League of Legends LCS Summer Playoffs quarterfinals recap – marry, date, kill scapegoats for TSM’s loss

TSM Scapegoats

Marry: passivity

If there is one reason that I can point to for why TSM failed in this series, it’s the early game. Because of those horrible drafts (as discussed earlier) TSM just bled out objectives early due to their lack of pressure.

Some mind-boggling stats for you: in these playoffs, TSM got 0 Rift Heralds, 29% of the dragons available, 40% of the Barons available, and none of the first turrets or first three turrets. That is worse early objective control than OpTic.

Date: their jungler

The decision to start Spica was widely discussed and criticized before the games even started and his play didn’t do anything to dissuade the doubters. To be clear, I don’t think the outcome of this series would have been drastically different if Akaadian or Grig were playing. I don’t blame Spica either, considering he was a rookie with two games of experience thrown into the lion’s den far before he had a chance to build synergy with his team.

That said, Spica was quite bad in the series. He accounted for most of TSM’s deaths, fell massively behind in gold, experience, and CS early, controlled vision the worst of all junglers, and basically had no proactive plays other than that great smite steal of Baron in Game 1.

Dump: Zven

Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen has gotten a lot of flak for his play this year, with most fans predicting that he will be leaving TSM for EU after the season ends. While I would understand Zven wanting to get another start (even though he has said he wants to be the first player to win NA and EU) I think TSM would be crazy to get rid of him.

In this playoff series, Zven was the only player to consistently come out of lane ahead. He died the least of all players on his team, had the highest kill participation, the lowest death share, and got a pentakill in their Game 3 victory. Zven showed the hell up and deserved better from his team.

Worlds chances

Marry: Team Liquid/C9

TSM’s loss on Saturday basically locks in TL for a spot at worlds as has been their destiny. All they have to do is not have Clutch beat C9 in the finals (which they can assure by beating Clutch in semis) and they’re in by points.

On the other side, C9 will make it in on points if they beat CLG or win the runner-up match to finish third and CLG not win. So basically unless they lose to CLG and then lose to Clutch, they’re going to Worlds.

Date: CLG/Clutch

One of these two teams is going to finish third, putting them in a prime spot in the Gauntlet for a possible run on points. If either of them can pull off a miraculous upset, they’ll basically put themselves of being at the head of the Gauntlet table, one series win from making Worlds. Neither can qualify solely off points over C9 or Liquid (unless they win the Summer Playoffs) but they each have a great chance to make their path easy on themselves in the Gauntlet.

Dump: TSM/FlyQuest

FlyQuest missed the playoffs and is locked into the first game of the Gauntlet (they’ll likely be facing the team that finishes 4th unless that team is C9. They have a long road where they’re going to have to win at least two series against TSM and CLG (or, god forbid, C9 or Liquid).

TSM, on the other hand, just let their prime opportunity slip through their fingers. Had they won their playoff series over clutch, they’d be uncatchable by CLG and only need to finish third to beat out C9 for points. Now, they’re locked into the Gauntlet and if CLG or Clutch finish second they’re probably not even going to get the top spot (where they’d only have to win one Bo5 to make Worlds).

The LCS Summer Playoffs will return next Saturday with Cloud9 vs. CLG at 5:00 PM EST on Twitch.tv/Riotgames