After Team Liquid announced the acquisition of Jonathan “Grig” Armao, Shern “Shernfire” Cherng Tai confirmed yesterday that he also left the team and will be leaving North America as a result.
“As you guys know, I worked for over a year so I could get a chance to join my dream team Team Liquid and prove myself,” Shernfire said. “In some ways I did prove myself, but in other ways I disappointed others.”
Shernfire also said that “it hurts to have people whom [he respected] lose faith in [him],” but he will continue to grow from the experiences he had over the past six months. He also said that he did not get any offers from NA teams. Instead, he will be heading to Korea during the 2020 Summer Split, aiming to hit rank one in the region.
The 22-year-old jungler was picked up by Liquid back in November 2019. He was originally signed for the team’s Academy roster but was forced into the main roster due to Broxah’s visa issues. His impromptu debut in the LCS didn’t go so well, with the team losing four of their first six games.
The Academy team barely made it into the playoffs as well, having finished the regular season in sixth place with an 8-10 record. Afterward, they were eliminated by Evil Geniuses Academy in three short games in the first round of the postseason.
For Shernfire’s first split in NA, it was a rough experience filled with plenty of ups and downs. In the beginning of the split, many people even placed a lot of the LCS team’s misfortunes on his performances. However, there were plenty of other issues on the team that contributed to their lackluster play, from bad communication to a loss of motivation from some of their key players.
