LCS Recap: TSM vs Optic Gaming Week 4

Week 4 of The League Championship Series for TSM kicks off with a matchup against Optic Gaming. Team SoloMid will be on “Cloud9” after taking down C9 in Week 3 which saw TSM pick up their first 2-0 weekend of the Summer Split. It seems as if Optic Gaming have crashed down to earth after suffering their first two losses in an 0-2. TSM will hope to keep their momentum going as the European Giants await them at Rift Rivals.

Draft Phase

TSM has yet to solidify their core five-man roster as Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham was thrown back into the starting line-up which some fans can find confusing as they have been on a three-game winning streak with Jonathan “Grig” Armao. On the side of Optic, due to Lee “Crown” Min-ho being sick Academy Mid Laner Marcel “Scarlet” Wiederhofer makes his competitive debut.

In the first part of the banning phase, TSM focussed on core team fighting champions with Yuumi, Olaf and Irelia hitting the chopping block. Optic went for powerful flex picks with Twisted Fate, Karma and Sona getting banned. In the first part of the pick phase TSM went back to Sivir which worked out wonders for them against C9, Optic opted champions which were very good at getting picks in Aatrox, Morgana which is a counter pick to TSM’s Nautilus and Trundle.

In the second part of the pick and ban phase Optic banned out Zilean which worked wonders for TSM in their first few games of the split. TSM went for powerful snowballing champions Draven and Akali. TSM went for an old reliable pick with Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerggoing for his famous Syndra withSergen “Broken Blade” Çelik going for Gangplank. On the side of Optic Xayah and Vladimir were selected.

Early Game

TSM, as expected, gained leads early on and were able to translate this pressure into a level 4 tower dive onto Niship “Dhokla” Doshi. A minute later William “Meteos” Hartman was able to find a pick onto Broken Blade to regain a neutral stage in the Top Lane.

An invade on the bottom side of the map from Akaadian allowed TSM to secure an early ocean drake whilst Meteos was able to again force a pick onto Broken Blade – a match up Aatrox needs to get going in early in order to be effective in the late game. Meteos was having a stellar early game and was making sure Dhokla could not be camped and taken out of the game. TSM were able to secure the Rift Herald but Optic had a gold lead of around 1000G.

The game had stalled out as the 20 minute mark approached and for the first time in what feels like a very long time Optic were putting their resources into Dhokla and making sure their Top-Laner would have the tools to succeed in the mid to late game and optic remained in the lead with still a 1000g gold advantage as well as a tower advantage.

Late(r) Game

The first team fight broke out at the 20th minute with TSM picking up a 2 for 1 after getting picks onto Dhokla and Scarlet. Akaadian was having a great game from an objective standpoint with TSM having all three available elemental drakes available (two mountains and one ocean). At this point in the game, TSM had secured full control of the game having won another team fight, this allowed TSM to secure Baron Nashor.

OpTic (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

As TSM split their members through multiple lanes an incredible teleport flank from Scarlet helped Optic find four crucial kills to eliminate TSM’s Baron power play and cutting down the gold deficit to only 500g. More crucial picks presented Optic Gaming with a lifeline as they were then able to secure Baron and blow the game wide open.

At the 40th minute, Optic had Baron Buff and the Elder Dragon buff, a combination which gave them the confidence to finally push into the base of TSM. Optic Gaming was able to charge the base and siege the nexus – Optic Gaming picked up the win to move to 5-2 and tied for first with Team Liquid.

Conclusion

This was meant to be a stroll in the park for Team SoloMid after taking the Baron and inhibitor before 25 minutes, this was not to be as TSM fumbled the Baron power play and never regained control afterwards. Broken Blade had a less than stellar performance to keep up with his inconsistent split thus far. After this loss TSM have a tall order as they face Golden Guardians on Sunday.

Featured Image Courtesy of LoL Esports.

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