(Courtesy of Riot eSports, flickr)
Game 1
C9 Bans: Corki, Graves, Gragas
TSM Bans: Nidalee, Morgana, Lee Sin
C9 Picks: Gangplank, Kindred, Twisted Fate, Lucian, Braum
TSM Picks: Poppy, Elise, Azir, Kalista, Alistar
Team SoloMid started their bans off by targeting Lee "Rush" Yoon-jae and Hai "Hai" Lam, Hai's Morgana was undefeated and Rush's Lee Sin has been a threat all split. Nidalee has also been one of Rush's favorites, justifying the ban. Cloud 9, on the other hand, banned who they felt would help their picks perform better such as the Gragas ban to negate a counter to Kindred.
TSM sought out 5v5 team fights with the Kalista and Alistar double knock up with the added seige potiential. C9 chose to run double teleport with the Twisted Fate ultimate to make their collapses stronger while keeping map pressure high across the rift.
After the standard turret trade at the start of the game, C9 decided to pull the trigger after Rush forces Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen out of the top side jungle. Leaving TSM in a 3v5 under their own turret. Due to some miscommunication on the part of C9, Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng secured first blood on An "Balls" Le while Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi traded back with a kill onto Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim with the help of Hai's Braum stun. Definitely not in favor of C9 expending so much just for a 1v1 trade and giving away the first blood.
C9 returned top side again, but while Doublelift and Yellowstar were backing off in fear of the dive, Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell executed his teleport incredibly early, immediately getting killed causing Svenskeren and Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg to stop the collapse. Balls capitalized, using his ultimate and C9 dive Doublelift and Yellowstar securing all 3 kills.
The Twisted Fate ultimate and global pressure from Gangplank turned TSM away from objectives. Combined with C9's teleports and coordination with each other, they managed to snowball their lead up to 10k, including a 4k baron power play. Such pressure allowed them to close off Game 1 in under 30 minutes.
Game 2
C9 Bans: Graves, Poppy, Gragas
TSM Bans: Gangplank, Twisted Fate, Lee Sin
C9 Picks: Nautilus, Kindred, Zed, Lucian, Braum
TSM Picks: Maokai, Nidalee, Azir, Kalista, Janna
TSM banned out both global influences that had a very big impact last game while still banning Rush's Lee Sin. On the other end, C9 decide to switch their Corki ban with Poppy.
This game was slighty different. During the early game, C9 used the knowledge they had on Svenskeren to their advantage but TSM were able to trade effectively, keeping a minor gold lead just from CS differentials. TSM created better opportunities to pick off members of C9 and that ultimately led them to establishing a 4k gold lead at 20 minutes. Their team fighting capabilities were a lot stronger with Hauntzer's Maokai being incredibly hard to kill and Bjergsen's Azir keeping himself at a very safe distance.
TSM capitalized on a lot of mispositioning and individual mistakes from C9 during team fights which allowed them to secure 2 Barons, stretching the gold lead to 14k and ending ame 2 in 35 minutes.
Game 3
C9 Bans: Graves, Poppy, Gragas
TSM Bans: Nidalee, Twisted Fate, Lee Sin
C9 Picks: Gangplank, Kindred, Orianna, Jihn, Braum
TSM Picks: Maokai, Elise, Zed, Corki, Janna
After a very passive early game from both sides, TSM exercised their team fighting advantage due to the difference in pressure Hauntzer's Maokai had over Balls' Gangplank, which essentially give TSM the green light to chase into C9's jungle securing kills and assists for everyone across the board. The composition C9 drafted required them to scale to be effective. Balls' Gangplank needed Triforce and Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen's Orianna needed Zhonyas in order to properly go through with a teamfight on C9's side.
This allowed TSM to force fights onto C9 knowing they had the power spike advantage. Earning kills early prevented C9 from earning the experience and farm they needed, which set them back even further (not to mention drawing them from their respective lanes to combat TSM's engage threat). A TSM bait at baron secured even more kills and earmed them at a 7k gold lead at 25 minutes. Bjergsen had an outsanding performance on Zed, ending the game 11-0, allowing TSM to take a decisive 2-1 series lead in under 30 minutes
Game 4
C9 Bans: Nidalee, Janna, Zed
TSM Bans: Gangplank, Twisted Fate, Lee Sin
C9 Picks: Poppy, Kindred, Azir, Corki, Morgana
TSM Picks: Gragas, Graves, Velkoz, Kalista, Braum
C9 switched up their bans, targeting Bjergsen's Zed due to his performance from the previous game and banning Yellowstar's Janna which was played in both Game 2 and 3. TSM took their same bans from Game 2 knowing that C9 is above proficient in these champions.
Lane swaps sent both bot lanes top, and a mechanical outplay from Balls' Poppy claimed first blood for Rush's Kindred during a gank. Skirmishes all over the map led to kills for both teams, but by 15 minutes the gold was dead even. TSM eventually aced C9 in a very spread out team fight and took dragon and a Baron at 20 minutes. C9 attempted two ill fated fights that sealed the deal for TSM. A 3 for 1 fight followed by 3 for 0 fight in favor of TSM set C9 behind enough for TSM to reset and overpower C9 one last time, securing an unexpected series victory in convincing fashion.
Many people were expecting C9 to win 3-0 due to TSM's synergy issues. C9 stomped Game 1 and really solidified peoples assumptions, however TSM pulled it back and conquered C9, proving that they aren't finished just yet.
