tried to, maybe sometimes to a mistake, fill up the role that the team needed," he says. Only his fourth dimension coaching showed him that even if yous never break, bending has its own limits. "Focusing on yourself is knowing what yous demand," he says. "What help, what resources and aid that you need from your teammates. I learned that even more from watching the game from the outside for one year."

In item, from observing TSM's next star mid laner. "Watching Power of Evil, and watching the ways that he utilized his teammates and the way that he was practiced at it and wasn't, and the ways that he became more than of a follower, put himself in worse positions, rather than speak upward and ask for what he needed."

Bjergsen has the same goal as ever: to win, however that win may come. But this year, after seeing a parallel in Ability of Evil, he has another aspiration: To abet for himself more, to get back to a identify where he can light upwards the rift and run abroad with a game. "[I'm] trying to non be overly adaptable as well, and kind of solidify my identify in the team and the vision that I take and the things that I desire. The one affair on TL that I would like to be able to do is be the guy to suck up more than resources."

(Run It's breakup of Bjergsen's stylistic shift)

"[I'd similar to] have trust in my teammates that they can facilitate me once I get a lead to really carry the game and know what I need. I don't remember in the past on my teams that I always got that feeling - that if I have a lead, my teammates are going to do the things that I need to succeed and behave the game. I didn't always take that trust in my team and I desire to have that trust in this TL roster."

After eight years with the same squad, Bjergsen is taking a bound of faith, hoping to land where he has the support to perform at his highest level. He came to Liquid with a hope and a question: "I can atomic number 82 this team to greatness. Will you help me?"

For Liquid, the answer had to be yep. But they probably had a question of their own - "Can yous still evangelize?"

— Higher however

Bjergsen isn't interested in chasing his past peaks - he'due south aiming for new heights, ones but made possible by a modify of scenery.

"I definitely feel like my peak is potentially a lot college at present than information technology was in the past," he says. "I don't recall I realized how repetitious LCS seasons were getting for me. Getting this break, and getting fourth dimension to reflect I think volition kind of give me the ability to to become fifty-fifty improve, because I'm looking at things with a fresh perspective. I spent a lot more time playing every role in the game, not just mid, which fabricated me smarter."

Still, when Bjergsen made the flight back to Due north America, he wasn't sure whether he was most to, for lack of a meliorate term, get clapped. After all, weeks of soloqueue do not a mid-lane superstar make.

"I mean, I had no idea if I was going to come to scrims and just get crushed by people. I didn't know what level I was at. But when I started scrimming I was pleasantly surprised that I felt like I was just every bit good, if not meliorate than pretty much anybody, maybe because I had been working so much on my laning stage."

Bjergsen is ordinarily humble - at to the lowest degree, given his legacy - but it's clear from the slight smile in his voice that he was able to reassert himself as one of NA'due south best without too much difficulty. Even if he all the same felt shaky in some aspects of his play, such as his teamfighting, his plan to start from the bottom upwardly had laid a foundation stiff enough that he could walk confidently into his first real test: LCS Lock In.

— Young, Bold, Forward Earth

It but seems correct that Bjergsen would face Evil Geniuses in the Lock-In finals, led by the upstart seventeen-yr-former jojopyun in the mid lane. Not because this matchup was familiar, but because information technology was stark and new.

Entering the Lock In, Bjergsen didn't have the usual rivals. From Hai all the way to Jensen, 2013 to 2022, Bjergsen has seen regimes change. Notwithstanding, no 1 could've predicted how much of the old baby-sit would end up locked out of a starting spot in the due west. Nor did many predict the swift ascent of the new talents.

More than than simply a new face, jojopyun is everything that Bjergsen isn't - immature, unproven, known for his ambitious laning, given to bouts of bravado and trash talk. Bjergsen may not be a boomer, simply jojopyun is certainly a zoomer.

And while it's difficult to call up of Bjergsen equally annihilation other than an NA histrion after his viii years representing the region, jojo is habitation-grown talent - a sticking point in a year with so much discussion about where teams are sourcing their hopes for a Worlds bid.

What's more than, jojo came for Bjergsen'southward neck the first chance he got. After EG scrapped out a victory over TL in a rollercoaster group stage friction match, jojo tweeted "this is your goat??" He quickly doubled down. In an interview with Travis Gafford, jojo said, "I was surprised. When I starting time [played] versus him, I idea he'd do more stuff, only he but didn't do much. And so, I was similar… isn't this supposed to exist the best histrion or something? I was confused."

Jojo wasn't firing shots just because he had the gun in mitt. Information technology wasn't considering he'd won simply because of how he both mid laners played. In a game where jojo went for bold, sometimes reckless plays, Bjergsen sabbatum back calmly, scaled, and played his part - exactly the thing jojopyun had called out NA midlaners for less than a calendar week prior.

But unbeknownst to jojo, Bjergsen had battles to fight across the Twitter timeline. He had developed COVID-19, with severe symptoms consigning him to bed residual any times he wasn't playing. Despite this, Bjergsen agreed to pull double duty by subbing in for Liquid's Academy squad, whose mid laner Haeri had also contracted COVID and was stuck in Australia. Bjergsen, in typical style, treated Academy as more practice.

