Team SoloMid takes out Cloud9, secures spot in LoL Worlds 2020

It was all or nothing for two of the biggest organizations in the LCS, but Team SoloMid ended up securing itself the last North American spot in the 2020 League of Legends World Championship. 

TSM vs. Cloud9 has been a matchup that historically delivers for fans, and this one was no exception. Both teams were recently knocked down to the lower bracket of the 2020 LCS Summer Split playoffs, which meant that only one of the two giants could qualify for LoL Worlds 2020 and move on in the battle for the LCS trophy.

Cloud9 was dominating the LCS but has fallen off in recent weeks. Other teams have started to figure them out and Cloud9’s lost its feel for the meta.  TSM has also been shaky recently, qualifying for playoffs as the fourth seed. Fans had high expectations for the team in the playoffs after seeing success with rookie support Erik “Treatz” Wessén, but the series against Golden Guardians ended in a disastrous 0-3 loss. 

After dropping to the lower bracket, both teams improved under the more intense pressure. TSM got revenge against the Golden Guardians after a clutch reverse sweep, while Cloud9 took down Evil Geniuses in convincing fashion. 

TSM looks strong against Cloud9 in LCS Summer Playoffs

The important best-of-five series started out perfectly for TSM after an aggressive early game where Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik picked up three kills on Lucian. TSM utilized the early game lead and managed to create a great snowball, despite Cloud9 having a scary team fight composition. 

It was Cloud9’s time to shine in the second game, where they got off to a great start in the mid lane and jungle. Robert “Blaber” Huang popped off on Graves, which was too much for TSM to handle. 

With a 1-1 score, the series looked to be heading the full distance. Game three was a nail-biter, where Cloud9 almost made a comeback after a bad early game. TSM managed to get the Ocean Soul though, which was enough to put Cloud9 on the brink. The momentum for TSM carried on into the fourth game, where Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg continued to be unstoppable. 

After four intense games, TSM managed to take down Cloud9 in its most important match of the year. This means that TSM will continue to the next round of the lower bracket, where the loser of Team Liquid vs. FlyQuest will be waiting. 

TSM qualifies for Worlds for the first time in three years

With the win, TSM secured itself the last North American spot for Worlds. The organization has been in a rough period, not making Worlds in the last two seasons. TSM’s last appearance at Worlds was in 2017, where Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng and Vincent “Biofrost” Wang were also on the team. 

On the other hand, Cloud9 is out of contention for the playoffs and won’t be playing at Worlds despite posting an utterly dominant spring split. Cloud9 also started out the summer split with a 9-0 record before everything went downhill. This is the first time Cloud9 will miss out on Worlds since the organization entered the League of Legends scene eight years ago.

TSM will be playing its next match on Saturday, September 5.