TSM blow past Echo Fox, look ahead to Cloud9 playoff series

Team SoloMid is back on top after a decisive win over Echo Fox, and the squad is moving on to the semifinals where it will be facing Cloud9.

TSM continues to dominate the LCS, as this time the team took down Echo Fox in a series of four matches.

In game one, TSM tried to play through the top lane focusing on Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik. This strategy backfired as Echo Fox’s Colin “Solo” Earnest held his own and was able to scale better. The seemingly small early advantage snowballed and Echo Fox found a victory through Solo’s efforts.

TSM changed strategies and played through the bottom lane in game two. Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen and Andy “Smoothie” Ta took advantage of the extra attention to win the lane early and create roam opportunities.

TSM Jungler Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham also put extra pressure in the mid lane as the bot lane swung in favor his team, and TSM was able to catch Echo Fox jungler Lee “Rush” Yoon-jae out of position on multiple occasions.

This win for TSM would set the tone for the rest of the series.

In the two final sets of play, Akaadian picked Rek’Sai while Broken Blade stuck with Hecarim. These champions received some buffs in recent patches and proved to be a deadly combination for TSM.

In game three, Akaadian found early picks on Rek’Sai with help from Broken Blade and mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg. TSM played through the mid lane this time and snowballed early for a win 27 minutes into the match.

The final set would go on a similar fashion with Akaadian and Broken Blade again acting as the stars of the match. The difference between Akaadian’s impact on the game and that of opposing jungler was pronounced, and spoke to how far Akaadian has come during his brief time with Team SoloMid.

TSM’s next playoff series will be verus Cloud9. In the regular season, Cloud9 was the only team in the LCS to clearly better TSM, owning multiple clean victories over the squad.