Reginald explains TSM employee exits: “We weren’t headed in the right direction”

After having fallen short of making the LCS Playoffs, two managers within the organization announced their departure. TSM CEO Reginald has since given reasons as to why these key parts of their team were let go and what it means for the future of the organization within League of Legends.

It’s no secret that TSM has been on a bit of a downward spiral in League of Legends — the game that put the org on the map in the first place. After losing Bjergsen and failing to perform with a few very expensive rosters, TSM ultimately went into the 2023 season with coach Chawy claiming they had the lowest budget out of any LCS team.

Following the departure of two staff members working within their LCS team, TSM CEO Reginald took to Reddit and decided to give fans some reasons as to why TSM is trimming their staff down so aggressively.

He called these changes “necessary” in his post, and claimed that he’ll follow up with another post to explain why they’ve invested less into their esports teams than in previous years, especially in the LCS.

Reginald explains TSM “over-hired and expanded too quickly”

While Reginald has been through his fair share of controversy as TSM CEO, he also continues to run one of the longest-standing and most profitable esports organizations. Their name is still ubiquitous in the scene despite lacking recent success in the very game their name “Team Solo Mid” came from.

However, recent changes have longtime fans of TSM worried about the future. VP of esports operations Dominic Kallas and COO Walter Wang both left earlier in March and, with a General Manager and a team manager making their exit on top of that, fans have had a lot of questions about what’s going on.

Reginald didn’t immediately answer every question people had, but he did address the recent layoffs briefly on the TSM subreddit and promised a follow-up within a “minimum of 4-5 months”.

“We over-hired and expanded too quickly,” he wrote. “With the economic downturn, we made the necessary changes to be sustainable. This was not easy.

“Our current team is stronger and more performant.”

He continued by explaining that he’s taking a more “hands-on” approach in an effort to get things back on track. “TSM was not headed in the right direction, I am taking a more hands-on role. In fact, we’ve put the right decision makers in place to be more successful long term.”

At the time of writing, Reginald hasn’t revealed who those decision-makers are or what the future of TSM will look like — which will assumedly be part of his follow-up announcement. He’s also promised that he’ll explain why TSM decided to invest much less into their LCS team in 2023 compared to previous years.