Willing to fight: Bjergsen on Team SoloMid vs. Team Liquid

Riot·Jun 21, 2015·2 votes·24,789 views

It was a 42-minute nail biter that came down to a single team fight.

Narrowly prevailing over Team Liquid in the NA LCS Game of the Week, Team SoloMid's captain Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg had plenty to say following the close match.

The Plan

Heading into the game, Bjergsen says TSM's main priorities were not letting Diego "Quas" Ruiz, Alex "Xpecial" Chu, or Christian "IWDominate" Rivera roam, so as to deny Liquid any early leads.

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"Xpecial has been doing a lot of roaming for them, and they've just been getting a lot of pressure through top lane. Almost every win they had a lot of pressure through Quas and Dominate in the early game. That's something we wanted to stop."

Except they didn't. Team Liquid took an early lead in the bottom lane, taking a turret and Dragon before TSM were able to respond. The advantages soon transferred into the mid game, allowing Jae-hoon "FeniX" Kim's poke on Jayce to start becoming an ever increasing threat for Bjergsen's Azir. "I think getting behind early definitely hurt us a lot. I was constantly pressuring and winning my lane, but Jayce doesn't have that much pressure early against Azir," says TSM's mid laner. "But once you get to mid game his poke becomes really strong and he can start taking objectives."

Stop blasting me!

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To deal with Jayce, Bjergsen opted to go for a Hextech Revolver before his defensive Zhonya's Hourglass.

"I thought about getting Zhonya's first, which is why I got the Seeker's Armguard, because it could let me dodge the engage and make me stronger in team fights." But Bjergsen quickly realized that TSM weren't ever going to get successful team fights if he was always getting blasted down by Fenix. "So I quickly switched my priority into getting some sustain."

"The only thing that was stopping us from getting team fights and objectives was I was constantly getting poked," he says. All of his teammates had some way of sustaining or healing, so Fenix perpetually popped Bjergsen with Shock Blasts of doom. "Getting the Revolver, it gave me some more sustain and it let the Jayce poke be less useful overall."

The Team Fights

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The Revolver certainly helped until the team fight at Baron when Bjergsen was taken out immediately after Xpecial's Tibbers gave him a bear hug in Quas' Equalizer. "The only thing I really needed to do was wait for my tanks to come up… But I was just a little too aggressive looking for poke and they got the engage on me. It was a pretty big mistake on my part."

The opportunity to fix those mistakes came at 40 minutes near Team Liquid's Red Buff. "Before the last team fight happened, I thought we were in a pretty bad spot," Bjergsen admits. "They had four Dragons and I think Baron had just timed out. They had a lot of control and Jayce poke especially was starting to get really strong. I felt like the only way we would win is if we got an engage, and that's what they ended up giving us."

Heading up from Dragon, Gwang-jin "Piglet" Chae ran into Jang-sik "Lustboy" Ham, Lucas "Santorin" Larsen, and Jason "WildTurtle" Tran, forcing him to defensively Flash away. "I think it was definitely a mistake from Piglet. He had to blow his Flash early, but they still didn't have to engage. At this point, we were both willing to fight -- it was just who played it better and they felt like they got the proper engage."

That engage was a three-man Annie ulimate from Xpecial. But thanks to quick zoning moves from Dyrus and WildTurtle, a missed Equalizer from Quas' Rumble, and fancy footwork from Bjergsen's Azir, TSM were able to clean up the team fight and push into Liquid's base.

The Win

After the fight, TSM's adrenaline was pumping. "Santorin and Lustboy were like, 'We can end the game!' and I was like, 'Really? Can we?' I pressed tab and they had like 50 seconds on their death timers, or something ridiculous like that because it was so late in the game. So we pushed pretty much from mid all the way down."

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And while TSM were able to destroy Team Liquid's Nexus and walk away with a win, Bjergsen left the game feeling impressed with his competitors. "I still think Team Liquid is a very good team. They played well early game. They got a lot of turrets on us, a lot of Dragons, their objective control was really good," he says. "But we just outshined them in team fights. I wouldn't say [our comp was] a lot better in team fights, but we just played the team fights mechanically better."

