Recently, the Suning Gaming organization – the team that SofM plays for, has officially announced its finalized roster for the LPL Summer 2020. It can be seen that this roster has not changed compared to the Spring Split, except for the addition of rookie SN View – a trainee from the Suning youth team, promoted to the main roster in the jungle position.
Generally, according to LPL tradition, teams usually only have 1 to 2 reserve players in their lineup. These players will serve as substitutes for the main players if they underperform, or for strategic rotation (as in the case of Ning – Leyan), compete for the official position if the skill gap between the main and reserve players is not too large (like Khan – Gimgoon), or simply trainees promoted to practice with the main team to gain experience for the future.
In Suning’s case, it is true that SofM has shown signs of declining performance compared to when he played for LNG, but to be fair, finding a better jungle player than him at the moment is impossible for SN. Therefore, it is unlikely that SofM will be replaced by View – a trainee who is not particularly outstanding among the young talents emerging like mushrooms in China.
The only reason that Suning needs to add a jungle position can only be understood as SofM not committing to staying long-term with this team in the future. In fact, from the moment he moved to SN, the fact that SofM only signed a one-year contract was an unusual point in this deal, as such a contract duration is too short.
Even Khan – a player who chose FunPlus Phoenix with the aim of “retirement” before going to military service, was signed for 2 years.
Returning to the SN SofM deal, according to insiders, the main reason for the Vietnamese player to join this team was the promises about building a lineup capable of competing for titles and securing a spot at the World Championship.
As we know, SofM agreed to move to Suning after learning that this team had nearly secured the signature of JackeyLove. However, the JackeyLove deal fell through at the last minute, and Suning currently only has a mid-tier roster compared to the overall level of the LPL.
The summer transfer market has never been the right time for teams to spend big on blockbuster signings, so there is a good chance that SofM will continue to experience another year without a World Championship in Suning’s colors.
Furthermore, it should be emphasized that if Suning wants to undergo a transformation, it will be quite difficult for them to build a roster by recruiting stars within the next year, as top League of Legends talents in China have all been retained by their teams with long-term contracts and lucrative offers. If he continues to stay and wait, SofM may have to wait 2 years to see Suning emerge as a major force in the LPL. And time is not on his side anymore.
The contract between SofM and Suning Gaming will end on November 17, 2020, and by then, we may have to wait for another transfer shakeup, as the likelihood of the Vietnamese jungler choosing to leave is quite high. If that happens, we will continue to search for answers about the next destination of this player.