TSM's evolving champ select secures a Quarters berth
Riot·9/25/2014, 12:14:41 AM·1 votes·13,438 views
The clock reads 45:35 in one of the biggest games of Dyrus’ career. The score is 17-12 and TSM is dancing back and forth at baron. The enemy Ryze snares him - isolated, away from his team. Dyrus knows he just has to do one thing.
Stick to the plan.
Staying calm, he drops The Equalizer across the backside of the enemy team, zoning their Caitlyn away. He activates Scrap Shield and Flamespitter, turns to face the enemy Kha’Zix, and pops Zhonya’s as he overheats, roasting the Void bug.
TSM cleans up the teamfight and turns their eyes on the enemy nexus towers, taking them down in an instant before destroying the nexus.
This is the first time TSM has ever beaten a Chinese team in a World Championship, and all because they had a clear goal in game, and executed it.
But where did that gameplan come from in the first place?
All they did with their Lee Sin ban was deny Amazing any shot at his best jungler and put inSec onto Rengar. Their Fizz ban demonstrated knowledge of Corn’s champion pool, but it left open one of the biggest power picks in mid, Zilean (picked/banned in 10 of 12 Group B games).
SHR immediately capitalized on Zilean being open, first-picking him after hovering on Ryze. At this point, TSM put far too high a priority on comfort picks and denial picks, failing to account for the available power picks. With Tristana and Janna open, they instead grabbed Ryze - which they feared Cola would take - and Zed, one of Bjergsen’s comfort picks. Even if Zed had been the right pick, there was no reason to pick him so early in the draft phase, as SHR had already picked a mid laner. Worse, Zilean is considered a counter-pick to Zed thanks to Chronoshift’s ability to easily nullify his burst. On top of that, SHR picked Irelia as a counter to Ryze. In their zeal to secure the comfort pick of Zed, TSM put themselves behind in both of their solo lanes. Combined with the expectation of a lost bot lane thanks to the sheer skill of Uzi, this left TSM with three losing lanes.
TSM fell behind game very early on, as bot and top lane fell behind quickly, and SHR pressed their advantage.
At that point TSM crumbled under the unrelenting aggression of SHR. The Zilean pick proved game-changing, with Time Warp facilitating inSec's playmaking abilities. Every time it looked like inSec or Uzi had made a mistake that TSM could capitalize on, Chronoshift bailed them out with a second life.
Their loss to SHR served as a wake-up call, and TSM came out strong for the rest of the group phase, steamrolling over the Taipei Assassins on their road to a rematch against SHR.
In their games against TPA, TSM came out swinging, with a clear knowledge of TPA's gameplan and how to stop it. TPA sacrifices early towers in favor of better farm, then farms safely to a mid-game spike and take their opponents' outer towers, claiming an overall gold lead. With that lead, they pressure objectives until they can make a major play for the win.
In game 1, TSM countered TPA’s strategy by picking a strong mid-game composition that could siege towers. Securing Lee Sin with their first pick, TSM was able to guarantee strong early game pressure, to take as many towers as quickly as possible. With that early objective lead, they sieged up tower after tower, poking TPA down with long-ranged damage until the objective was theirs.
After the Lee Sin pick, TPA was baited into the Tristana pick, which only helped TSM’s plan. Tristana has a weak middle-game, leaving her unable to fight back against TSM's strong mid-game composition.
Knowing that TPA's jungler - Kha'Zix or Rengar - would have to engage head-on, TSM invested heavily in straight-line AoE, like Xerath, Kog'Maw, and Rumble, as well as heavy disengage from Janna and Lee Sin. Then, to prevent any flanking which might disrupt that strategy, they invested heavily in pink wards. This prevented the - rather scary - Rengar + Orianna + Lulu initiation from TPA, and allowed TSM to slowly siege tower after tower en route to their eventual dominant victory.
In their second game, TSM focused on picking a strong teamfighting composition for themselves. TSM left the draft phase with a counter-pick in both of their solo lanes, as well as a clear plan: scale up, protect the Tristana, focus the champions that dive her, and then use mobility to clean up the stragglers. In addition to two winning lanes, they had a Lee Sin jungle, who is extremely capable of making early game plays. With this composition, they denied TPA their mid-game strength by aiming to win the early game hard enough that they could snowball to victory through their early objective advantage.
