NA LCS Summer Finals Reflections
The 2017 North American LCS Summer Split is finally complete, with Team SoloMid defeating Immortals 3-1 in the finals to earn their third straight title out of ten consecutive tries.
“Dynasty” is a term not often used in the world of Esports. Teams flare up then fade out. Investment ebbs and flows with changing profit models, an updated financial prospectus, or simply disinterest in losing money. Organizations fold at alarming rates across the scene, with rosters and staff in a constant state of flux. There isn’t time to build a pedigree, or establish a tradition of excellence.
Trying to square the atmospheric realities of Esports with what TSM has accomplished in League of Legends is mind-boggling, to say the least. Their ten straight finals appearances are unprecedented and span the entire existence of NA LCS (Established 2013). TSM have survived wholesale roster changes, new competitive formats, and a changing game that only vaguely resembles the one they bested Good Game University at over four years ago.
I’ll address the excellence of TSM more below, but it bears repeating above the fold: TSM is the best Esports organization North America has ever produced, and their staggering domestic success goes against every prevailing truism in the ecosystem. Say what you will about their fans or lack of international glory; at this point, no one can deny their greatness.
In Boston, it was a weekend of the old guard triumphing over the new. Not only did TSM take advantage of Immortals’ unsteady debut at this stage, but a resurgent Counter Logic Gaming demolished trendy Team Dignitas 3-0 in the 3rd Place match. After weeks of mediocre play, CLG reminded everyone why they hovered around first place for much of Summer Split, perfectly executing their gameplan and earning a bye into the regional semifinals this weekend.
Before the North American Regionals commence Friday afternoon, let’s take a moment to salute a spectacular weekend of League in the TD Garden Arena.
Mission “Protect OmarGod” Accomplished
In the afterglow of their fantastic Boston showing, it’s easy to forget how horrible Counter Logic Gaming had looked for most of the playoffs. They barely squeaked by an overmatched Team EnVyUs before completely faltering against Immortals in the semifinals.
All questions for their success going forward were centered around their rookie jungler OmarGod, for whom the postseason seemed too big of a stage. He was routinely bullied by Lira and Xmithie, was shaky in team fights and couldn’t positively influence a lane. OmarGod couldn’t farm, couldn’t gank, and couldn’t successfully play a champion outside of Gragas. Without a strong jungler, CLG lacked the initiative to dictate fights and objective takes, a flaw that could be overcome with strong play from Darshan and Huhi only against weaker teams.
But to have any chance of beating Team Dignitas, one of the most balanced and aggressive squads in North America, CLG knew they had to shore up their glaring weakness in the jungle. If OmarGod didn’t have a good game, neither would CLG.
Fortunately, no one understood this weakness better than CLG themselves. They practiced accordingly, setting out on a mission to protect OmarGod that was evident minutes into Game 1 against Dignitas. While Shrimp started at his own Red, Omar was escorted to Shrimp’s Blue for an aggressive steal that Dignitas didn’t see coming. When Shrimp tried to invade Omar as he took his own Blue, there was Aphromoo with a timely Black Shield to protect Omar from the incoming Elise cocoon. Wherever Omar pathed, CLG were ready to assist him, ensuring an unencumbered early game despite Shrimp’s repeated efforts to the contrary. Cheeky Level 1 invades from Dignitas in Games 2 and 3 were instantly rebuffed with kills, putting Shrimp at an early disadvantage he (and Dignitas) never overcame.
With a solid early game ensured by careful protection from his teammates, Omar was able to stand tall in fights, enabling CLG to control the map and more securely take objectives. For their assistance with his early pathing, Omar returned the favor to his laners, counter-ganking the solo lanes and helping Stixxay and Aphromoo contain Altec and Adrian in the bot lane.
OmarGod finished 5-2-29 across three games, a remarkable playoff-high KDA of 17 and 67% kill participation. His Zac, a problem champion just weeks ago, went 2-0-8 in Game 2, paying off the first-pick investment and faith CLG entrusted him with. Only in Game 3 did CLG draft Omar his Gragas, correctly anticipating that Dignitas would have schemed against it. Now on his favored champion and brimming with confidence, Omar ended Game 3 2-1-10, providing the frontline beef needed for CLG to cleanly execute the 1-3-1 down the stretch. It was a standout series for the rookie, but even better team play from CLG to turn what was a weakness into strength.
CLG Learned from Immortals
Protecting OmarGod wasn’t the only thing Counter Logic Gaming practiced between the semifinals and Boston. Improved macro play, Kog’Maw priority and increased emphasis on Jungle-Support roams were all present in CLG’s sweep of Team Dignitas last Saturday, noticeable adaptations from a team that carefully studied how Immortals swept them.
