Team Liquid’s superstar support CoreJJ earned the MVP award for the 2020 LCS Summer Split. His contributions to his team were significant enough to beat out TSM’s Bjergsen and Cloud9’s Blaber for the award.
This was CoreJJ’s second year with Liquid after joining at the end of 2018. After winning two straight NA titles, he and the team went through a rough 2020 Spring Split where multiple problems came up all at once.
From Broxah’s visa issues to Doublelift’s lack of motivation, the team never had a chance to build any synergy together. They switched out junglers throughout the split and never had a way to reach the potential that so many people believed they had when their roster was first announced.
As a result, they finished in ninth place with only seven wins in the split. Doublelift eventually parted ways with Liquid and joined up with TSM, while rookie AD carry Tactical was called up to take his place. Not many fans expected Liquid to finish in first place this split, but that’s exactly what they did.
With CoreJJ’s brilliant leadership skills and sharp support abilities, Liquid finished with a 15-3 record. His stats remained impressive and he stayed calm and calculated in multiple clutch moments. Additionally, he helped guide Tactical into becoming one of the best ADCs in the region.
The start of 2020 was rough for Liquid fans, though. They watched as multiple issues tore down a team that had just won four LCS titles in a row, from Broxah’s visa troubles to motivation problems. As a result, when Doublelift came down with an illness before week six of the 2020 Spring Split, Tactical was subbed in with no expectations and plenty of room to prove his worth.
After a brilliant debut that saw him take down TSM with great two-vs-two play and aggressive decision-making, people saw a brief shimmer of light shine from the last-minute bottom lane substitution. And after Liquid finished the season in ninth place, it was clear that a drastic shift had to be made—a shift that saw Tactical finally fit himself into the shoes of one of the most iconic players in LCS history.
“When I first started in the beginning of the season, I didn’t know how anything was gonna end up, so I tried not to give myself any expectations,” Tactical said. “I just wanted to see how it went, and then just keep going off that. It turned out pretty well so far, but I’d say like maybe six months ago, I would not have expected anything to become like this.”