DIG vs TSM
No matchups to really look out for yesterday but today, my god. DIG vs TSM delivered again and DIG, twice in both series against TSM this split, they dominate TSM. Game 1's picks from DIG is so good, 5 picks taken from Bjergsen to really shut him down as far as power in teamfights goes, finally a team doesnt let Bjerg have Syndra. DIG still getting the Kalista made me think TSM had a feeling that Altec wasnt as good so taking the dangerous Kalista/Thresh combo by picking the Thresh from Adrian mightve been a misjudgment. TSM knows first hand how good Adrian is so i'll just say, again, TSM was dumb to get cocky. The rest of the picks made me think TSM is having issues with the new patch, Jarvan 4 is good against fighters like Kled, Fiora, Renekton, champs who rely on the flow of battle and being able to cast abilities that can be easily interrupted by a Jarvan E, Q, combo. This patch is seeing tanks come in who have abilities in one button that provide more reliable and dangerous CC than J4's full combo. Maokai, Poopy, Sion, Malphite etc. Everything else as far as picks were fine but that just speaks more for DIG, being able to just out play TSM with decision making, trades and tempo. The game itself saw some actually fantastic and confident play from DIG while TSM just felt like the entire game they were going "Whoa who are these guys?". Keane having a monster performance on Cassio, the beautiful flash silence from Blitz followed by the Cassio ulti, Adrian being an absolute danger in lane with his good Blitz hooks, even on DoubleLift who got away from the hooks by rocket jumping, he still landed those, he still showed he can land a hook at will. Its scary. Altec being able to just show up and shred TSM with Kalista was really great though, i think FlyQuest made a giant mistake letting him go. He's shown that with a good helping hand, that he can dominate a game just as hard as DoubleLift can. The pressure onto svenskeren by Shrimp was great, Shrimp has evolved from this hyper aggressive "I am Ray in the jungle" style of play he had on Apex, to a calculated, patient, vision focused jungler who has found a way to use his aggression and not back it off but translate it to still being able to keep enemy junglers behind with minimal danger to himself, i really like it. The Baron plays DIG made were really smart and cheeky as well, they seem to love to just force Baron if a team is avoiding them, and id rather see THAT fallback strategy come back and not the "Ssumday, carry me" strat. Bjergsen, while on the Xerath in game 1 showed that even on a wonky, out of meta pick that looks like a dud, he can still wipe an enemy team, ive never thought id say "Damn that Xerath looks scary" since GBM left the LCS.
Game 2 saw some weird picks come from TSM, mainly the Jax and Tristanna, ill get to the trist in a minute but right now, Jax. He's one of the absolute best split pushers in the game next to Fiora and few others, he is a late game monster but he doesnt bode well for teams who are against huge utility comps like DIG's. They have too much peel for a champion who has one direction, which is forward save for a Q, TSM did address this with Sejuanni and Braum but this was the game to bring in Thresh which DIG knew and took away and it was great of them to realize that. Trist isnt bad at all this patch, believe me, but she's becoming like the only hyper carry DL seems to have really practiced enough on to bring out and people are going to expect it and wind up dominating it. She cant push as hard as Sivir can who is only really out pushed by Caitlynn, and Braum vs Janna, it seems fine until you realize her constant peel is enough to stop the passive stacks, i main Braum, i know how annoying it is to try to stack and eat a tornado or get a sweet Glacial Fissure off just to get flung back by a Janna ult. DIG knew if they let DoubleLift have Tristanna, a great pick, but a predictable one, they could easily dismantle it. Cop is very good at working with his team to figure out picks and bans. The Corki pick again was in theory very excellent but again, he isnt well against a team that has multiple was to lock him down that are on short cd. This isnt the teamfighting, throw everything and run with the 1 for 1 meta anymore, tanks are back, they can miss every ability, wait a few seconds and go right back in again and again. Corki isnt very good against those kind of comps, he still is a threat but not as much as he used to be. This just further drives my thinking that TSM isnt really that prepared onthis patch but knowing tanks are back, other top laners need to start worrying because the tank god in Hauntzer is eventually going to realize Nautilus may be viable again, as well as Poppy and Maokai. This game was really great and it was nice to see yet another team prove their worth as C9 celebrates a 2-1 win against a 3-10 team without one of their best players, thinking theyre back on top.