"I wasn't sure if I should play because I was really feeling very sick at the time with COVID myself, he says. "But you know, they didn't exactly take someone else lined upwards. So I thought it's nevertheless good for me to get games in playing these serious competitive games, and also just getting to play with different people. Ever gives a little chip of a unlike perspective"

It wasn't exactly the Jordan-esque flu game people expected. Fielding a new support, a new mid, and a elevation and ADC splitting time between squads, the academy team would become ane-3 during Bjergsen's tenure, their only win coming off of his Zilean (ironically enough, against EG Academy). The starting roster would fare ameliorate, but Bjergsen wasn't the story there.

With Bjergsen under the weather, Liquid's standout player in Lock-In groups was undeniably Bwipo in the tiptop lane. Bwipo played all of Lock-In like a human being possessed, flinging himself into the enemy squad.

"He sees the game a little fleck differently from me," Bjergsen says of Bwipo. "Which I think is helpful, considering it kind of balances out the perspective within the team. I don't think the way that I view the game is perfect. I think sometimes I'yard a little bit too efficient and I don't account for actor mistake on the enemy team."

Bwipo's aggression may have resulted in a 9 death Sion game against EG, just Bjergsen admires the fact that Bwipo e'er has his human foot on the gas. "Bwipo is really good at taking advantage of small mistakes that the enemies make. He's e'er the guy who's similar, jumping at a kill when they step up besides far on the mid wave when we're battling on dragons or contesting on vision. And I think we residue each other out well, because someone is looking to get the right fix, and someone is similar, "yeah, just if they come in we're fucking murdering them." He laughs once more.

(The quote to a higher place, from a TL interview with Bwipo, gives a glimpse into the top laner'due south mindset.)

Certainly, at that place were traces of that synergy to be plant in the rest of groups. While Bwipo embarked on a Rengar murder campaign against Revenge or dashed into full enemy teams with Graves, Bjergsen quietly put together a suite of impressive games on control mages. In some means, information technology'due south a strong spousal relationship of the eras the players came upwardly in. Bjergsen reaching his acme while Faker LCK teams played make clean and masterful macro, Bwipo reaching his while TheShy and LPL teams played fast, mean, and punishing.

Bolstered by Bwipo'due south never-say-dice mental attitude, Liquid managed to make their way to the finals - though not without some bumps forth the way. Although their semifinal scoreline confronting Dignitas may have been three-1, information technology was the Bwipo show through and through. For the first 3 games, Bjergsen was stuck in lane, unable to contribute until the games' ending stages. He may have put together a stunning performance in game four - but it was on Zilean, the condolement pick that seemingly on succeeds in NA.

The sometime discourse became new again: Bjergsen was also passive, and could but win if the enemy wasn't capable of punishing his Zilean. If anyone was going to punish this pick in lane, it would be jojo - and for most analysts, it seemed like an Evil Geniuses win was in the books.

Then Team Liquid 3-0'd them.

— The Bear Undying

Equally the 3-1 against Dignitas shows, the gear up record shows picayune of what the serial means - for Liquid or Bjergsen. Better to have a look at Bjergsen'southward Lock-In stats and see what we tin observe there.

Bjergsen boasted an incredible 15.half dozen KDA throughout Lock-In, more than double that of the side by side player with more than i game played: his teammate, Santorin. Bjergsen owes that stat to his absurdly depression deaths - just eight in 13 games, with vii deathless games to his proper noun. He broke above that 500 damage per minute mark that had vexed him for multiple seasons, even if just barely, and was third in harm per minute across all midlaners. By all accounts, Bjergsen had a tremendous Lock-In tournament, especially because his continuing recovery from COVID and nascent return to professional League of Legends.

Whether his passivity stemmed from COVID recovery or a reacclimation to competitive play or something else entirely, Bjergsen seemed to have shrugged it off past finals. He kicked off the series by stealing a Twisted Fate ult with Sylas and porting to the bot lane for first blood. From there, he managed to consistently sow disruption in teamfights, playing just on the razor's edge of decease and picking up a back-breaking Quadra Kill in the procedure. He might have fallen short of the Sylas highlight reel in game 2 but he did his job - nullifying jojopyun's Twisted Fate and creating space for Hans Sama to do what he does best: Melt the opposing team.

To nail the series shut, Bjergsen did what he does best: He scaled on Zilean. With a juiced-up Jinx on their side and a Lulu to boot, Team Liquid turned around game 3, picked up their 2nd consecutive Lock-In trophy, and Bjergsen earned nevertheless another Finals MVP.

Whether he was the right pick is upwards to y'all - there are arguments to exist made for Santorin, for Hans Sama - only it's hard to argue with the caliber Bjergsen rediscovers in all of his finals. Bjergsen not only stepped upwardly his play, he managed to perform on drastically dissimilar champions, showing up on both Zilean and Sylas.

(The bot lane gank is at 0:25 and the quadra is at 3:00)

Simply there's one more stat to discuss that we haven't touched on yet. Despite his other impressive stats, Bjergsen emerged from Lock-In with the lowest damage share of whatever midlaner in the tournament, at 23.4%.

