When Jason “WildTurtle” Tran left Team SoloMid to join Immortals, it looked like it might be the end of the line for the AD carry. His play on TSM had been lackluster, and he had lost that aggressive fire that defined his career. Immortals sparked it anew and he once again proved that he was an ADC to be reckoned with, but Team SoloMid prevailed in the end and took the NA LCS with Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng. Not only did TSM knock Immortals out of the Spring playoffs, but they took the entire LCS in the Summer Playoffs.

When Immortals' fell short of the regional domination that had once seemed assured, the team turned to reinventing itself… and once again threw WildTurtle's future into doubt.

“The biggest reason I left [Immortals] was I wouldn’t be playing with my old teammates.” Turtle said. “I wasn’t sure who was going to stay, who was going to leave... at one point, Immortals basically had no roster. It was really hard for me to stay when I didn’t know what they were going to build."

Tran found a soft landing in a familiar place: playing AD carry for Team SoloMid. But it hasn’t been a flawless re-entry.

Returning home

When you’ve been in the game since 2012, it makes sense that you’d seek stability. Team SoloMid is an attractive team for any player, with their brand and infrastructure, but this is an encore performance for Turtle, who originally played with them way back in 2013, all the way through to the end of 2015.

“In the end, TSM already had a roster of players I was familiar with. It was something that could fit me in.” he said. “Filling the AD carry role is pretty standard, and the rest of the team is going to play the same.”

The reigning champions show up on the NA LCS stage © Riot Games Flickr

Of course, Team SoloMid isn’t going to coast back to their number one spot–and the team doesn’t expect it, either. 2016 was a hectic, hardworking year for the team, with their run from sixth place in Spring, to nearly claiming the crown in the playoffs, to rallying with a new support and stomping all of Summer. Their first two series back in the NA LCS were, by comparison, aimless. While Turtle was consistently landing arrows and doing his job, the team as a whole traded the lead with IMT in an inconsistent series. Turtle’s performance seemed overwhelmed by TSM’s team play issues as a whole.

When asked how he thinks he’ll rank amongst the ADCs of the region, he began to answer confidently–and then paused. “I think we’ll have to wait and see.”

His apprehension is understandable; Doublelift was considered the top carry in the region, and a legend of the North American scene. “I don’t really know what Doublelift did for the team before.” WildTurtle admits when asked about filling his shoes. “I need to understand what they did well last split that I can learn from.”

Doublelift stepped down from TSM after Worlds © Riot Games Flickr

Finding his footing

Team SoloMid had a slightly rocky start to the split - not catastrophic, but short of what people expected from the team who boasted a 17-1 record in summer. The team lacked their decisive, brutal nature that closed out games and controlled the map.

Turtle has a wealth of experience on being part of a team that’s struggling. “Closing out on the end of summer on Immortals, we had a hard time adjusting to the meta and we fell apart. Every player played worse than their former selves. [With TSM] I think time will tell. I think I’ll still be pretty good — we’ll just have to see.” He disagreed with the assessment that he’s a ‘safe’ pick: “I think I can exceed what people seem to think right now.”

It’s also worth noting that Team SoloMid have learned an important lesson from 2016 - there’s no sense going 100% HAM, 100% of the time. If there’s a time for them to take a breath and relax, the first weeks of Spring are a good time. If you need an example of this, look no farther than his Kalista pick.

“Kalista was an experimental pick.” he explained back stage. Sure, it might not pan out for the rest of the Split, but WildTurtle sees potential in her utility. “The fact that she has CC and she can allow your support to ward more aggressively because she can always pull them back.” She may not be a top tier pick, but the recent rend buffs helped. “[They] made her laning a lot stronger than before.”

Even his build of Essence Reaver, Death’s Dance, and Hurricane was part of the great Kalista experiment for TSM. “I think it’s a pretty good solo queue build, but it might not be viable competitively. I just wanted to try it out because it’s the first week of the LCS. I’ve been doing it a lot in scrims too so I thought it might be good, but the first game was just unfortunate.”

