TSM edges past 100 Thieves in lower bracket of LCS Spring playoff

Team SoloMid defeated 100 Thieves and is advancing to round two of playoffs in the 2020 LCS Spring Split.

TSM knocked 100 Thieves out of playoffs after five games. The action-packed series was so close that it all came down to a single play in game five.

100 Thieves had a rough start in the playoffs against Cloud9 and had a second chance against TSM. TSM started its playoffs run in the lower bracket after a fifth-place end to the regular season.

TSM vs 100 Thieves was closer than expected

The LCS analyst desk favored TSM, but in reality, it was anyone’s game until the last minute of game five. From a drafting point of view, the game was standard. 100 Thieves’ bot duo played five games of Miss Fortune and Nautilus. The only odd highlight was a game four Kalista in the top lane piloted by Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik, and even then it wasn’t a real deciding factor.

100 Thieves and TSM went blow for blow in all five games. It all came down to the small details, winning a key team fight, or using the right ultimate at the right time.

In the final moments of game five, TSM initiated a fight around the red buff. At this chokepoint, TSM was particularly vulnerable to Miss Fortune’s Bullet Time. TSM barely survive the ensuing damage and somehow found the right position to strike back and kill four 100 Thieves players. The long death timers gave TSM more than enough time to end a game that had at some points seemed to be in the bag for 100 Thieves.

Despite picking up a win in the series, TSM was not as strong as the audience expected. Throughout the season, TSM has struggled with consistency. The roster would look like the best team in league in one game only to get completely destroyed in the next. TSM had a hard time dealing with 100 Thieves and it’s not a promising look heading into their series against FlyQuest.

TSM has a solid early game and is accustomed to playing a fast-paced style. The team needs to win before the 30-minute mark or it will bleed out late. TSM will need more than this early-game focus if they want to take down the best teams in the LCS playoff race.