Dr. Mundo makes his LCS debut in TSM’s late-game victory over Liquid in week 4 of the 2021 Summer Split

After four weeks in the 2021 LCS Summer Split, the reworked Dr. Mundo finally made his first appearance on Summoner’s Rift in North America today, with TSM outlasting Team Liquid to take home their second win of the weekend.

Before this game, Liquid were coming off of two impressive wins against Evil Geniuses and Counter Logic Gaming. The organization had just gone through extensive roster and coaching staff changes after their head coach Jatt resigned from the League of Legends team and both Alphari and Santorin stepped away from the lineup. But they were looking cohesive and confident heading into their first matches together.

TSM, on the other hand, have looked like one of the best teams in the league. They won four of the last five games in the past two weeks, with a decisive victory over Cloud9 in the previous weekend. The roster seems to have found what made them one of the most dangerous teams in the latter half of the 2021 Spring Split. Their powerful ability to find leads in the mid-to-late game was on display today, and their teamfighting has looked great so far.

Dr. Mundo was thrown into the top lane for star top laner Huni, while the rest of the team opted into some strong picks like Xin Zhao, Ezreal, and PowerOfEvil’s classic Azir. Early on, however, Liquid found success by focusing on TSM’s bottom lane and putting their AD carry Lost far behind Tactical in the early game. Unfortunately for the team, they couldn’t seem to find any way to snowball their lead further, and TSM ended up scaling into their powerspikes.

For Liquid, their team composition had no way to engage the long-ranged composition TSM had with Ezreal’s poke, Azir’s soldiers, and even Dr. Mundo’s endless cleavers. Tactical also built lethality on Varus, which meant all of his damage lay in his Piercing Arrow instead of his auto attacks. In response, Huni built Warmog’s Armor, which meant Mundo could heal up all the damage Varus poked out, if he even hit his targets. The doctor didn’t get to kill anyone this game, but he was the perfect damage sponge for the rest of his teammates.

Meanwhile, both Lost’s Ezreal, Spica’s Xin Zhao, and PowerOfEvil’s Azir whittled down their opponents until SwordArt found an engage with Nautilus hook. The later the game went, the easier it got for TSM to sweep up the teamfights until they stood tall with the win. TSM are now definitively in second place behind 100 Thieves in the regular season standings.

Although this loss is disappointing, Liquid fans can be proud about how well the team performed with two subs in the top side of the map. The roster is also playing under a new head coach, which can take time to adjust to. A 2-1 record after all of these change should pump this team with a ton of confidence as they prepare for next week when the 2021 LCS Summer Split continues on Friday, June 2.

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