Closer turns tables on TSM, 100 Thieves earn first victory of the 2022 LCS Summer Split

One scaling Monkey King was all it took for Closer to bring 100 Thieves out of a deep gold deficit against TSM and into a victory screen.

100T ended their first day of the 2022 LCS Summer Split with a victory over a new iteration of TSM. While the 2021 LCS champions were ultimately able to call themselves the victors, they were only able to do so after trudging past a completely revitalized TSM, whose play starkly contrasted with what fans saw from them just a few months ago.

Many were unsure of what to expect from TSM heading into the Summer Split. The team spent much of the Spring Split at the bottom of the standings, a place that the organization had never stayed for too long.

Despite their lackluster spring, TSM held their own against the former LCS champions in their first match of the summer. In the jungle, Spica spent the first ten minutes of the game ensuring that 100T’s top and mid lanes could not out-pressure their lane opponents, giving himself a lead over his jungle counterpart in Closer, and winning TSM an early gold advantage.

It wasn’t until TSM began to overstep in the enemy jungle that 100T began to climb back into the match. A Flash-ultimate from Closer’s Wukong sent three members of TSM flying, unable to protect themselves after having just used their own ultimates. This made it easy for FBI and huhi to safely enter the action, showcasing the strengths that the Lucian and Nami combination possesses.

Though TSM had their sights on victory through snowballing the early game, they were ultimately unable to contend with the sheer amount of damage at the disposal of 100T.

100T end their first day of the 2022 Summer Split with a victory that did not always seem to be in their grasp. Closer finished the match as player of the game on Wukong with a 4/3/9 KDA and 81.3-percent kill participation, successfully halting the early-game dominance of Spica and delivering the remaining members of TSM into the hands of his teammates. This is the jungler’s first game on Wukong this year, though fans can likely expect more of the Monkey King from Closer due to his prevalence in the game’s current meta.

100T will compete against the reigning LCS champions Evil Geniuses tomorrow, who kicked off the Summer Split with a victory over Cloud9. TSM will look to bounce back tomorrow against CLG.