Team fight titans face off in the 2015 NA LCS Semifinals
This could be the bloodiest Semifinals NA has ever seen, with all four teams ready to beat the other to a pulp for their spot in the NA LCS Summer Split Finals!
If you want to learn more about how the Playoffs work, check out our guide to the Playoffs structure, the Best of 5 format, and Championship Points.
For now, let's talk about what we have to look forward to this weekend. And if you're interested in how the EU LCS teams will fare this weekend, check out our complete rundown, here.
#2 Counter Logic Gaming vs. #3 Team Impulse
Day: Saturday, August 15
Time: 12 PM PST
Record This Split: 1-1 (Tied)
A lot has changed since these teams last fought in Week 6, and now we get to find out which team's improvements will let them survive a full Best of 5 series.
In their first match in Week 1, Impulse was clearly still learning how aggressive they wanted to be. In the fight below, bloodthirsty Yoon-jae "Rush" Lee ran away from the enemy mid laner when he could've traded. That sounds like crazy talk for who we now know as the patron saint of aggressive junglers. Of course, he did still follow it up with the cheekiest kill onto a mid laner I've ever seen -- good ol' Rush.
Both teams looked extremely uncoordinated in that early, extended fight in the video above. TIP didn't dive together, and CLG refused to retreat until they were sent back in body bags.
20 minutes into the match, TIP was ahead on gold, objectives, and kills. But they continuously stumbled into fights one at a time. Their clumsy engages sabotaged all of their team fights, until CLG's advantage was simply too big to overcome.
In their next matchup, in Week 6, CLG got off to a great start. Bot lane buddies Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng and Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black absolutely crushed the early game. Roaming ganks put their team up by four kills, two Dragons, and an Inhibitor at only 16 minutes in!
Team Impulse had trouble closing out kills with their poke composition, letting CLG hold onto their lead for a long time by simply outplaying them. But Joshua "Jatt" Leesman accurately predicted CLG's impending downfall at the end of this next clip.
Once Impulse's poke comp hit their power threshold, CLG couldn't afford to make a single positioning mistake. Yet top laner Darshan "ZionSpartan" Upadhyaha eventually gave them an opportunity at the Dragon pit.
Even for TIP, the bloodlust shown in that play is impressive. They risked the entire game by diving in on Rumble. Enemy minions were already on their Nexus, and it was GG if they lost members without dropping Doublelift.
So Eon-yeong "Impact" Jung's Gnar made sure that they scored four free kills and still got home in time for dinner. Later, they poked down another CLG member who took one step too far forward. Then they took Baron, and then they took the game.
TIP has cleaned up their execution significantly since those early weeks, but they're still vulnerable to reckless engages and over-aggression. Their sloppiness left Shoutcaster Aidan "Zirene" Moon unconvinced that they can contain all of CLG's threats -- especially the explosive carry potential in top lane.
"TIP need to worry about ZionSpartan," Zirene says. "If he gets an advantage, he will spill over into the other lanes. And if Aphromoo is on his game, he should be able to create picks and separate TIP while predicting Rush's jungle path to cause him to overreach to execute on his style."
ZionSpartan has proven that, when given the right champions and the right situations, he can hard-carry his team. It'll be hard for TIP to shut him down at the draft phase -- ZionSpartan has a ton of carry champions in his arsenal. Their Semifinals matchup will likely come down to Rush and Impact trying to set up ganks early to keep him in check. And there's no top-jungle combo in the NA LCS better suited for the challenge.
TIP also showed some real strategic breadth in the Quarterfinals, proving they could also win with a slower-tempo team comp built around their ADC. They just might surprise CLG with a new game plan.
#1 Team Liquid vs. #5 Team SoloMid
Day: Sunday, August 16
Time: 12 PM PST
Record This Split: 1-1 (Tied)
On paper, it should be easy to predict the outcome of a match between the 1st and 5th place team. But we know better: this is going to be an epic showdown with high emotions and incredible fights.
Marcus "Dyrus" Hill proved last week in the Quarterfinals that TSM has more than one threat to contain. He looked aggressive and ready to carry the whole team straight to the trophy if he had to. But there's hope for TL fans: NA LCS Host James "Dash" Patterson thinks if any team can handle the resurging Dyrus and TSM, it's Team Liquid.
"Diego 'Quas' Ruiz is more than capable of going toe-to-toe against Dyrus, if not win the lane. But it's a tall order for anyone to lane against Søren 'Bjergsen' Bjerg -- even for Kim 'Fenix' Jae-hun."
Dyrus hasn't always carried this Split, but in TSM's win over TL in Week 4, he won his lane hard and showed up big in the one team fight that really mattered. Both teams focused on laning all game long, only emerging to fight as a team five times in the first 40 minutes -- almost always at Baron or Dragon pit.
Before their final fight (below), Dyrus' Gnar had the largest CS advantage of anyone in the game -- ahead of Quas by 87 minion munches.
Alex "Xpecial" Chu started out every team fight with an aggressive Flash Tibbers stun on Annie, but was often left hanging when TSM's bulky front line scared away his backup. In this fight, all of TL finally went in together -- somehow forgetting that Bjergsen was right behind them! It was a quick and painful way to lose the game.
TL clearly remembered that lesson the next time that they fought TSM in Week 7. They played it even more safe than last time. The teams alternated giving up Dragons for free and really only fought over a single Blue buff before the 25 minute mark.
Once again, at that point in the game, Dyrus and Bjergsen were ahead in CS, essentially winning their lanes. But TSM's bottom lane couldn't keep up and Jason "WildTurtle" Tran fell behind Gwang-jin "Piglet" Chae.
Piglet's drop-dead-amazing-slap-me-now-I'm-dreaming blind Baron steal kept Team Liquid from losing the game after only the second team fight. That play seemed to awaken something in both teams, who did nothing but brawl back and forth for the rest of the game.
WildTurtle's Jinx eventually threw out huge damage in team fights while TSM's bruisers kept him safe from TL's weak engages. But it all came down to one final team fight, 43 minutes in, when Fenix dunked three members of TSM with an awesome Azir ult.
TSM showed confidence and growth in their Quarterfinals bout against Gravity, but Team Liquid will be ready to aggressively punish any misplay. Unless someone's planning a big surprise -- which could definitely happen -- you better believe that these two titans are going to be focusing on strong, quiet laning and face-melting team fights this weekend.
Watch Them Live!
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Be sure to tune in to Lolesports this weekend to see all of the incredible team fights and top lane duels that happen in this week's Semifinals matches!
The excitement starts at 8 AM PST Saturday and Sunday.
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Fiddlesticks, he's never enjoyed a Darius, and he will always go for the kill, even when he knows he shouldn't. He currently works as a game designer on EverQuest Next at Daybreak Games. He’d love to talk with you on Twitter.
