Summer 2020 LCS Championship Preview: TSM vs FlyQuest
By Josh Tyler
TSM faces off against FlyQuest for the LCS Championship of Summer 2020!
It comes down to just two. After dispatching of Team Liquid, the team with the best record in the regular season of the Summer Split, TSM will now face FlyQuest in one last matchup for the Summoner’s Cup! These two teams have taken very different roads to the LCS Championship game, so let’s look at how each of them got here.
TSM
Record: 12-6
Roster
Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik
Mingyi “Spica” Lu
Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg
Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng
Vincent “Biofrost” Wang / Erik “Treatz” Wessén
Playoffs: Lost to Golden Guardians (0-3), defeated Dignitas (3-0), Defeated Golden Guardians (3-2), Defeated Cloud9 (3-1), Defeated Team Liquid (3-2)
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The miracle run that is Team Solomid just keeps barreling down the tracks here in the LCS playoffs. After knocking out Cloud9 a week ago, they proceeded to then slay another giant by taking down Team Liquid in a five-game series.
The big story, of course, is TSM’s jungler Spica pulling out the “River Shen” in Games 4 and 5. The off-meta pick not only ruined Team Liquid’s day (and probably most viewers solo queue games in the future), it throws another wrinkle that FlyQuest will have to adapt to at the last minute. Given that top laner Broken Blade has shown he’s quite proficient on the pick as well, I could easily see it being ban-worthy or first-picked throughout the series.
FlyQuest
Record: 12-6
Roster
Colin “Solo” Earnest
Lucas “Santorin” Tao Kilmer Larsen
Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage
Jason “WildTurtle” Tran
Lee “Ignar” Dong-geun
Playoffs: Defeated Evil Geniuses (3-2), defeated Cloud9 (3-1), defeated Team Liquid (3-2)
Not to be out-done, FlyQuest have also managed to slay two of the (perceived) biggest demons from the LCS regular season in Cloud9 and Team Liquid. While they didn’t have any big surprise picks like the River Shen, FlyQuest did show a very consistent style of playing heavily around mid laner PowerofEvil that would allow them to match up against either possible opponent in the finals.
FlyQuest has generally been a much more consistent team in the playoffs, with the highest early game rating of all LCS teams in playoffs per Oracle’s Elixir. They’re also fairly strong, though not the best, in terms of mid-to-late game prowess. But if FlyQuest can manage to get out to an early lead, which they tend to do more than anyone else, I think the LCS Championship is theirs for the taking.
Head to Head Matchups
Top Lane: Solo vs. Broken Blade
Solo has consistently been a solid-to-very good support this season and it’s heart-warming to see him go from no team at the start of the season to starting in the LCS Championship. I think he has a similar champion pool to Impact, who largely outplayed Broken Blade in the Team Liquid series, but he has more depth to his pool and he’s just an all-around better player. I expect he will tend to win this matchup.
Advantage: FlyQuest
Jungle: Santorin vs. Spica
After witnessing Spica’s destruction of TL I’m tempted to make this a closer call than the blowout I originally foresaw. However, while those River Shen plays were cool and will definitely throw off FlyQuest’s pick/ban strategy tomorrow, I can’t overlook the fact that those two Olaf games Spica played were horrific. Give me Santorin, one of the best junglers in the league all year, in this matchup.
Advantage: FlyQuest
Mid Lane: PowerofEvil vs. Bjergsen
Bjergsen is the boogeyman to a lot of LCS mid laners, but how he has to face his boogeyman. PowerofEvil has beaten Bjergsen in almost every meeting since way back in the 2014 IEM tournament. Bjergsen has been performing at a god-tier level recently, but PoE has been even better for the whole split.
Advantage: FlyQuest
ADC: WildTurtle vs. Doublelift
Doublelift showed the heck up in the series win over his old team, absolutely destroying them on Senna and Ashe. He’s evolved to become a phenomenal utility ADC, perhaps even better than WildTurtle.
Advantage: TSM
Support: Ignar vs. Biofrost/Treatz
Now, this is going to be a massive challenge for (presumably) Biofrost tomorrow, as Ignar is probably the best support NA is sending to Worlds. His roaming is god-tier and he’s even managed to help make WildTurtle look like a strong laner. Plus, he can play just about every pick Biofrost can, but even better.
Advantage: FlyQuest
Keys to the Series
Just like in the Team Liquid series, this series will hinge on the mid lane matchup if TSM wants to win. In their victory, Bjergsen clearly got the best of Jensen, but it’s going to be much harder to overcome PoE, especially considering that he has a much more active jungler in Santorin.
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Across the board, I think FlyQuest just beats TSM in every single lane to win their first LCS Championship. They’ve been the most consistent team across the entire split, their coaching staff seems to have the best understanding of the meta and how to draft, and they’ve had five games of “tape” to scout on TSM. On the other hand, every time I’ve picked against TSM they’ve won so I guess it’s still up for grabs.
Prediction: FlyQuest wins 3-1