Reginald: [TSM] are clear favorites this year.
First series is an 0-2 loss, with the second game being a near stomp.
I know its only the first series, but TSM will need to step it up to be "clear favorites".
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They usually have shaky starts especially in the spring splits. If you remember, they use to be know as the team to always lose the first game but win the series. But it was obvious they did not have as full of a grasp on the new pick/bans and the meta strengths/weaknesses as C9 did.
TSM had 2 poor jungle picks since they chose to go the more farm first gank later champ Rek'Sai while C9 went the overly oppressive (and imo, much needing of a damage nerf) early game powerhouse Lee Sin and Kha'Zix who scales super hard when ahead. TSM also screwed themselves in the first game by holding their ADC pick for the second half. C9 picked Ashe first, then banned the only 2 other "viable" choices Jhin and Varus. TBH I didn't even expect that one so I cant fault them too hard for that since it is a new pick/ban system.
Both teams played well though. TSM had better smites when contesting objectives (except for the one suicide dragon steal attempt). But at the same time, C9 had better overall control of the objectives because of their jungler choices.
Yeah, regi isn't exactly the best source of "news" concerning what will happen with TSM-related stuff (if you're familiar with other esports, you'll know that very recently he was involved in a bit of a giant controversy in which he got rid of his CS:GO team's captain, looked heavily like the "good guy" in all of it, claimed that he'd still put forward the best team possible, only to sell the remaining 4/5ths of his team and their "spot" to misfits literally 3 weeks later).
The key word I want to emphasize in that line is "year". While he never said that his team would be the spring favorites (which if we're going off history, then his team should never really be considered that due to how bad they usually are), summer is an entirely different story as not only could they potentially have DL back (which I still think is pretty 50-50 as he's currently one of the most popular/profitable streamers right now) but they wouldn't really need to do that well to succeed. Hell, look at H2k last year (who thanks to championship points made it as a 2nd seed in europe despite many people thinking they looked more like a 4th seed in summer) and the path for TSM could be relatively easy.
TSM owners,players,fans, have always been unrealistic. Remember last year at worlds? "This is our best chance ever at worlds". Get stomped as usual. I hope TSM gets relegated, I think that would be funny.
Do you want the owner of one of the most powerful NA organizations to admit openly that WildTurtle can singlehandedly ruin a worlds caliber team? Cause I don't think he'll do that