Team SoloMid has demoted head coach Kim "SSONG" Sang-soo and will promote assistant coach Ham "Lustboy" Jang-sik to interim head coach following a rough start to the North American League Championship Series Summer Split, sources close to the team told ESPN.
SSONG will move to an assistant coaching role until his contract expires on Nov. 19. SSONG will take some form of pay cut as a result; the salary for his current contract, which he signed last November, is $250,000 per year, sources said. New terms for SSONG's move to assistant coach have not yet been finalized.
The decision comes after Team SoloMid fielded a number of poor draft decisions, according to team sources, including during its loss to Clutch Gaming on Saturday. Lustboy, a former support for Team SoloMid, rejoined the team in December as a coach after two years of working with teams in South Korea and Brazil.
The news was initially discovered online when Lustboy replaced SSONG in the Riot Games global contract database. Assistant coaches are not recognized as an official role by Riot Games.
In April, Team SoloMid finished fifth/sixth in the NA LCS Spring Split, a record low for the organization. The team added an additional jungler, TSM Academy's Jonathan "Grig" Armao, to its LCS roster in June. Since then, Grig has alternated with Michael "MikeYeung" Yeung for the starting position.
Team SoloMid currently holds a 2-2 record, tied for third with several other teams. It won its first two games of the season versus Counter Logic Gaming and FlyQuest, but lost in the second week against Clutch and Team Liquid.
