TSM CEO Andy ‘Reginald’ Dinh has responded to a post on his team’s subreddit about how his company did not “double down” on its investment into its LCS team as he had promised.
In November 2022, TSM released its entire LCS Academy roster, prompting discussion from the team’s fans over the course the team was on. TSM would eventually sign an LCS team for 2023 that some fans dubbed a “budget roster” with veterans Toàn ‘Neo’Trần, Colin ‘Solo’ Earnest joining the squad alongside journeyman jungler Lee ‘Bugi’ Seong-yeop.
Reginald responded to the post about the Academy roster and asked for patience from fans and a promise of news to come in January.
“We’re going to double down on LoL,” the TSM CEO said.
Why TSM couldn’t double down on LCS squad
But that announcement did not come to pass and TSM ended its Spring Split just outside of playoffs in seventh place with an 8-10 record, with coach Wong ‘Chawy’ Xing claiming that the team had the lowest budget in the league.
TSM fans again voiced their displeasure with the state of the LCS team, and Reginald responded to the Reddit post explaining why he was unable to make good on his promise.
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“[I] did plan to double down on league – because of how things played out, we couldn’t double down this season,” he said.
Reginald added that he was silent about the organization’s esports plans for so long “due to business/legal reasons” and promised to shed some light “soon”.
His comment comes amid a report that TSM are pausing some of their esports efforts after already pulling out of Rainbow Six Siege in February. The report also said that TSM may be looking to sell their spot in the LCS, which they have reportedly considered doing before.
TSM is committed to esportsWe’re planning to enter CS:GO sometime later this year which is a larger investment than all of the games we’ve left combinedTSM is always evaluating what esports ecosystems are best to invest in and will continue to enter & exit games
— TSM Reginald (@TSMReginald) April 1, 2023
Reginald responded to the report a day later and tried to assure fans that TSM are still committed to esports and looking to return to Counter-Strike.
TSM are one of the many esports organizations that have had to scale down operations amid the threat of a recession. VP of Esports Operations Dominic Kallas, COO Walter Wang, League of Legends General Manager Yang ‘Glen’ Po-Jen and team manager Chien-Yu ‘Kristine’ Huang have all departed TSM in recent weeks, with Reginald explaining that the organization “over-hired and expanded too quickly”. “With the economic downturn, we made the necessary changes to be sustainable,” he added.