TSM secures first victory of the LCS, leaves CLG winless

William Davis Published 08/02/2021

After a poor start to the 2021 LCS Spring Season, TSM secured its first win against CLG to close out the first week.

After a shaky LCS Lock In tournament, TSM had to prove themselves as a potential top team in the first week of the spring season. With FlyQuest and Cloud9 as opponents in the first two games, TSM had plenty of chances to take down a great team but failed to do so.

This left TSM with an 0-2 record, before running into CLG on the last day of the week. Just like TSM, CLG started the split 0-2 and made it a battle to avoid 10th place in the LCS.

.@TSM (1-2) grab their first victory of the 2021 #LCS Spring Split after coming back against @clgaming (0-3)! #TSMWIN pic.twitter.com/YZRuOVFOIF
— LCS (@LCSOfficial) February 8, 2021

As this was an important match for both teams, the pressure clearly showed. CLG managed to get ahead in the early game by getting a few kills and towers. CLG had to give up the early dragons to get this lead, but it seemed like a good trade for the team who quickly got momentum and a lead through both mid and bot lane.

As the game exited the laning phase, TSM started to fall further behind in gold but had one important win condition. With three dragons in the bag, it was only a matter of time before TSM got the strong Ocean Soul. This win condition kept TSM in the game, while CLG slowly started to fumble and lose its big gold lead.

After a single pick, TSM managed to take the Baron and started to turn the game around. It was a grind for TSM, but as time went by, CLG couldn’t do anything. With the Ocean Soul finally secured for TSM, the out-scaling finally kicked in. With great play from Lawrence “Lost” Hui especially, he carried TSM to a victory through important fights on Xayah.

This game was @Lost_adc until it was won! @TSM crawled back from the jaws of split push defeat to take the win over @clgaming #LCS pic.twitter.com/S0raur1AaZ
— LoLEsports Stats (@LoLEsportsStats) February 8, 2021

CLG and TSM has a lot to work on in the LCS

Even though it looked like a clear win for CLG, the team ends the week on an 0-3 record, while TSM is sitting at 1-2 with teams such as FlyQuest, Immortals, and Dignitas. Both teams end the week with poor results and have a lot to work on.

CLG is still suffering under the absence of jungler Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen and clearly needs some more power on the team to close out games. TSM, on the other hand, looks very shaky in the early game and will need more aggression to stay afloat. With a poor early game, most teams in the LCS will be able to punish in this meta and TSM can’t afford that.

TSM will play its next game on February 13 against Golden Guardians, while CLG meets Team Liquid.

The 2021 #LCS Spring Split standings at the end of week one:

(1) #100WIN (3-0)
(-) #C9WIN (3-0)
(3) #EGWIN (2-1)
(-) #TLWIN (2-1)
(5) #DIGWIN (1-2)
(-) #FLYWIN (1-2)
(-) #GGWIN (1-2)
(-) #IMTWIN (1-2)
(-) #TSMWIN (1-2)
(10) #CLGWIN (0-3)
— LCS (@LCSOfficial) February 8, 2021

Who are all the TSM members?

The TSM roster changed a lot going into the 2021 LCS season. In fact, only jungler Mingyi “Spica” Lu remains from the 2020 iteration of TSM and has now gotten four new teammates.