As expected, TPA took the bait and picked Maokai first. TSM followed it up by securing a second-pick Tristana and build a late-game protect composition around her. Picking smartly, TSM did not grab the Lulu they wanted, but instead picked Lee Sin, knowing that TPA already had a top laner. TPA tried to combo off of Maokai to build a Yasuo dive composition, but TSM they picked Lulu, Orianna, and Braum to protect Wild Turtle’s Tristana, who was able to use Rocket Jump and Buster Shot - in addition to TSMs peel - to stay safe and churn out steady damage.
Having shaped up their draft phase fan, TSM moved on to face SHR once again.
Knowing they would lose bot lane, they picked a hyper-scaling bot lane - Tristana and Nami - and supplemented it with two strong mid-game teamfighting AP Carries - Rumble and Orianna - to ensure that they would make it to that late game.To guarantee that those lanes snowballed, they first-picked Lee Sin - the most dominant early game jungler - and used his pressure to snowball top and mid while protecting bot from complete destruction. Ultimately, their teamfights proved far too much for SHR to handle, and netted them the win.
Their first 3 picks were simple and straightforward power picks: Lee Sin, Tristana, and Nami. They did not fall for the available Ryze pick, leaving it open to SHR, who - ironically - picked it in their first round of picks just as TSM had in their loss to SHR. And just as SHR had Irelia planned to counter Ryze, TSM had Rumble.
Rumble’s strong mid game punished Ryze’s low range and mobility before he could ramp up into the late game, while Ryze’s Rune Prison did nothing to mitigate the continuous damage of Rumble’s spells. It showed in teamfight after teamfight as Rumble's Equalizer zoned SHR away from the fight, while Flamespitter roasted any target he chose.
TSM made some serious in-game mistakes, giving SHR two free Barons, but in the end, their team composition was too strong for SHR to face off against.
The Draft Phase
To really understand their draft phase, we have to first understand the teams, so check out our Group B Survival Guide and Team SoloMid profile, and read about the impact of TSM's new coaching staff. Champion select is a lot like laning. In lane, players focus not only on securing their own CS, but denying their opponents’. Pro teams need to consider not only the champions they secure for their team, but also the champions they leave open to their opponents. As such, there are four types of picks they focus on. #1 - Power Picks Power Picks are probably the most self-explanatory. Some champions are just strong, and are just as important to deny as they are to secure. #2 - Compositional Picks Every composition has its lynchpins, the champions without which it cannot function. Hyper carries and their protectors, split-pushers and wave clear, these champions go hand-in-hand to form the root of a strategy. Take away any one crucial element and the composition falls apart. #3 - Comfort Picks Even at the highest levels of play, experience and comfort is important. #4 - Denial Picks If you’re lucky, you’ve managed to ban out your opponents’ comfort champions. But if you have the chance, you can also pick them for your team and deny them just as well. Pick ValueTSM had lost their first game to Star Horn Royal Club in convincing fashion, in large part thanks to a sloppy draft phase. According to Locodoco, after their victory over SK, TSM was a "slight bit overconfident", and "didn't put in as much prep work as they should have". Bjergsen confirmed this, saying "how we came from the picking phase; we picked way differently than we'd done all the other games... we had a bad plan coming into the game and we had bad picks." It showed in their loss to SHR, as they seemed behind from their bans onward.Star Horn Royal Club - A Decisive Loss
TSM shot themselves in the foot with their bans, hitting superficially at SHR’s comfort picks, leaving too many power picks open and failing to ban for a specific strategy.All they did with their Lee Sin ban was deny Amazing any shot at his best jungler and put inSec onto Rengar. Their Fizz ban demonstrated knowledge of Corn’s champion pool, but it left open one of the biggest power picks in mid, Zilean (picked/banned in 10 of 12 Group B games).
SHR immediately capitalized on Zilean being open, first-picking him after hovering on Ryze. At this point, TSM put far too high a priority on comfort picks and denial picks, failing to account for the available power picks. With Tristana and Janna open, they instead grabbed Ryze - which they feared Cola would take - and Zed, one of Bjergsen’s comfort picks. Even if Zed had been the right pick, there was no reason to pick him so early in the draft phase, as SHR had already picked a mid laner. Worse, Zilean is considered a counter-pick to Zed thanks to Chronoshift’s ability to easily nullify his burst. On top of that, SHR picked Irelia as a counter to Ryze. In their zeal to secure the comfort pick of Zed, TSM put themselves behind in both of their solo lanes. Combined with the expectation of a lost bot lane thanks to the sheer skill of Uzi, this left TSM with three losing lanes.
