Rift Life- Issue 2- TSM sucks now?!?

The landing page for this week’s issue of Rift Life can be found HERE

Hey guys, it’s LeFlaye (@morganaleflaye), your resident nerdette, and I’m about to talk about possibly the two worst games of last week’s NA LCS both of which featured the one and only TSM.

What the actual hell….. I’m not even sure where to start honestly. You guys did not bring your A game. It was more like the D- game. Ya know, not completely failing, but pretty damn close.

Credit: giphy

This week’s matchups were, Team Liquid and FlyQuest.

Team Liquid is completely stacked this split, so I can understand TSM having a hard time with them. They have Impact and Pobelter plus add-in Doublelift who is determined to destroy TSM after they cut him. I’d say that a loss may not have been expected, but it wasn’t a huge surprise. [You can check out this blog here for more info on Team Liquid]

Credit :giphy

Losing to FlyQuest though…… Let’s just say this one had to have stung a whole lot. It is what it is. FlyQuest doesn’t have many big name guys on their team. Wildturtle is on there, but that’s not enough. Also, they didn’t even have their starting mid laner playing that game. These guys just aren’t considered to be a top tier team and they came out on top of the projected first place team…. Ouch.

Credit:giphy

So where did this team go wrong? They were at the top of everyone’s predictions. Listening to The Dive with Azael, Kobe and Jatt, TSM was the first place slot for two of these guys. Everyone was all about the new imports Zven and Mithy. These guys were big in the EU LCS, one of the best known Bottom Lane duos. They were going to be destroying everyone.

Bjergsen is considered to be a great mid. MikeYeung, in the jungle, was Rookie of the Split for Summer 2017 (he’s my jungle for fantasy, so shows you how much faith I have in this kid). Hauntzer can be a beast up top. So, this should all be a winning combination, right? Apparently not.

credit:giphy

Let’s check out the stats for TSM vs TL

Player	K	D	A
Bjergsen	1	0	0
Hauntzer	0	3	0
MikeYeung	0	3	1
Zven	0	2	0
Mithy	0	3	1

And now TSM vs FQ

Player	K	D	A
Bjergsen	4	0	5
Hauntzer	2	4	6
MikeYeung	2	4	3
Zven	1	2	4
Mithy	0	4	5

The Team Liquid game started out badly whenever Hauntzer gave up First Blood. There was no communication from TSM on that gank. Team Liquid continued to rail into TSM for the whole game. TL had a huge play whenever they collapsed on bottom and wiped out 3 players plus were able to take down the turret. After that, TL was up 4 kills and a turret. That very quickly snowballed into 7 kills and 4 turrets. TL secured the Baron and yet another kill. Once they were in the base, it was GG. TL destroyed TSM. Only 1 kill the entire game for TSM? Come on guys. (The Bjergsen and Doublelift hug made my heart melt though.)

credit:giphy

The FlyQuest game was just sad all the way around. 15 minutes in and TSM finally was able to get first blood. 21 minutes in brought a huge fight. FlyQuest was able to get 2 kills and TSM just couldn’t catch a break. Few more kills then FlyQuest went for the Baron. They were able to take it down, but TSM quickly snuffed out a few players. At this point, gold, kills, and turrets were pretty much even. FlyQuest continued to keep pushing. FlyQuest went for Baron again and this time they were ready for TSM. They took down a few players in a fight that followed. Flame almost ended the game quickly after that. He was able to go in the backdoor while TSM was chasing other players, but he couldn’t finish it. Two more Barons for FlyQuest and they were able to finally push all the way into the base after the last Baron. That was when they were able to finish the game. In the end, 3 out of 5 players on TSM had 4 deaths each?? If you listen to the analysts during the middle-end of this game, you'll even notice a huge mistake on FlyQuest's part, where they could have easily ended the game, again, just by holding off for a moment. The old TSM would have demolished any team giving them that big of an opportunity back into the game. New TSM? Again, nope.

credit:giphy

Bjergsen was more mediocre than normal for both games. I honestly find him a little overrated and his play style is too safe for me. He would hover in the background, letting his teammates go in hard, then he would watch them die and run away. He needs to step up if he’s going to lead his team to victory this Split.

credit:giphy

So TSM is going into this week 0-2. They’re up against OpTic and Echo Fox. OpTic is 0-2 and Echo Fox is 2-0. They should come in with a fire lit underneath them.

Be sure to check out the other Rift Life posts this week.

@captenredbeard- Professionalism in eSports

@belcam- And so it begins

@gniksivart- Predictions for Week 2