LoL Analysis: 2016 IEM Katowice, TSM vs OG (Group A, Game 2 of 3)

TSM have proven through 2 games that they are the clearly superior team. ESC have proven that despite facing large gold deficits, they can bait TSM into overly aggressive teamfights that allow them to turn games. I’m encouraged by the last game for TSM and think they close this out.

Picks and Bans – ESC surely have to pick or ban Fiora and they choose pick after TSM first-pick Alistar. They do ban Kog’Maw and Lee Sin and pair Fiora with Lucian. TSM return with Elise/Ezreal, very standard. I like Nidalee along with Bard for ESC, which gives Ares a simple job: speed through the jungle and gank. TSM pick Quinn into the Fiora, which is in theory a good matchup, but it could get messy in teamfights. TSM finish with LeBlanc and PowerOfEvil goes back to Lux, which I’m unsure of – POE had some nice skirmish catches but didn’t turn any of the teamfights in the last game and is going to lose in the early game to Bjergsen. If TSM can execute the split, I like LeBlanc with their team in a fight more than Lux. ESC have tools to deal with the distortion, I just don’t know if they are up to par mechanically.


Early Game – Hauntzer built a big lead with help from Svenskeren, who started top and pathed back to show in that lane. 16:15 is Hauntzer again shoving on Crazy and Svenskeren is there yet again. Bjergsen is constantly winning trades with Tempt, who is clearly a weak point of the team, and Doublelift is staying even on Ezreal against Lucian. Ironically, Svenskeren is playing the more Korena style by showing up top and mid again and again. 19:05 is another mistake by Ever – TSM have rotated to trade turrets, but Bard has no business on the weak side of the map. For a second it looks like he may get out, but no, they catch him easily.

20:35 – Key has tilted. He catches Doublelift alone in the jungle, which is basically Doublelift’s natural environment at this point. But after the stun, he flat misses Tempered Fate. 21:25 is another coordinated play from TSM as Yellowstar dives in and the team actually follow before the cow dies. ESC trade Key for Hauntzer but Loken is low and cannot return damage. It’s an impressive team fight from TSM – they keep Doublelift safe and Yellowstar engages the right people.

That was basically the game. No, really, this time they got it. Key got caught again and again, Crazy could never set up split push with the threat of Quinn, and Tempt was invisible. For TSM, their execution of plays was much, much better. Something as simple as setting up vision in the enemy jungle requires complete coordination – once Yellowstar finds someone, he needs to pop several cooldowns immediately and the damage has to be there. It was for TSM today. And Bjergsen’s LeBlanc… The casters talked about stopping Yellowstar’s Alistar, but in a best of 3 scenario where you are able to first-pick Alistar, I would be more concerned about keeping Bjergsen and Hauntzer in check. Good effort by TSM to make it to the semis, even if they had to beat a middling EULCS and Challenger Korean team to do so. Hopefully they can take this good performance and not only use it through the rest of #IEM but into the #NALCS as well.