I wrote last week how Immortals control the map utilizing roams from Xmithie and Olleh, two First Team All-Pros that make solo lane life hell for their opponents. Against those two, mid laners fail to ward river brush at their own peril. CLG clearly watched the VODs of their series against Immortals and thought, “Hey, we’ve got an amazing shotcalling support too. Why not snowball Omar, then have him roam with Aphromoo to get Huhi and Darshan ahead?”
What a great idea! Aphromoo was massively impactful on his roams, highlighted by a Game 3 lantern save of Omar mid into a Flash-Flay-Ignite combo that killed an overextending Shrimp, handing CLG momentum they never surrendered. Be it on Thresh, Rakan or Morgana, Aphromoo was incredible all series at sealing kills with Omar in the early game, finishing the series with 75% KP.
This heady gank combo underscored CLG’s improved macro play, a return to form more than it was a unexpected boon. This time it was CLG choking the life out of Dignitas with late 1-3-1 pushes, the end of Game 3 in particular a textbook example. While OmarGod, Stixxay and Aphromoo took an uncontested Baron, Huhi and Darshan were pushing in the side lanes, forcing Dignitas into the no-win situation of being forced to group in one lane and kill a pusher. They chose to stop Darshan’s fed Jax in the bot lane, allowing CLG to break top and mid lane inhibitors with zero resistance. In the semifinals, it was CLG who were always a step slower to Immortal’s decisive play; now the tables were turned and it was Dignitas who suffered.
Credit Coach Zikz and CLG’s slew of experienced veterans for so thoroughly adjusting during the hectic travel week between playoff series. CLG earned that third-place finish by learning from their mistakes, and now sit two best-of-fives away from attending the World Championships in China.
Dignitas Couldn’t Adapt
In contrast to Counter Logic Gaming’s clear playoff adjustments, Team Dignitas made none in a surprisingly limp performance at the TD Garden Arena. Dig’s failure re-evaluate their early game ideas once they proved catastrophic was a crucial component of their defeat.
Granted, it’s hard to institute changes on the fly, especially when coaches have no access to their players while in-game. Still, Dignitas’ strategy of bullying OmarGod’s pathing in the early game should have been abandoned once it proved fruitless and expected in Game 1. Instead, Dignitas doubled-down on the idea in Games 2 and 3, twice costing Shrimp his life before two minutes had elapsed. Game 3 was particularly painful to watch for Dig fans, as the First Blood gold enabled Darshan to buy a Long Sword at the start of laning, ensuring an early game advantage over Ssumday in a lane crucial to CLG's scaling comp.
Shrimp had a series to forget, a 3-14-8 scoreline that included a series-high in deaths. When you get behind on Elise against a tanky team, it’s pretty much curtains no matter how hard Ssumday tries to carry alone. It was as if Dignitas watched Omar struggle on film and decided to turn the screws on him harder than any team had previously. Team EnVyUs and Immortals found success in out-rotating Omar into mistakes; Dignitas refused to patiently wait for the rookie to slip up and repeatedly forced the issue to their own misfortune. Dignitas tried to manufacture an early game advantage to suit their high-tempo affinity, but never succeeded.
Once it became clear CLG were hyper-aware of Dignitas’ gameplan, the call should have been made to play steadier in the early game and have Shrimp pressure lanes instead of pressuring Omar across the map. Shrimp is the fulcrum on which Dignitas turns to win their lanes, and they desperately needed help bot this series. Why not have Shrimp focus on bot pathing, stopping Aphro’s roams by pinning him to lane?
The adaptations never came, and now Dignitas faces a full gauntlet run in order to attend Worlds. A semifinal matchup against CLG is on the cards; that is, if they can first overcome what will be a very prepared FlyQuest first.
An Incredible Series from Finals MVP Biofrost
With all eyes glued to the positioning and damage of Bjergsen and Doublelift, it was young Biofrost who paced Team SoloMid to their championship victory over Immortals.
The deserved series MVP—who has now won a title in each domestic split he’s participated in as a professional—wowed the crowd with inspired play on Rakan. Dignitas banned out Rakan in the first phase of each of their semifinal games against TSM; clearly Immortals should have followed suit. Rakan’s game-breaking initiations with follow up crowd control (ex. Gragas cask, Orianna’s Shockwave, Gnar boulder) destroyed Immortal’s carries in fight after fight.
