On Friday, the League of Legends Championship Series announced that Team Liquid AD carry Edward “Tactical” Ra had been named LCS Rookie of the Year. The organization revealed the top five finalists for LCS summer split MVP, which include TSM mid-laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, Cloud9 jungler Robert “Blaber” Huang, Golden Guardians jungler Can “Closer” Çelik, Team Liquid support Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in, and TL mid-laner Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen.
Tactical finished the split with a 7.1 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) ratio in summer, coming in third in the LCS among AD carries. He led LCS bot laners in average share of his team’s total damage to rival champions with 31.7%. According to a Riot spokesperson, the name of the award was changed to rookie of the year this season because only one rookie played in the LCS in the spring split. The LCS, therefore, tallied all rookies that played in the league in spring and summer.
This season, Tactical was tasked with taking over the challenging marksman position on Liquid. He was under significant pressure considering that he moved into the starting lineup over superstar Doublelift, who joined TSM in the League of Legends offseason. Despite the obstacles, he far exceeded the expectations of his veteran teammates.
During the regular season, he had the fourth-highest KDA in the league with a 30.5% team kill share, according to League stats site Oracle’s Elixir. In addition, he had the highest share of his team’s damage among LCS ADCs. In the second half of the season, the team took first place for the summer with an extraordinary 15-3 record, compared to the previous split when Liquid finished ninth with a lackluster 7-11 record.
Tactical, 20, began competitively gaming for several amateur organizations between 2016 and 2017, including Team Exile Surge, Relentless Gaming, and Super Nova. In 2018, he rejoined Super Nova and led it to several 1st- and 2nd-place finishes in amateur tournaments such as the Upsurge Premier League and Alienware Game Arena.
In 2019, Tactical joined TSM Academy. The team had struggled throughout the 2018 season, yet with Tactical and new support Treatz, the team managed to finish 2nd in the regular season and 1st in the playoffs.
Source: LoL Esports
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