TSM fell behind game very early on, as bot and top lane fell behind quickly, and SHR pressed their advantage.
At that point TSM crumbled under the unrelenting aggression of SHR. The Zilean pick proved game-changing, with Time Warp facilitating inSec's playmaking abilities. Every time it looked like inSec or Uzi had made a mistake that TSM could capitalize on, Chronoshift bailed them out with a second life.
Their loss to SHR served as a wake-up call, and TSM came out strong for the rest of the group phase, steamrolling over the Taipei Assassins on their road to a rematch against SHR.
Taipei Assassins - A Learning Experience
In their games against TPA, TSM came out swinging, with a clear knowledge of TPA's gameplan and how to stop it. TPA sacrifices early towers in favor of better farm, then farms safely to a mid-game spike and take their opponents' outer towers, claiming an overall gold lead. With that lead, they pressure objectives until they can make a major play for the win.
Game 1
In game 1, TSM countered TPA’s strategy by picking a strong mid-game composition that could siege towers. Securing Lee Sin with their first pick, TSM was able to guarantee strong early game pressure, to take as many towers as quickly as possible. With that early objective lead, they sieged up tower after tower, poking TPA down with long-ranged damage until the objective was theirs.
After the Lee Sin pick, TPA was baited into the Tristana pick, which only helped TSM’s plan. Tristana has a weak middle-game, leaving her unable to fight back against TSM's strong mid-game composition.
Knowing that TPA's jungler - Kha'Zix or Rengar - would have to engage head-on, TSM invested heavily in straight-line AoE, like Xerath, Kog'Maw, and Rumble, as well as heavy disengage from Janna and Lee Sin. Then, to prevent any flanking which might disrupt that strategy, they invested heavily in pink wards. This prevented the - rather scary - Rengar + Orianna + Lulu initiation from TPA, and allowed TSM to slowly siege tower after tower en route to their eventual dominant victory.
Game 2
In their second game, TSM focused on picking a strong teamfighting composition for themselves. TSM left the draft phase with a counter-pick in both of their solo lanes, as well as a clear plan: scale up, protect the Tristana, focus the champions that dive her, and then use mobility to clean up the stragglers. In addition to two winning lanes, they had a Lee Sin jungle, who is extremely capable of making early game plays. With this composition, they denied TPA their mid-game strength by aiming to win the early game hard enough that they could snowball to victory through their early objective advantage.
As expected, TPA took the bait and picked Maokai first. TSM followed it up by securing a second-pick Tristana and build a late-game protect composition around her. Picking smartly, TSM did not grab the Lulu they wanted, but instead picked Lee Sin, knowing that TPA already had a top laner. TPA tried to combo off of Maokai to build a Yasuo dive composition, but TSM they picked Lulu, Orianna, and Braum to protect Wild Turtle’s Tristana, who was able to use Rocket Jump and Buster Shot - in addition to TSMs peel - to stay safe and churn out steady damage.
Having shaped up their draft phase fan, TSM moved on to face SHR once again.
Star Horn Royal Club - The Rematch
TSM learned from their prior mistakes against SHR. They didn’t rush to pick a top laner, accepted their bot lane disadvantage against Uzi, and didn’t tunnel onto Bjergsen’s comfort picks. Knowing they would lose bot lane, they picked a hyper-scaling bot lane - Tristana and Nami - and supplemented it with two strong mid-game teamfighting AP Carries - Rumble and Orianna - to ensure that they would make it to that late game.To guarantee that those lanes snowballed, they first-picked Lee Sin - the most dominant early game jungler - and used his pressure to snowball top and mid while protecting bot from complete destruction. Ultimately, their teamfights proved far too much for SHR to handle, and netted them the win.
Their first 3 picks were simple and straightforward power picks: Lee Sin, Tristana, and Nami. They did not fall for the available Ryze pick, leaving it open to SHR, who - ironically - picked it in their first round of picks just as TSM had in their loss to SHR. And just as SHR had Irelia planned to counter Ryze, TSM had Rumble.
Rumble’s strong mid game punished Ryze’s low range and mobility before he could ramp up into the late game, while Ryze’s Rune Prison did nothing to mitigate the continuous damage of Rumble’s spells. It showed in teamfight after teamfight as Rumble's Equalizer zoned SHR away from the fight, while Flamespitter roasted any target he chose.
TSM made some serious in-game mistakes, giving SHR two free Barons, but in the end, their team composition was too strong for SHR to face off against.