Consider Game 4, a contest TSM had no business winning down seven kills, 10k gold and an inhibitor 22 minutes in. In a fight to protect their naked mid inhibitor Bio and Svenskeren perfectly executed the Rakambo (Grand Entrance>The Quickness) into Gragas cask that brought a cc’d Cody Sun into the range of Doublelift and Bjergsen’s damage. With that quick kill on Immortal’s most dangerous player, TSM took a 3-0 fight and began clawing their way back into the game. A fight minutes later in defense of the top inhibitor caught Pobelter out the same way. Soon TSM were rolling, ending the game with an Ace around their own bot inhibitor that began with the same devastating Rakan opening.
Few people expected the quietest member of TSM to outplay Immortal’s First Team All-Pro Support Olleh, but that’s exactly what Biofrost did. When Olleh was too slow on the Black Shield in Game 1, there was Biofrost exploiting an opening for First Blood. When Olleh momentarily stood a step too close to Cody during an Elder Drake fight in Game 3, there was Biofrost knocking up the Tahm Kench long enough for Bjerg to sneak Orianna’s Ball under Cody for the one-shot.
Biofrost rose to the challenge demanded by the matchup, finishing 4-10-45 (4.9 KDA, 83% KP, playoff-high assist total) to Olleh’s 2-16-26 (1.8 KDA, 65% KP, series-high deaths). Without this performance from Biofrost, we might have crowned a different Summer Split champion.
TSM are the Best Team Fighters in North America
Memo to the rest of North America: Expecting to beat Team SoloMid in late game team fights is a pipe dream and a losing strategy.
Bjergsen and Doublelift are too good at the essential team fighting skill: outputting maximum damage while never stepping out of position. Hauntzer, Svenskeren and Biofrost are incredible at creating the space necessary for their superstars to work, and adept at bringing the opponent’s squishies within their range. As long and Bjergsen and Doublelift are able to stay alive and healthy during a teamfight, winning it is only a matter of time.
It wasn’t an accident that the lone game Immortals won in the finals was also the shortest. TSM tend to draft hard-scaling compositions because of their confidence team fighting in the late game, and if this series in any indication, that confidence is well-founded. 5v5s all seemed to start the same way: Some combination of Hauntzer/Sven/Biofrost initiates on a carry during a microscopic positioning error, Doublelift immediately focuses the target, and Bjergsen either bursts another target or helps with damage/zoning (sometimes both). This repeatedly clean fight execution is a major element to TSM’s success; you need only to look at the NA LCS rafters to recognize how important it is.
But as good as TSM are at winning team fights they take, what’s almost as impressive is the discipline TSM show in not taking fights, only choosing to initiate when they see an advantage. Think back to the Elder Drake fight in Game 3 that proved so integral to TSM’s fortunes. The fight was proceeded by minutes of TSM following Immortals around the map, looking for an opening, striking only when Immortals were caught between taking an objective and an incoming fight. Notice how expertly Bjergsen placed Orianna’s Ball under Cody’s Jinx, exactly the player he needed to find, and ending the fight before it started by killing Cody quickly. Contrast that discipline with the way Team Dignitas aggressively took any early fight in their series against CLG, or for that matter, the way CLG ignored good macro and heedlessly 5v5’d Immortals in the semifinals.
Understanding what to do in big fights matters, but knowing when to take a fight at all matter more. And in North America, no one does it better than TSM.
Immortals Were Close, but Poise and Positioning Let Them Down
Despite coming up short in the finals, Immortals have little reason to hang their heads. Qualifying for Worlds is an immense accomplishment and a long time coming for an organization that, apart from this Spring, has always been amongst the NA’s best. They outperformed Team SoloMid for much of the finals, uncharacteristically losing Game 3 with a gold lead at 25 minutes (they were previously 25-2 with such a lead) and utterly collapsing in a Game 4 they would have won 95 times out of 100 tries.
The separation between Immortals and TSM on display in Boston had little to do with individual skill or teamplay. Sure, only Xmithie arguably outperformed his counterpart, but the major difference between the sides was poise and experience to handle big moments. TSM knew how to calmly reset and close out games with emphasis on the late game, where their strengths would be magnified. By contrast, Immortals folded under the pressure, giving away two winnable games that would have earned them the title.
Positioning issues also plagued Immortals throughout the series. If the idea was to draft lineups in which Cody Sun was not only the primary damage dealer but the sole damage dealer (as they did in Game 1), he needed to be protected at all costs. Likewise, Cody can’t instantly lose his team the fight by dying early due to positioning poorly. Bursting down carries at the beginning of fights is a TSM specialty, but it was made far easier than it should have been in this series. Hopefully Immortals becomes a bit more balanced, both mentally and damage-wise, as they prepare for a stacked Worlds in China. I can’t wait.