The first week of the LCS Lock In is in the books with the TSM 2022 Lock In squad finishing 1-2. While it is the Academy team that is playing, they were able to take down a team and put themselves into a position to make it to the knockout stage. With a win over Golden Guardians (Academy), TSM would make the knockout stage against likely EG or TL. There were some good and bad takeaways from their weekend. Here is the first 2022 edition of TSM Takeaways.
[Related: LCK Week 2 2022 Spring Power Rankings]
After coming out with the first kill of 2022, the team basically just bled out against 100 Thieves. While they were not expected to win, it felt like they really just didn’t do anything after the first minute of the game. Hyper was not ganking and every lane just slowly lost until they were too behind to make a comeback. This happened again but not as badly against Cloud9. They tried to make some plays but generally bled out throughout the game.
Against two powerhouse orgs, one can expect a bunch of young players to feel the pressure. They were thrust into this position with many of them never playing against top-tier talent in their careers. This is why it was pretty obvious that nerves were a bit of an issue. Luckily they are getting great experience and should be able to use this to show what they need to work on going forward.
Game one for Instinct was forgettable to say the least. To a certainly degree so was game three against C9 but that was the same for the whole team. And while the FlyQuest game was great, it was the entire weekend that showed that Instinct could be a great player. Sticking with comfort, Instinct in his first weekend above the amateur level was able to hold his own in lane against the likes of FBI and Zven.
This was an encouraging sign and while he got most of his work done in teamfights against FlyQuest, Instinct played the lane aggressively. Many people at TSM and within the fan base are excited to see what Instinct evolves into as he is the youngest player in the org. Given time, it seems like the mechanics are getting there and Instinct could end up being another great bot lane talent produced by TSM.
The last takeaway is an obvious one but one that should still be talked about. A win is a win. Beating any of these teams is worth celebrating for TSM Academy as they should be underdogs in nearly every game. FlyQuest were able to pull off two straight wins after playing this team and will make it to the knockout stage. So beating them is an accomplishment despite what some pundits may say.
For this team to be in a win and they are in scenario is a great example of what they can be. They are about to face another academy squad with Stixxay as a sub. This is a very winnable game and something that Gunaso and the rest of the coaching staff should be telling TSM Academy. While they will likely get swept in the first round, should they make it, this team should be very proud and be able to use these games to rocket themselves into the academy season.
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