League of Legends: Team Liquid vs Clutch Gaming LCS semi-final preview
By Shay Coleman
Mid Lane
Tanner “Damonte” vs Nicolaj “Jensen”
Hey, remember him? Tanner from high school? He used to give you a hard time back in your mid lane, but that’s just because you were so solo-killable. Pathetic.
Damonte has been performing out of his mind lately. Yeah, sure, he can play Karma if you absolutely need him to, but you want him on the Qiyana and the Tristana and the Irelia for some real Damonte smashings. They say flex picks are dead, but watch Clutch Gaming quadra flex Qiyana, Tristana, Sylas and Karma in one game and you will see the true meaning of flexibility
Damonte has improved to the point where he might be the best pure-blood NA mid-laner in the LCS currently, but he faces THE best mid in NA in this tough match-up, and I don’t think this is an upset that Damonte can pull off alone. While Damonte does have a 35% First Blood Participation (according to Oracle’s Elixer), as the lane goes on, I can only see Jensen rising up and destroying Tanner time.
Jensen has won his first LCS title and has been fully unleashed. With a world of experience on his side, Jensen can play anything to great effect and is the premier mid. Seemingly, there is nobody who can stand in Jensen’s way
He can disrupt Clutch’s draft with his own champion pool, being able to play the likes of Sylas, Akali and Karma, along with pocket-picks such as Zilean and Zoe to really throw the enemy team off and make them adapt their well-planned out drafts. Heck, he could even go back to the glacial comp and play some Anivia.
With the NA meta shifting towards scaling picks, I think Jensen will have a better time in this particular matchup as history shows. There isn’t much to say about Jensen, he tops all the charts and is the undisputed best mid in North America, advantage TL!
Advantage: Team Liquid.