TSM have completed their starting five for the 2022 LCS season, but that is not the roster that will be seen when the Lock In kicks off on January 14. In lieu of visa issues for mid laner Zhu "Keaiduo" Xiong and support Wei "Shenyi" Zi-Jie that will likely bar the Chinese duo from joining their LCS teammates until February, TSM has opted to start the full TSM Academy roster in place of their LCS counterparts for the Lock In.

The news was made public by TSM on the organization's official Twitter account, which specified that while it wasn't entirely impossible that Keiaduo and Shenyi could arrive in time for the Lock In, the complexity of the situation and the uncertainty of proper time to prepare the LCS roster for the first event of the domestic season resulted in TSM opting to give the TSM Academy players some time on the big stage.

Of the five starters on TSM Academy, only one player has previous experience in the LCS. Top laner Omran "V1per" Shoura, who was signed to TSM Academy following the departure of Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell, made his LCS debut as the starting top laner of FlyQuest in the 2019 LCS Spring Split and most recently started in the LCS for Dignitas during the Summer Split of 2020. 

TSM isn't the only team experiencing roster complications before the 2022 LCS Lock In.

Cloud9 head coach Nick "LS" De Cesare confirmed on stream that he, alongside Cloud9 top laner Park "Summit" Woo-tae, AD carry Kim "Berserker" Min-cheol, support Kim "Winsome" Dong-keon, C9 Academy jungler Sebastian "Malice" Edholm, and other C9 staff members would miss the 2022 LCS Lock In due to visa issues, which would bar them from arriving in Los Angeles, CA until February.