Fans primarily associate the TSM logo with League of Legends because it represents the mid lane, which the team can use to reach the enemy base. Presumably, this is reflected in the long line separating the letters “S” and “M.”
TSM began in September 2009, when brothers Andy “Reginald” Dinh and Dan Dinh launched SoloMid.net while in college. The site was built as a League of Legends guide hub during the game’s closed beta. Both brothers played in the amateur clan All or Nothing, and the website published tactics, champion guides, and player advice.
In January 2011, after disputes and the collapse of All or Nothing, Andy Dinh formally founded Team SoloMid. The first roster grew out of the SoloMid.net community and included Reginald, SaintVicious, Chaox, TheOddOne, and Locodoco. At the 2011 League of Legends World Championship, TSM finished third and earned $10,000, placing the team among North America’s leading squads.
TSM joined the founding group of the North American League Championship Series in 2013 and won the spring split in its debut season. Reginald had retired as a player in December 2012 to manage the organization. At the end of 2013, TSM signed Danish mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, who later became the club’s main competitive figure. With him, TSM won six LCS titles between 2014 and 2020, adding to its 2013 title.
During the 2010s, TSM expanded into “CS:GO”, Fortnite, Apex Legends, Super Smash Bros., and Valorant. Cloud9 became its main domestic rival, while Counter Logic Gaming remained a long-time opponent. In 2020, Forbes valued TSM at $410 million. In June 2021, the organization signed a $210 million naming deal with FTX, which it ended after FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022. In 2023, TSM sold its LCS franchise slot, while the Team SoloMid name remained in use.
Meaning and History
As one of North America’s most successful esports organizations, TSM has consistently earned top placements in various championships, particularly in the League Championship Series. As a result, many online gaming fans who follow professional competitions recognize its logo. The logo is simple, adaptable, and memorable because its main element, the monogram, consists of only three stylized letters.
The main advantage of the graphic symbol is its universality, as Team SoloMid is no longer tied to League of Legends as it was when it was first introduced. The logo represents at least 10 different subdivisions of the organization, which owns teams in Dota 2, Minecraft, and other popular video games. The TSM emblem is composed of straight and curved lines shaped like letters. This makes it ideal for use as a favicon, a small image representing a website.
What is TSM?
TSM is an esports team association, also known as Team SoloMid. It is officially called TSM FTX because the Bahamian cryptocurrency exchange FTX bought the naming rights in 2021. The agreement was signed for a 10-year term – until 2031. The organization was founded in 2009 and remains owned by its founder, American entrepreneur Andy Dinh. Initially, it included only one team that competed in League of Legends, but the list of games has since expanded.
2009 – 2011
In its early years, SoloMid was a website where Andy Dinh published information about his team, All or Nothing, and League of Legends. This project was directly related to the recently launched multiplayer game. Even its logo, in style and color scheme, closely resembled LoL’s debut wordmark from 2009. It featured the name SoloMid, and the designers deliberately separated the inscription by increasing the space between the last “O” and the following “M.”
The letters used a thin, high-contrast font with long serifs. The golden gradient made them appear voluminous. All glyphs were uppercase, but the creators enlarged the “S” and “M” to almost 1.5 times their original size. Two thin horizontal lines were drawn above the other letters, one on each side. The inscription sat on a gray polygon with symmetrical ornamental protrusions. Its color and texture made it resemble a processed stone slab set in a metal frame. The developers achieved a shine using gold and silver speckles.
2011 – 2021; 2022 – today
In 2011, Team SoloMid emerged to replace the disbanded All or Nothing team. Its first logo proved very successful, as the designers presented the letters “TSM” as a simple yet stylish monogram. The vertical part of the “T” sat in the middle, and its sides curved widely to form two arches; the emblem resembled a circle split in two. On the left, the “S” resembled a fragment of a Greek ornament. The right side featured the “M,” similar to a hair comb with uneven teeth. All the stripes were roughly the same thickness. White space separated the elements.
2021 – 2022
In 2021, TSM granted cryptocurrency exchange FTX the right to use its name for $210 million. Under the ten-year contract, the team officially became known as Team SoloMid FTX; however, due to sponsorship restrictions in VALORANT and League of Legends, the old name remains in use. As a result, the organization added the inscription “TSM FTX” to its emblem. All letters are uppercase and bold, with the first three in black and the last three in blue-green. The classic brand monogram appears on the left.
The three stylized letters form the team’s name. The words “Solo” and “Mid” refer to a League of Legends tactic in which one person attacks from the middle lane. In the TSM monogram, the vertical stripe in the center of the “T” represents that Mid Lane.
Font and Colors
The logo created for the esports organization in 2021 features the inscription “TSM FTX” in a bold sans-serif font, similar to Neology Bold from Shinntype and JT Leonor Bold from JAM Type. However, the letters in the round emblem were custom-designed. They can be recreated using circular fragments, straight stripes, and zigzags.
Black dominates the color scheme, with only three glyphs (“FTX”) in a blue-green shade. In the main version, the background is white, but it can change depending on the visual context.






