LCS Recap: TSM vs Echo Fox

Team SoloMid looked to bounce back against Echo Fox in their second match in Week 2 of The LCS. The six-time North American champions suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of FlyQuest. TSM fans will be hoping Tony “Zikz” Gray will smooth out the rough edges in the draft as they have continued to move away from what was working for them in Spring.

Draft Phase

In the draft phase Team SoloMid heavily favored champions with a strong team fighting potential, with Echo Fox focusing a strong engage composition around Sivir and Aatrox. While TSM is making changes to their drafts – most notably Andy “Smoothie” Ta picking up Yuumi – they are still focusing on securing strong champions that are going to excel in the late game with Zilean and Kennen.

Early Game

As with every TSM game this split, there was minimal to no action coming from either side to start. There was a Gank potential in the Bottom lane, however smart warding from the TSM duo squandered that opportunity. Around the ninth minute mark, a smart ward by Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik instantly gave TSM the opportunity to secure the first Dragon of the game. Echo Fox did not let this go quietly with Rush securing first blood for Echo Fox in the only way Rush knows how to.

While not in a matchup that should be giving him any trouble, Solo has been making a case for himself – he has had solid games against the best Top Laners in the league and this game was no different. Jonathan “Grig” Armao was introduced back into the roster for this game and was showing TSM his value to the team. As the 17th minute approached Grig had a KDA of 4/0/0 – asserting his dominance across the entire map.

Late Game

As the mid-game approached TSM had raced out to a three Ocean Drake lead which made their team fighting composition even scarier. While TSM did have a significant advantage in the elemental Dragon department the gold was at a standstill with Echo Fox finding return kills onto TSM. This meant in a 5v5 fight TSM lacked the advantage they would have liked. 

In the end, the composition from Team SoloMid was too much for the Echo Fox composition to handle. TSM had too much movement speed which allowed them to have elongated fights despite losing members early on  – Søren “Bjergsen”  Bjergand and Smoothie provided too many buffs for Echo Fox to handle. After an extended surge from Echo Fox, TSM was able to able to close out the game to go 1-1 on the week.

Conclusion

While it was not as clean as they would have liked, it was important to not start out the season 1-3. Jesper ” “Zven” Svenningsen was able to have a field day with the number of buffs he was getting from Bjergsen and Smoothie. Echo Fox played the game out to the best of their ability, but their main problem was in the draft – their melee champions were not able to keep up with the speed of TSM in the late game.

Featured Image Courtesy of LoL Esports.

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