(Photo credits go to: lolesports' flickr)
Team Impulse was once a strong contender in the North American League Championship Series under the brand LMQ.
(Photo credits go to: Gamespot)
After competing at the World Championships back in 2014, the former Chinese superstar roster began to crumble right before our very eyes, until the only remaining player left from the original lineup was Mid-laner Yu “XiaoWeiXiao” Xian.
Planning ahead for the 2015 Spring Split, the newly rebranded Team Impulse began building their roster. These players included former SK Telecom T1’s World Champion Top-laner Eon-Young “Impact” Jeong, former Team Coast ADC Apollo “Apollo” Price, and newcomers Adrian “Adrian” Ma as Support and Yoonjae “Rush” Lee as Jungler. Many had high hopes for the team since they were able to aquire Impact and XiaoWeiXiao was crowned MVP during the previous split. Although they may have started out strong, they soon started to fall.
(Photo credits go to: lolesports)
What affected the team heavily were the sudden roster changes that came during the 2015 Summer Split. The first change occurred at the bot lane, where Adrian was replaced by Austin “Gate” Yu. That change didn’t last very long due to XiaoWeiXiao being banned for boosting players in solo queue. With that ban placed on the only remaining player of the former LMQ squad, Gate had to switch to the Mid-lane position and the team brought back Adrian for the remainder of the split.
Following their 2015 Summer Split performance, Team Impulse announced that they plan on selling their LCS spot for the upcoming split. At this point, every member except Gate had parted ways with the organization and signed with new teams. To our surprise, however, the team was not sold in time and was forced to sign four new starting players as well as substitutes. This became the start of our constant questioning of TIP’s management.
(Photo credits go to: thescoreesports)
As the 2016 Spring Split arrived, Team Impulse announced their new players: Top-laner Wang “Feng” Xiao-Feng, Jungler Kim “Procxin” Se-young, Mid-laner Choi “Pirean” Jun-sik, and ADC Brandon “Mash” Phan. Although they may have had their starting roster, TIP had to play with substitutes for the first three weeks of the LCS, while everyone questioned TIP’s ability to stay in the LCS. They were put to the test as they headed into the 2016 Summer Promotion Tournament where they went against Apex Gaming.
Team Impulse shocked us all when they were able to work their way back into the LCS after defeating Apex 3-2. Although they were able to beat Apex, it was obvious something had to be done within the organization. TIP’s management seemed disorganized throughout the years and our assumptions appeared to be confirmed as Riot revealed shocking news.
On May 8, 2016, Riot announced that Team Impulse management violated LCS rules of not providing valid contracts and not paying their players and staff. Substitute player Kenneth “ExecutionerKen” Tang backed up Riot’s ruling by stating via Twitter, that he and other members of the team were not being paid at all.
It is sad to see hardworking players be heavily affected by poor management. The TIP squad may have earned their way back into the LCS, but who is to say that their new owners (once the organization has been bought) will keep the existing lineup? Who knows? Knowing TIP, we probably won’t find out about their current status until the very last second.
