The 2019 LCS Spring Split finals between TSM and Team Liquid has the potential to be the best series in North American history. And the first game has already brought a ton of spice for fans as Liquid chose Heimerdinger for Nicolaj Jensen in the mid lane.
The plan was pretty simple for Jensen in the mid lane—push in the waves against Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg’s Zoe and prevent him from making any roaming plays across the map. He’s also able to block any poke with his turrets in the early stages of the match, which allows Heimerdinger to stay in lane longer.
Unfortunately, it looked like Jensen didn’t have that much experience on the champion throughout the game. He wasn’t pressuring Bjergsen in lane as much as people expected, and as a result, the TSM mid laner was able to roam around and push the advantage for his team.
Jensen also missed some crucial skillshots with his grenades and rockets, and kept taking a ton of poke from Varus, Zoe, and Vladimir. He had a limited amount of effect in a majority of Team Liquid’s teamfights. Ultimately, TSM’s superior teamfighting skills were too much for Jensen and Team Liquid to handle—and the defending champs ended up dropping the first game of the series.
We don’t expect to see more of Heimerdinger in any other games during this series. We’ll need to wait and see if Jensen can bounce back after such a lackluster performance on Riot Games’ Twitch as the finals rage on.
