LCS Recap: TSM vs GGS Week 4

Week 4 of the LCS found Team SoloMid looking to bounce back after a crushing defeat at the hands of OpTic Gaming. The six-time champions had the victory in their grasp from an OpTic side who were missing their star Mid Laner. However, after two poorly executed base sieges, the green wall was able to claw their way back into the game. TSM had another difficult time on their hands today as they faced the Golden Guardians.

Draft Phase

Despite having an 0-3 record with him in the lineup Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham remained in the starting roster for their match against the Golden Guardians. GGS spent no time banning out powerful team fighting champions in Yuumi and Sona, TSM retaliated by banning Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung’s signature champion Tahm Kench. In the first part of the ban phase, TSM opted into Caitlyn and Lux to counter the all-in engage GGS had with Nautilus and Sivir to speed him up. GGS also opted into Aatrox which will be great for pushing out the side lanes as well as giving them strong team fighting capabilities.

TSM in the second pick and ban phase selected Skarner and Azir, two strong champions with great pick potential. On the side of GGS Anivia and Trundle were selected to combine well with the champions they already selected.

Early Game

The game as expected started out extremely slow with Team SoloMid having small advantages in the Mid and Bot Lane. Andy “Smoothie” Ta was able to pick up three kills to be on a killing spree as the game hit the 10th-minute mark. Golden Guardians made the smart decision to push the lanes that were available to them

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while TSM committed to a five-man dive onto Olleh.

As the game hit the 15th-minute mark TSM had raced out to a 2k gold lead with a 2 to 1 Tower advantage. The only advantage Golden Guardians had in the game was Kevin “Hauntzer“ Yarnell on the Aatrox and GGS were able to use this strength to find a kill onto Akaadian which neutralized the gold lead to a small 300G gold deficit.

Late Game

The game had stalled out a bit as it approached the Mid game. The only piece of action was TSM landing a pick onto Henrik “Froggen” Hansen which allowed them to secure the Mid Tier 1 Tower. Froggen on his signature Anivia was able to find two crucial stuns to secure a team fight victory for Golden

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Guardians which allowed GGS to secure Baron Nashor.

Similarly to TSM against OpTic, the Golden Guardians were off to the races without checking all of the boxes and were aced by TSM with Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg securing a triple kill to stop the pressure from the Guardians. TSM were able to tank the pressure from GGS and secure the victory in the end.

Conclusion

TSM were able to secure the victory, but it is not the game you would like to be seeing if you are a TSM fan heading into Rift Rivals. Bjergsen played an incredible game and has proven time and time again he is the late game insurance for Team SoloMid. Broken Blade continues to be given the short end of the stick as he is once again left on a less than desirable matchup. Next up for TSM is the European Giants at the 2019 Rift Rivals event.

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