Today Team SoloMid may have taken the victory, but Bjergsen knows there's still a lot his team can improve on before they make their case for Worlds domination. "Honestly I don't feel good after the game against Liquid, because in our practice we just play mid game a lot better. We have a lot better communication in the early game especially… They just got a lot of free advantages in the early game and in the mid. Late game we weren't controlling objectives nearly as good as in scrims. When you're just playing like, 60-70% of what you do off stage, it doesn't really feel like a win."

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We'll have to see if Bjergsen and TSM can unleash their full power as the 2015 Summer Split continues! Let us know what you thought of the Game of the Week in the comments, and to catch up on all the action from this and every weekend, head over to the spoiler-free VODs page.

Leah Jackson is a web content editor at Lolesports. She loves Gnar! Feel free to follow her on Twitter @Leahbjackson.

37 Comments

Marty StormJun 21, 20159 votes

Very Nice Interview.

RiotSpinneliJun 21, 201511 votes

summoner 30 Thanks for reading!

CantripsJun 24, 20152 votes

Any and every time. :)

TrollFan01Jun 21, 20158 votes

TSM ALWAYS start slow in the summer but pull through the longer it goes. Even if that team fight was mostly luck TSM are starting to turn things around. By week 6 or 7 they should be back to how they were during the spring split. Dominating!

Cheryl ColeJun 21, 20153 votes

For good of NA i hope not.

Earl EulrichJun 22, 20152 votes

the strange thing about NA and TSM for me is how most teams always bring their worst game vs TSM actually. Outside of playing TSM they can do astonishing things, but as soon as it´s head to head most teams just flat out seem to choke for no reason at all...which really hurts the region as a whole.

RiSinGSenJi18Jun 22, 20154 votes

Its kind of the same logic from real world sports. Sometimes when you play a team with a rep in NA like TSM you play uptight and choke, even in situations where a day ago you executed a team fight really well. You go up against TSM on the big stage and not scrims with fans around you and you get nervous or uptight. They should be used to it by now but some people never do get fully comfortable in big matches like this. Honestly, like the casters said, two Rumble ults gone right, and TSM is 0-2 at the end of the week

acrid56Jun 21, 20153 votes

The reason why is pretty obvious. Look at it this way: most teams pull in new players. TSM doesn't know the new playstyle of those teams with their new players. 8 weeks of practice is all they had. Couple of weeks in, new players aren't so surprising anymore, TSM now knows the weaknesses. End of the season comes, now they've been playing against the new players for 17 weeks, and know the play styles, ergo, they win. This isn't a problem for spring split, where they've had months of practice since worlds against most of the new comers. See the pattern?

Cheryl ColeJun 21, 20155 votes

I admire how you are willing to defend them even beyond boundaries of rational thinking. No pal there is no logic behind and no i dont see any pattern. So what actualy is common sense telling me: If they need time to adapt to new players, than new players need time to adapt to TSM aswell, to WHOLE FUCKING LCS format, to other teams and what is more important, to their OWN TEAM. So yes TSM need time to adapt. On the other hand new players has the same problem with EVERY ASPECT OF LCS including their own team mates..... Ok and now conclusion of this simple logic: Dont send them to Worlds. Becouse they will face only "new players" there.

RiSinGSenJi18Jun 22, 20154 votes

That's the problem with TSM is they always need time to adjust. that's why they always looks like crap in the group stages of international tournaments because its only one game. They look better when its a series, but by that time your seed is terrible and you're playing Korean or Chinese powerhouses to keep your tournament hopes alive

Cheryl ColeJun 22, 20152 votes

I actualy don't believe players have something to do with this. It's like TSM vs Fnatic at MSI. TSM shit on any prep. before match. They came into every game in tournament like "they will all be shitless scared of us", and here is the result. I think main problem here is lack of any professional support from coach, analysts, or whoever they hired to do this job. If locodoco come out with idea of "yeah they will all crush and burn", it is not professional, it is not sportsmanship and most importantly it is not helping at all. They should take some guys who truly understand what is sport about. Instead of this asian punk.

