Jett “Srtty” Joyce doesn’t spend all his time trying to get back into the League of Legends Championship Series. Instead, he balances his time between loading solo queue games, streaming, learning accounting, and maintaining 4.0.
He streams games and studies accounting, maintaining a 4.0 grade point average.
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In early May, the phone rang, and on the other end of the line was Chris Yong, the manager of the Pretenders.
DSG top laner Cho “Castle” Hyeon-seong is set to join Lyon in the coming days, with DSG in need of a new top laner for the final two weeks of the season.
Joyce and DSG will continue their season on Saturday against Shopify Rebellion at Riot Games Studios in Santa Monica, California.
The winning team will earn a spot in the playoffs, while the losing team will begin preparations for the crucial summer split.
Joyce only participated in 10 days of scrimmages, none of which were against Saturday’s opponents. He has been paying attention to the LCS, and from his perspective, losing to Shopify Rebellion is unacceptable.
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“They have a lot of problems,” Joyce said. “Individually, the players are mostly good, but it would be really sad if we end up losing to them. They’re not playing well right now. I’m better than them and I think my teammates are better than them.”
He had some nerves in the first period of Week 6 against Dignitas. The game was his first in a Division I environment since August 24, 2025.
Joyce quickly settled into form and helped DSG maintain their playoff hopes with a 2-0 victory.
He finished with three kills, two deaths and 17 assists. That’s not a bad showing for a player who has spent the better part of the last nine months playing primarily solo queue – it’s a completely different environment than high-level competitive play.
“I’m very anxious because I haven’t competed competitively [recently]”I did really well in all these top-ranked scrimmages,” Joyce said. So, I was like, ‘You know what? In fact, it feels pretty good. “
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Joyce’s arrival was not entirely random. DSG coach Ian “Ido” McCormick tends to have a strong sense of the players that will fit into his lineup.
Cho was the only holdover from the team that survived the relegation battle, and around him they built veteran Pedro Luis “Leonz” Peralta, well-traveled Korean mid laner Oh “Callme” Jihun, rookie Sajid Ziad (player) and Christian “KryRa” Rahaian (jungle).
“There’s room for error,” McCormick said. “It’s better to win with the rookies.”
Given DSG’s status as a visiting team, McCormick is likely to put Joyce on his shortlist, similar to how he recruited Rahaian to DSG, which in turn brought in Ziad.
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“He knows me very well,” Rahian said. “He’s been helping me and now we’re actually together.”
Joyce spent her first days at DSG watching and listening. He didn’t want to go in and change everything. Instead, Joyce wants to see how he adapts and adapts to the situation.
Joyce said McCormick told him he could fill a hole the team needed with Cao’s departure, but could also address other factors.
Joyce humbly accepted the role.
“Who knows how I’m going to solve specific problems or play a role in solving any specific issues on the roster, but I think I’m fortunate that the issues that the team does have seem to have nothing to do with player skill,” Joyce said. “instead [the issues] It does have to do with other factors and I think I can definitely help. Everything is getting better. The atmosphere is really good right now, which is great for the weekend. “
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Joyce’s contract runs until the end of the split.
Whether Joyce’s second run in the LCS will continue into the summer will be decided after this spring’s DSG, either on Sunday or sometime in the coming weeks.
However, Joyce did not take this into account. He’s focused on changing fans’ perception of him based on what 2025 will look like.
“I know my past performances haven’t been the best, but I hope I can rewrite the story with my performances,” Joyce said. “This is a performance-based industry. If I didn’t perform well enough, then I actually didn’t get the spot. Whether I got the spot or not, I really enjoyed my time playing professionally because it made me really excited about what we were doing.”
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This is what high-level competition is about. It can end as quickly as it started.
But it’s important to be prepared because at any time you could get a call and be offered another opportunity to perform.
Paul Delos Santos covers esports for The Sports Tribune. He is also the founder of Inside Esports, a newsletter covering the fighting game community and the Riot Games ecosystem. Subscribe to insideesports.media.
