There may be few transfer windows where former teammates of SofM face such a twisted fate as at the end of the 2023 season. As mentioned not long ago, TheShy announced his retirement, skipping the Spring 2024 season after contract negotiations with Weibo Gaming fell through. The departure of TheShy officially marks that all members of WBG who previously played with or alongside SofM have now left this team.
However, if we look at the Top Laners who were once teammates with SofM, it seems that TheShy’s fate may not be the most tragic in the upcoming 2023 – 2024 season. According to reports, a name recently discovered may have it much harder than TheShy: Flandre, the former star of Edward Gaming who once won the Worlds 2021 title. At the same time, Flandre is one of the closest teammates of SofM when both wore the Snakes Esports jersey and later LNG Esports. For those who don’t know, Flandre made a transition to join JD Gaming after a year-long hiatus from his career to rest.
Flandre’s transfer to JDG really puzzled the LPL community at the time. Everyone knows that JDG’s goal has always been to reach new heights in competitions. Meanwhile, no one can guarantee that Flandre’s performance won’t be affected after such a long break. Moreover, JDG’s competitors are becoming increasingly powerful, and while believing in Flandre may seem reasonable, it may not yield the best results.
The suspicions about the conspiracy theory that “JDG recruited Flandre just to be a backup for the young player Sheer” are becoming more substantiated. Before JDG, teams like Bilibili Gaming had also played similar tricks by recruiting both Uzi and Doggo in the same season. Later, Uzi had to be a “full-time backup” for Doggo. Not to mention, there were some reports that JDG falsely declared Sheer’s age. Clearly, JDG wouldn’t go through such trouble if they intended for Sheer to just be a backup.
Clearly, placing trust in Flandre could still help JDG secure new glories compared to a young player. However, with the current trend of rejuvenating rosters to allow younger players to compete in high-level environments, it is understandable that JDG might prioritize Sheer over Flandre. Moreover, Flandre has already won his share of titles and may have experienced a decline in performance to some extent. He is no longer the superstar who led EDG to the Worlds 2021 title and will have to compete hard if he doesn’t want to find himself truly benched by Sheer.