TSM finally put a convincing win on the board with a victory over Clutch Gaming today in the North American LCS.
Coming into the game, Clutch had been known as TSM’s kryptonite. Clutch beat them in the playoff quarterfinals last split to deny TSM from the finals for the first time in the organization’s history. They also won the first battle against TSM this summer, too.
In this game, TSM picked Talon for star mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, who had been having lackluster performances all split long. While his lane phase wasn’t the greatest, he managed to get off good roams in the side lanes, and TSM raced off to an early lead.
Eventually, Clutch attempted a desperate Baron—a decision that spelled disaster for the squad. TSM’s rookie jungler Jonathan “Grig” Armao stole the buff and TSM proceeded to ace Clutch—and they ended the game soon after.
TSM have been up and down all season long, going undefeated or winless in every week prior to this one, in which they went 1-1. This was the first quality win the squad has put up, and Bjergsen returned to MVP-caliber form with a legendary performance on Talon. The bot lane of Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen and Alfonso “mithy” Aguirre Rodríguez created an early lead against their opponents, in stark contrast to their usually passive ways.
Poor decision making and macro play from Clutch ultimately lost them the game. While the players on the team are all mechanically skilled, they suffer in the mid to late game due to questionable calls and poor management of side waves.
TSM will continue their quest to regain the NA LCS throne next Saturday against Cloud9 at 3:30pm CT, while Clutch will try to patch their mistakes before taking on 100 Thieves later that day at 8pm CT.
