Huni on TSM revival: “You can’t compare us to Fnatic, SKT yet… but we want to get there”
YouTube: TSMHuni smiles in TSM “Legends” LCS video series on YouTube.
Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon was all smiles as TSM clocked up an undefeated weekend in the LCS, telling Dexerto that the popular League of Legends roster has “finally figured out” how they want to play the game as they fight to defend their title, and earn a spot at Worlds in 2021.
When Huni joined the LCS post-match call with Dexerto, he already had a wide, cheese-eating grin spread across his face, and rightfully so — after nearly a month of losses and struggles, TSM just clocked in their first undefeated week, 3–0.
The three wins, earned against Golden Guardians, Liquid, and Immortals from Friday to Sunday, moves TSM to a 4–2 record. They now sit among the top four, on a four-win streak.
And how Huni felt after the round? “We take those,” he laughed.
“You can’t really get much better than a 3–0 week, can you?” he continued. “We’re happy! Especially the Liquid game, winning that gave us a lot of confidence… we’ve been working on what we want to do, so it’s nice it worked.”
YouTube: TSMFor weeks, Huni tells Dexerto, the TSM roster has been “struggling”. A rough Lock In tournament rolled into a one-win opening round, and the star-studded team seemed destined for a playoff scrap, rather than challenging for the LCS title.
That is, until the team “got on the same page.”
“We had a bad Lock In. We struggled to do a lot of stuff we wanted to do. There was a lot of stuff we wanted to do, play a lot of champs, do certain things, but we weren’t sticking to one thing,” Huni explained, but added that it has all been “turned around” in Week 2.
“We wanted to do too much. The team decided, let’s get this stuff sorted out.
“So, we sat down, and talked. It was like… well, I’m Huni, we have SwordArt. Tristan — PowerOfEvil, that is — doesn’t have a champion pool, he has a damn ocean. We know how to play the game, we’ve been doing it for ages. We just had to figure out which way actually worked for us when we played stage.
“This does mean that I’m on passive champs [like the star’s Shen pick against Immortals on Sunday] but that’s okay with me. I don’t really feel like I need to carry with guys like SwordArt and PowerOfEvil playing too.”
One thing stood out, as Huni spoke. The TSM top laner spoke about playing composition-focused picks, in a way he hadn’t really done since his stint on SKT. With superstar players like Faker, Bang, and Peanut, Huni had “faith” in his squad.
It was a similar feeling, the Korean veteran continued, during his iconic year with Fnatic in Europe — with Reignover, Rekkles, and Febiven, you know there’s points of power you can “lean on,” he says.
Don’t compare this new era of TSM to those Fnatic and SK Telecom T1 rosters of old though, Huni added, with a laugh. They’re “not there yet.” But they want to be.
“You can’t compare TSM [now] to SKT or Fnatic yet. Those years I did cool things like Worlds final, win MSI, go 18–0. But we want to get there. Right now, we’re [TSM] right at the start of those cool things, and we still have to work to get there.
“I think if we keep working on what we’re doing, we can do well. We — of course — want to get there. If we can get to Worlds… well, let’s get to Spring finals first!”
Riot GamesHe laughs again as he thinks about TSM’s potential. They’re not at SKT or FNC just yet, but there are a few of Huni’s past rosters he thinks they’ve cleared.
- Read More: LCS Spring 2021 power rankings
“At least we’re not Clutch from 2019!” the Korean star chuckles. “That was really hard man. That year was hard! I think we’re already better than that. We’ll see! Right now, that Liquid game was great. We take those. I’m feeling really happy.”
TSM is back in action in LCS Spring 2021 next Friday, facing Evil Geniuses (3–3).