RiSinGSenJi18Jun 23, 20151 votes

Well first off its not a "sport", its competitive gaming. eSports is just the cool catchy title they gave it to appeal to the audience. Secondly, Locodoco is a great coach, and coaches influence only goes into scrims and pick and ban of regular games. No one has ever complained about TSM pick-ban phase, but once that is over all Loco can do is watch. Even Bjerg says repeatedly that they are great in scrims but only play to 60-70% of their potential in real games. Loco can't do anything about that because he can't talk to them in game, he can't make those calls. Coaches are more like advisor, and that "Asian punk" has them still beating top tier teams and earning a 6-2 record. And in any competition you have to have confidence, and analysis from most coaches and players who help analyze games say the same types of harsh and blunt things. Analysts would say it too, but Riot won't let them. Players and coaches don't work for Riot. They can say anything they want really.

Cheryl ColeJun 23, 20152 votes

Can't respond to your last comment. Ok so first off all it is sport. And i believe it is your own country which came out with idea of making gamers professional sportsmen. Btw any foreign "gamer" has sport visa. 60-70 % of potential is completely meaningless as far as any team can tell the same. And it would be as legit. So now about your "great" coach. So far he was able to come out with single one winning strategy "snowball mid as fuck". It clearly doesn't work against any better team, and still in middle of the second season with this roster it is only strategy they tried out...after like a year together. He did nothing usefull to make TSM better team since spring split 2014. Beating top tier teams from NA means very very little as far as NA is so weak region right now. And worst is there was no convincing victory so far. And his confidence boosting had only effect, that it allowed Dyrus (clear weak point and arguably worst player on last event) trash talk other regions...

YungBudaiiJun 21, 20158 votes

TL just had awful positioning and focus. They should've just backed out once Piglet blew his flash, but they got cocky and put themselves in a horrible position. Quas's ( Rumble ) ultimate was useless -- only burned Santorin ( RekSai ) for a couple seconds -- while both Xpecial ( Annie ) and IWDominate ( Sejuani ) only ulted Dyrus ( Gnar ) and Lustboy ( Alistar ), the two tanks for TSM.

In the end, you were left with a Team Liquid in the middle of a jungle, with no ultimates, no flash on their ADC and getting flanked from all sides. Just horribly done.

speedofsound125Jun 22, 20151 votes

Quas's ultimate was badly placed, but Xpecial and Dominate both tried to get the full team but TSM had superb positioning. Liquid could have pulled back, but they played the fight right. TSM just had the positioning correctly

DragonDandelJun 21, 20157 votes

Do we really need an article about every game TSM plays?

sKz Aaron DJun 21, 201516 votes

It's an article for the game of the week. They have those articles every week...

CrayonDragonJun 22, 20152 votes

but they had one about tsm last week too. and like 2 weeks before that. hella sus tbh.

RiSinGSenJi18Jun 22, 20154 votes

The last time they had an article on TSM was 2 weeks ago and that was also a game of the week.

Laughing FishJun 22, 20153 votes

Well TSM is the defending champ. It makes sense they would be involved in several games of the week.

Cory123Jun 22, 20151 votes

Nightingale2KJun 21, 20156 votes

That fail flash-tibbers from Xpecial + not taking into account "wait, why is Bjergsen not in this fight" cost them the game. That flank was amazing.

GForce9xJun 21, 20154 votes

I was thinking that too - wondering if Bjergsen not being there was going through their minds and that the engage might not have been a good idea.

They may have also seen that as a quick 4v5 opportunity with the goal of killing off some people before Azir could become a factor. Where they messed up is that they unloaded just about everything on to Alistar and Gnar. Watching the replay, the Rumble ult only served to drive off Reksai. Then Ali gets hit by Tibbers, Ali and Gnar get knocked up by the Kalista ult, and then the two of them get hit by Sejuani's ult. They pretty much did to the tanks what they did to Azir in the previous fight outside Baron.

