In his final game of the 2018 LCS Summer Split’s regular season, Team Liquid AD carry Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng tasted defeat at the hands of a TSM Akali, then piloted by mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg. One split later, Doublelift once again saw his pre-playoff break begin by being deleted off Summoner’s Rift by a TSM Akali.
Led by top laner Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik’s monstrous performance as Akali, TSM handed Team Liquid their third-consecutive loss. After picking up their second win against Team Liquid this split, TSM will head into the playoffs undefeated in 2019 against last year’s LCS champions. But unlike their week four win against Team Liquid, TSM didn’t rely on any major counterpicks today.
“I think this game felt better than the previous win against TL because we didn’t win just based on having this counter pick and playing through it like [against] the Yorick,” Bjergsen said in the post-game interview. “I feel like we had more of a standard draft and played really standard, and made really good plays. We had a lot of good plays around top setting Broken Blade up to be fed, and we had my teleport behind their bot lane.”
Borrowing Cloud9’s famous “Jensen Blabber composition” from last summer with the Zilean and Kindred combo, TSM found their edge over Liquid early in the match through smart ganks and roams on both ends of the map. “We had a lot of good plays around top setting Broken Blade up to be fed, and we had my teleport behind their bot lane,” Bjergsen said, who attributed these plays to breaking TSM “out of the early game.”
After earning their initial lead, TSM were in cruise control for almost the remainder of the match. Although Team Liquid got a shot in taking out TSM’s solo laners off an overextended Broken Blade, TSM quickly rectified this misstep with a massive teamfight, which propelled them to the Baron, and soon after, Team Liquid’s Nexus.
Poised to enter playoffs as one of the favorites, Bjergsen is still unsure who he’d rather face in the semifinals between Team Liquid and Cloud9. “I think TL will play better in playoffs than they are now,” Bjergsen said. “They already secured a bye and first, and they know they’re in a slump and they’re gonna work their asses off to get out of the slump so I don’t know, we’ll see who has the better playoffs form between the two teams.”
TSM will face Echo Fox in the the quarterfinals of the 2019 LCS Spring Split playoffs. The date for TSM and Echo Fox’s match hasn’t been decided yet.
