TSM and CLG battle in the 2015 NA LCS Summer Split Finals
It doesn't get more classic than this. Team SoloMid and Counter Logic Gaming have been rivals since the early days of professional League of Legends. Both teams are coming into the Finals white hot, with dominant wins and big plays from the Semifinals. But only one can hold the trophy at Madison Square Garden this Sunday.
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. And definitely don't miss out on the final matches of the EU LCS Summer Split, also happening this weekend!
#2 Counter Logic Gaming vs. #5 Team SoloMID
Day: Sunday, August 23
Time: 1 PM PST
Record This Split: 2-0 (TSM)
Game 1: Week 2
Stop me if you've heard this one before: This TSM game got off to a slow start. After nabbing a double kill at 13 minutes with a clean 5-man roam to CLG's bot lane, TSM took a break from fighting until almost 30 minutes into the match!
Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg's aggressive dive onto Eugene "Pobelter" Park in the mid lane kickstarted a bloody chain of events. CLG brought more numbers to the fight initially, so they nabbed two revenge kills. Great work!
But then they decided to just sit in TSM's jungle with very low health... and wait.
The remaining TSM members eventually showed up to fulfill CLG's death wish, slapping two more deaths onto CLG's bot lane duo. It was a greedy mistake that I've made plenty of times in Solo Queue. But CLG will need to make better decisions than I would at Madison Square Garden if they want to hold that trophy.
CLG was able to recover quickly, and made many great initiations to punish TSM's poor rotations, despite being down in gold and Dragons. But it all went sour for CLG during a team fight in front of TSM's base.
Lustboy's lockdown CC and Dyrus' bait engage allowed TSM to carefully dismantle all of CLG's threats one at a time. It went on for a bit longer, but the game was lost off that one fight.
Game 2: Week 5
After taking a level-1 First Blood, TSM escalated the fighting and dove all sorts of -- just kidding! They, like always, reverted back to their passive early game, farming lanes and waiting for Dragon. CLG was a bit more active, quickly preying on TSM's first mistake: an overextended Jason "WildTurtle" Tran. But after taking that advantage, they doubled down on their questionable let-the-jungle-minions-kill-us-for-TSM strategy of Week 2! They tanked Dragon for a full 35 seconds while TSM simply stood nearby watching their HP bars drop.
Once CLG's health got low enough, and WildTurtle had run back within range, TSM dove in and took 3 lives -- one from each of CLG's carries.
Then there was silence. The teams waited for two Dragon spawns before fighting again. Even then, TSM was quick to retreat, abandoning Jang-sik "Lustboy" Ham to his fate after he initiated, because they didn't like their odds.
Another 10 minutes later, TSM decided to follow Lustboy into a fight. All game long, CLG seemed content to wait for TSM to start the fights, and they definitely got punished for it here. TSM's Jarvan IV and Alistar combo instantly killed two members of CLG, and Bjergsen traded his life for a third.
TSM snowballed from there, in typical TSM fashion -- securing neutral objectives and safely pushing lanes together. Zero risk for a slow and methodical victory.
That's what Lucas "Santorin" Larsen wants to repeat in the Finals: get ahead early and force the slow win. But he's worried about how challenging that may prove to be against the current CLG.
"CLG is probably the best, if not one of the best, teams at snowballing the early game," Santorin says. "If they do well in the early game it's going to be really hard [to come back]."
Conclusions
In both of these games, TSM showed sloppiness in their fights. But CLG never took full advantage of those mistakes, often looking like they were content to let TSM decide when and where they fought.
But these matches prove that CLG can't beat TSM at their own game. They need to take charge and force TSM to react to them. That's easier said than done for the stalwart TSM squad that Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng knows has more than one threat.
"People think TSM is one-dimensional because they play around Bjergsen," Doublelift explains. "But not so much anymore. That's an overused statement... TSM now, they're super versatile. They can play off all three lanes, and they still have Bjergsen in mid and he'll always be really good. They have such a distinct style."
These teams have learned a lot since they last faced off two months ago -- about themselves and about each other. But who will put that knowledge to use and really step up when the moment comes? We'll find out at Madison Square Garden this Sunday.
#1 Team Liquid vs. #3 Team Impulse
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Day: Saturday, August 22
Time: 3 PM PST
Record This Split: 2-0 (Team Liquid)
Team Impulse wants revenge. Their insanely long, insanely bloody, insanely heroic almost-comeback against Team Liquid in Week 9 was sabotaged by a fast-thinking Azir and a fast-moving Sivir who backdoored their Nexus while Impulse went to play at Dragon.
If you didn't watch that match, you need to click this link and sit still for the next 83 minutes. Do not blink. Do not skip ahead. Just revel in the incredible fights and hyper-tense moments.
That loss prevented TIP from tying CLG for 1st place, and I doubt the boys in red have forgotten that.
Team Liquid is fighting for their chance at Worlds, so they won't hold back any punches. If they win and TSM beats CLG in the Finals, TL goes to Worlds. If they lose here, they'll have to win their Worlds ticket through the Gauntlet, or sit at home while TSM and CLG have all the fun.
Team Liquid can try to create the same controlled and forceful moves they did last week, but they aren't playing the equally safe TSM. They're playing Team Impulse, a reckless, wildly impulsive, squad who'll pull out all their tricks to win this series.
Expect a lot of aggressive champions picked on Impulse's side of the board as they look to create chaos and stop Team Liquid from grabbing a ticket to Worlds, at least for now.
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Watch Them Live!
Be sure to tune in to Lolesports this weekend to see all of the comebacks and wild fights that happen in this last week of the LCS Summer Split!
The excitement starts at 3 PM PST on Saturday and 1 PM PST on Sunday for the NA LCS. EU LCS Finals start at 5 PM CET both days.
Josh Augustine's favorite champion is Yasuo, 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.
