Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg has been one of the biggest names to make waves across the LCS 2020 off-season. After retiring from his player role at TSM, he stepped right in as the team’s new head coach.
Bjergsen recently shared his thoughts on his eight-year playing career and his new role in an interview with LoL esports journalist Travis Gafford.
Bjergsen spent most of his time with the TSM org, playing for them for around seven years. As his devotion to the squad continues into his new role of coach, Gafford asked if changing teams was ever an option in his mind.
“Of course I considered it, but I just don’t think I would be able to live with myself if I joined TSM at their high and just left after two years of mediocrity,” Bjerg said. “I felt like I kind of owed it to Reggie and everyone at TSM to bring this team back to its former glory.”
Being one of the old guards of TSM, Bjergsen has survived the waves of generations going in and out of the LCS. When tackling matters such as his gameplay and how he cooperates with his teammates, he put a priority on being able to adapt beyond what he’s learned from previous seasons and really stand out as a thoughtful playmaker on the Rift.
Looking back on the various line-ups he was part of, he would’ve given a second chance to their 2016-2017 line-up, namely Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell, Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen, Vincent “Biofrost” Wang, and Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng.
That team disbanded after one and a half years of playing together, and their split was due mostly to a bad Worlds appearance. Bjergsen believed that if they had more time, they could’ve ironed out the minor issues and forged a stronger team for 2018.
While his career had a plethora of highlights, Bjergsen personally said that his greatest player moment was split between his first LCS Championship win at PAX Seattle and his international win at the IEM Season 10 World Championship. He saw the first LCS title as an underdog win that was filled with clutch moments from his team while the IEM Championship was one of the few times that his family could watch him play and win against Korean and Chinese teams.
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When asked about TSM’s international appearances during his time, Bjergsen saw it as a hard truth that he couldn’t take his team as far as he’d wanted. Despite such unfortunate showings, the head coach believed that he could achieve more international success by coaching TSM to a better standard.
“The I way see it is that it’s not over for me,” said Bjergsen. “It’s sad that I wasn’t able to get more success as a player internationally, but I don’t think that book is closed and I think that I can go even further as a coach than I ever did as a player.”
Being a player that has transitioned into the coach role, Bjergsen said that he understands that some players will always struggle to apply any kind of strategy or rotations and he’ll always see it simpler from the outside. Even when talking about his replacement, Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage, and concerns of him suddenly returning to the mid lane, Bjergsen has confirmed that he’s happy in his new role and that he won’t be returning as a player anytime soon.
In term of his priorities as a coach, Bjergsen will have the upper hand on TSM’s drafting. While he’ll be working alongside the players in picking the best team composition, he also clarified that he can blamed for a lot of things because it’ll be his ultimate responsibility to make sure that the team is performing well.
For his final words, Bjergsen addressed his fans and hopes that they understand his shift into the coach role.
“I don’t feel like this is some kind of goodbye or retirement,” said Bjergsen. “I’ll still be there and you can cheer, criticize, or praise me. I hope you guys are supportive of this transition and I’m really excited to see how well I can do with this team because I think we have a really good roster.”
You can watch the full interview below:
