TSM to lower bracket in LCS playoffs after Golden Guardians upset

Aug 14, 2020

Reading time: 2 min

Golden Guardians just pulled off the upset of the season and is making Team SoloMid play the loser’s bracket in the 2020 LCS Summer playoffs.

TSM’s playoffs run is not going as well as was expected. In the first round of playoffs, Golden Guardians destroyed TSM for a clean 3-0 sweep. Golden Guardians is advancing through the upper bracket and TSM is getting a second chance against Dignitas.

After today’s @GoldenGuardians victory against @TSM, @LeTigress caught up with the @VictorHuang to talk about the win and his Player of the Series performance! #GGWIN #LCS pic.twitter.com/c2rWw4PiSh

— LCS (@LCSOfficial) August 14, 2020

Golden Guardian makes plays against TSM in 2020 LCS Summer playoffs

TSM started the series like every other match against Golden Guardians by attacking the top lane at level three. Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik secured first blood and was set up for the laning phase in game one. Jungler Mingyi “Spica” Lu then moved to the bottom lane looking for a gank. Up to that point, it went all according to plan for TSM. Then came the pause.

After a brief pause, TSM seemed to have lost its momentum and Golden Guardians managed to get back into the game. TSM made one too many mistakes and Golden Guardians punished them hard.

Losing game one threw a wrench into TSM’s plans. For game two, Golden Guardians continued banning mid lane champion picks and forcing Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg out of his comfort zone. Golden Guardians made the necessary adaptations and went for the right plays instead of simply reacting to what TSM was trying to do. It became evident quickly that TSM had lost its focus and the team switched to a more passive style.

Things didn’t get any better in game three. TSM drafted Sett in the mid lane and Nidalee in the jungle as a counter to Golden Guardians’ Graves. TSM’s plan of attack and its win conditions were unclear, as neither Sett nor Nidalee worked as they should. Bjergsen is not the type of mid laner that sets up plays and runs headfirst into the team fights. Sett is supposed to be an initiator, at least to an extent. Bjergsen wasn’t comfortable on the pick and it showed. Nidalee became irrelevant quickly as Spica failed to establish any type of presence on the map. Multiple errors from bot laner Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng only worsened the situation for TSM.

Golden Guardians takes its first victory ever on a best-of-five series. Golden Guardian will play either Cloud9 or Team Liquid next. TSM will face Dignitas next.