Kalista was an experimental pick by TSM © Riot Games

Navigating the meta

Whenever AD carries are brought up in League, the shadow of the current state of marksmen looms over the discussion. The class has been nerfed repeatedly in a familiar cycle: three strong picks rise to the top, get knocked down, rinse and repeat. Combine this with the continued dominance of tanks and a few key assassin picks, and the situation has become dire.

After the games, Turtle shared his thoughts on the role. “I think playing ADC in solo queue isn’t very fun to play, and I can see why everyone is so unhappy.”

Solo queue is perilous, even if you’re doing well, because of the strong nature of top lane right now. Tanks like Poppy or Maokai are able to dominate games, mirroring their success in the LCS. “Usually, most of the time, you’re going even on bot lane and just farming, and you see this 3-0 Poppy or Maokai and they one shot you.”

Does that mean that the role is useless, even in pro play? WildTurtle doesn't think so. “I think AD carry is in a really good state for competitive games. The nature and importance of AD carry in competitive games still really shows.” he said. Taking down towers and dishing out late game reliable damage from afar will always mean that the role is mandatory, and having a strong support means that you’re able to (hopefully) survive the bot lane brawls.

“You’re playing utility for the team,” he explained. “From bot lane, the best thing you can have is CC and be able to pressure lane safely enough to get vision out.”

But is it possible that WildTurtle will pull out a sleeper AD carry pick that will allow him to apply that pressure and pick up those bot lane kills? Well, maybe not. “Playing those AD carries means you’ll lose a lot of pressure in terms of kill potential and making plays mid. Ashe, Varus, and Jhin can all roam mid at any point and threaten the turret. If you roam with carries like Caitlyn or Twitch, you don’t have any ways to kill their mid laner. It’s pretty useless in that sense.”

Biofrost and WildTurtle are establishing a dynamic © Riot Games Flickr

The current meta is the culmination of many decisions, but the eradication of lane swaps is one of the biggest factors that lead to bot lane brawls and bloodier games. “Right now, you want to pick for lane. While you want to care about team composition, you want to balance a strong lane with your comp so you can push for pressure,” Turtle said. Gone are the days where Kog’maw and Vayne could bide their time and wait for the late game: “Everyone is going to pick the stronger AD carries, the strong supports now, because they’re way more important in this meta than the 2v1 meta.”

Dangerous duos

In the pre-game interviews, Turtle talked about some familiar supports. While Biofrost’s rookie split was spent hand-in-hand with Doublelift, Turtle insists that the young Canadian is more than able to hold his own. “Biofrost is really good; he’s been improving a lot in the last year.”

Biofrost’s early career was nearly entirely defined by his mentee status under Doublelift, and he’s adopted a similar dynamic with Turtle. “I’m the veteran here. I have a lot more experience than Bio does,” he asserts. It’s not a dictatorship, though. “I bring up discussions with him, and try to guide both of us from there.”

There’s another support, and accompanying AD carry, that will likely define the Spring Split: Cloud9’s Sneaky and Smoothie. “I think C9 will be the biggest contender for the Spring Split. They’re really good right now. [They’ve] been playing for a year now, and they improved vastly coming in from Summer. They’re a really solid bot lane right now.”

After their sixth place finish in the regular season of Spring 2016, a new Team SoloMid emerged that focuses heavily on teamwork and synergy over individual star plays. This attitude, combined with the current meta, means WildTurtle is off the damage carries that he’s historically favoured and onto picks like Ashe, Jhin, and Varus.

He may be comfortable with experimenting and finding his footing on TSM, but don’t think for a second that WildTurtle has lost his competitive drive. “My goal is obviously to win with this team. That should be it,” he said. “Every player’s goal should be to be the best. It’s a competitive esport. If you’re in the LCS, and you don’t have that competitive drive, I don’t think you should be there.”