(original photo courtesy of slaskiepozytywnie.pl)
For both current World Champions, this season hasn't gone as expected so far. Defending IEM Champions Team SoloMid, who made almost a complete overhaul of their roster during the offseason, has been struggling mightily with team synergy and communication issues. Defending World Champions SK Telecom T1 has also been struggling with many pointing towards starting jungler Bae "Bengi" Seong-un not fitting into the current jungle meta and similar overall struggles with team synergy.
Both teams find themselves towards the middle of the pack in their domestic standings, but have found a bit of a renaissance in this international tournament. But would TSM's improvement be enough for them to upset the Korean powerhouse team SKT?
Game 1
Bans:
- SKT: Fiora, Kog'Maw, Lissandra
- TSM: Bard, Kalista, Lulu
Roster:
- SKT: Duke (Trundle), Blank (Nidalee), Faker (Corki), Bang (Lucian), Wolf (Braum)
- TSM: Hauntzer (Nautilus), Svenskeren (Lee Sin), Bjergsen (LeBlanc), Doublelift (Ezreal), Yellowstar (Alistar)
?
With a bizarre emphasis on Nautilus and Ezreal on their first pick and ban rotation, Team SoloMid didn't exactly set themselves up for success. Lee "Duke" Ho-seong got his counterpick with Trundle as TSM seemed to funnel themselves onto some comfort champions. This allowed SKT, who planned for this, to draft a comp that could comfortably outlane all of their opponents.
TSM didn't completely fall apart in the early game to this however. Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg on LeBlanc was able to build a solid lead against Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok's Corki with a coordinated team dive. TSM, though, was still losing slowly and surely everywhere else on the map with a passive bottom lane and Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell getting completly bullied out of lane by Duke's Trundle.
TSM lost it with a disastrous early teamfight over a Dragon. With SKT forcing the issue with a Duke teleport, Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen, who got heavily counterjungled by Gang "Blank" Seon-gu's Nidalee all game long, desperately dove into the pit attempting to steal the Dragon and failed to do so. This failed steal ended up being the spark started the teamfight that TSM didn't want with SKT winning it easily. They would use this momentum to completely snowball the game and never looked back with a quick victory.
Winner: SK Telecom T1
Game 2
Bans:
- TSM: Bard, Nidalee, Lulu
- SKT: Alistair, Lissandra, Kog'Maw
Roster:
- TSM: Hauntzer (Fiora), Svenskeren (Lee Sin), Bjergsen (Twisted Fate), Doublelift (Kalista), Yellowstar (Janna)
- SKT: Duke (Poppy), Blank (Gragas), Faker (Zed), Bang (Corki), Wolf (Braum)?
Picks and bans weren't as much of an issue this game, but Faker got his Zed. And it proved to be poison for TSM's comp. SKT fell behind early in tempo on the lane swap, but a botched five-man dive by TSM gave the momentum right back to SKT. That momentum would translate to an underfarmed Hauntzer getting trapped in a long lane and Bjergsen getting targeted hard by SKT as a team. This target wouldn't keep Bjergsen down too hard, with help from Svenskeren's Lee Sin making some great plays.
But, again, a key misstep would cost TSM the game. Doublelift found himself getting caught pushing up the bottom lane all the way to the second tier tower by himself with Hauntzer busy catching a wave on the top side. SKT would collaspe hard on Doublelift, which led to 3 free kills. SKT would translate this to an early baron that TSM failed to contest with the remaining members. With this early baron buff and all the momentum, SKT would bulldoze over the flat-footed TSM for another early win.
Winner: SK Telecom T1
Conclusion
Ultimately, there was no surprise in this series. There would be no upset here and the stronger team would advance with ease.
The crux of the matchup was the inflexibility of TSM in the pick/ban phase. They banned out Wolf's Bard and Faker's Lulu because they obviously didn't know how to counter them. On the other hand, SKT developed a strong game plan against TSM's tendencies to gravitate towards their comfort picks, which proved very effective.
TSM fans can take solace in the fact that their team definitely improved a lot over of the course of this tournament. They looked more cohesive as a unit and showed a lot of resiliency. If they can translate these improvements back to NA, it will make for a much scarier team for their domestic competition.
But, if TSM evolved into a Charmeleon through IEM Katowice, SKT was the Blastoise that put them in their place. With both Blank and Bae "Bang" Jun-sik showing up hard this tournament and team synergy looking back on point, the other LCK teams as well as whoever SKT faces in the finals of IEM Katowice have be afraid looking foward.