Liquid's teamfighting was centered around their ults. With their ults all down with nothing to show for it but a dead Ali, TSM was able to counter (with the aid of the beautiful Azir flank) and clean up. Just think how differently that fight could have gone had just one of those FOUR ults hit a priority target.

RiSinGSenJi18Jun 22, 20151 votes

they probably thought they could clean up at that red buff fight and Azir 1v5 is a non-factor. but Rumble missed his ult (Quas PLS) and TSm got out. Then with all the tanks Annie ult doesn't really factor because there isn't much other AoE cc TL had other than her and Rumble ult (Lustboy was taking the Sej ult each time and ulting so that is factored out). Quas missed his ult twice, the biggest I believe was at the dragon fight where he missed Bjerg and the rest of the team was tanky enough to get out pretty healthy.

DisWikxidSunJun 24, 20152 votes

Honestly i don't like the team composition they went with. Yea, Annie Annie has great engage tools with her ult and ability to stun every four casts but, lets think who else on Team Liquid had major lock-down potential? Not really anyone right? Leona Leona would of been a much better choice for support and instead of Rumble Rumble use Ekko Ekko .

Leona Leona gives them the chance to have more than just dominate tanking and also gives them a hard front line with Leona's ability to constantly lock-down a priority target. Leona still has an ultimate AoE stun and she also has two other skills entirely designed to let your damage dealers take their time focusing one person. Lets not ignore the fact that Xpecial's Leona is freaking AMAZING!!!!!

EkKo Ekko gives your team some real hard AP damage. Not only can you play him as a tank as well but, you can also use him as a close front line AP Brawler. Which, i feel Sejuani tries to do but, can't because of lack of scaling. Ekko can also contribute to the CC chain that Team Liquid had going for them. If he gets too low just ult out and yahoo back up to half or full health. Go all in again.

However my thoughts are about it they obviously had a plan and almost executed it correctly. That one team fight just cost them an upset.

I Am MagicianJun 24, 20152 votes

I get the theorycrafting of a better team comp but might want to check what was banned ( Ekko ) before theorizing a team comp that wasn't even possible to be picked. Jus sayin. (Source https://youtu.be/uMWNrq4AyCc?t=601)

Also completely disagree with Leo being a better pick in this situation then Annie. Annie is picked for her instant AoE engage, leo's engage is a delayed cast that is dodgeable (but works great as a follow up engage tool). Annie serves as initial engage much better and then you combo that into sej ult which takes a little bit of time to travel (so use while they are stunned so can't dodge). Fact of the matter is they executed that fight poorly and Quas wiffed a rumble ult while annie, kal, and sej ults were only used on 2 super tanks.

The comp wasn't the issue the execution in this one fight was a huge mistake that solely cost them the game.

JC DongtonJun 21, 20155 votes

Because all of Azir's damage is AoE, spell vamp only has 33% effectiveness. He would have had to deal 10,000 damage to heal off a 400 damage shock blast. Why is nobody calling this out for the terrible item choice it was?

Ok Asian DriverJun 21, 20151 votes

[deleted]

JC DongtonJun 21, 20151 votes

0.33 of 12%. unless revolver suddenly gives 100% spell vamp?

RiSinGSenJi18Jun 22, 20152 votes

The casters did call him out on it lol. They basically roasted him in the middle of the game on it, before the teamfight that he Shurima shuffled out of lol

Skia AsteriJun 23, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Because all of Azir's damage is AoE, spell vamp only has 33% effectiveness. He would have had to deal 10,000 damage to heal off a 400 damage shock blast. Why is nobody calling this out for the terrible item choice it was?

At the time he got it, clearing one minion wave healed off the damage of one shock blast.

UlthaxJun 21, 20154 votes

Predicting the future, I see a TSM team who goes to Worlds as a weak-ass team representing a weak-ass region and doesn't make it out of the group stage.

Crumbzz can I have your job?