But in context, this stat isn't a strike confronting Bjergsen. We already know that Bjergsen was in the top three damage for midlaners. His low impairment percentage doesn't hateful that he wasn't carrying his weight - it's more a testament to how well the team surrounding him is performing. How damaging this iteration of TL can be.

However, it's a sign that Bjergsen hasn't reached that new peak he's seeking. Not only yet. That onetime world, that primordial soul of "highest damage share" that sits in the pit of every carry'due south stomach, is something he's nevertheless reaching for. To both rewind to when he shined in that mode and to mature it within a make new org, brand new roster.

When I asked Bjergsen if he had that trust that his team would let him carry yet, he could have given me a PR answer, said he was already confident this was the surround he would thrive in. Instead, he was honest.

"I don't think nosotros're in that location yet, because we haven't worked together that long, and also, nosotros haven't even been working with the full five man roster. So, we're not completely clicked in with how to play the game, and our advice systems. It's tough when you're constantly swapping players and non with your full roster, but I definitely see the potential."

After Lock-In, it'due south prophylactic to say that the potential is there. Bjergsen has shown he trusts his team to carry - and before long, mayhap he'll trust them to let him do so likewise. Perchance he'll turn the clock dorsum, fifty-fifty as he gets older.

After all, he already returned to form in a sense. He walked into lane equally Zilean against jojopyun and came out unscathed. A new challenger in a new meta in a new LCS - still folding to the aforementioned undying acquit.

— The Golden Hateful

When the dust settled, when Bjergsen emerged the winner of even so some other rivalry, he did an interview with Travis Gafford to talk about Liquid's Lock-In win. When Travis asked for any comments on jojopyun, Bjergsen, ever the diplomat, had nothing but compliments - on jojo'due south laning, on his champion pool, and on the players effectually him.

In their expression of ego as well, the mid laners paint a stark contrast. Bjergsen, even when he was jojo's age, did not trash talk as often nor let his ego flash. Subsequently the time spent maturing, supporting, Bjergsen's ego outwardly seems to have shrunk. And yet - Bjergsen spent a twelvemonth watching the game from the outside, examining and evaluating player skill level as a coach, and his determination was "I can still beat these guys."

Surely at that place must be some modicum of ego at that place.

"I think it'due south kind of like… What's it called? The golden hateful?" Bjergsen says.

For those not familiar with Aristotle, the "gilt mean" is basically an argument for moderation - that one should strive for balance between excess and deficiency. "Balance in all things," Irelia would say; Buddhism has a similar concept called "the middle fashion."

"I think at the point where you lot're saying 'ego,' I usually feel like information technology's come up likewise far and that'south kind of similar the negative aspect of having... perhaps besides much confidence or as well much... is it chosen self-efficacy?"

Here, I tin can hear typing equally Bjergsen looks up the term, checking to make certain he's got the definition right. He does.

"Yeah. Which is basically similar a belief in your own capacity to exercise something, which I don't really know why it's dissimilar from self-confidence…" He laughs. "But a lot of the psychologist people that I work with employ self-efficacy instead, I don't know why only…" He laughs once again. This is heady stuff, stuff he takes seriously - but conspicuously not without levity. Ever trying to walk the right path.

"It definitely goes into ego sometimes," he continues. "And I have to kind of calm myself down because it's not something that I really admire in myself or think is beneficial. I remember, ordinarily when it tends to fall over into ego, then you showtime dealing with, yous know, similar overconfidence, complacency, these kinds of things, and I really try to avert those."

That ego volition play a office in finding new peaks as well. Threading the needle between the unders and overs of conviction could mean a lot in trusting both his squad and himself to carry.

"But obviously not having enough confidence is besides a huge issue, and I think I kind of go between both. Similar sometimes I don't take enough confidence in myself. Sometimes my ego pokes through the clouds a little bit besides much."

A domestic fable a year out of the game, coming dorsum to immediately collect some other trophy and finals MVP… It's enough to give anyone an ego battle. But I think dorsum to the final time I interviewed Bjergsen, fresh off his fourth MVP honour. Even then, Bjergsen couldn't continue rails of how many times he'd picked up top honors. Not because he didn't value the accolades - just because he wasn't interested in living anywhere only the present. After all, in that location were more games to fix for - more exercise to be done.

"And I only try to keep myself right there… right in the middle, where I feel confident in my abilities, and peculiarly confident in the piece of work that I've put in."

Now, approaching a decade-long sprawl of a career, on TL's star-laden roster, Bjergsen has a new vantage point from which to detect his perfect balance. Tick-tock. With each successive swing, the clock's pendulum slows, until somewhen it comes to balance, at peace, in the eye.

Writer // Zane "Epengu" Bhansali
Editor // Austin "Plyff" Ryan
Graphics // Zack "Zack Arts" Kiesewetter
Graphics (Bwipo Quote) // Yasen Trendafilov

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Source: https://www.teamliquid.com/news/2022/02/05/bjergsen-the-golden-mean

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