This has been one of the worst years for TSM in their history as an NA LCS team. Last split, they didn’t make it to the finals for the first time after a shoddy regular season. During the Summer Split so far, there have been several weeks where it looks like they wouldn’t even make it to the playoffs at all.
For the eighth week of competitive play, they beat both CLG and second-place 100 Thieves, ending 2-0 for the weekend. And suddenly, their shot at the playoffs is looking pretty good. It’s looking way better than it did last week, at least.
The remainder of TSM’s schedule only has one real threat—Team Liquid. While it’s true that OpTic have been on a bit of a tear lately, it’s hard to place a bet on them after seeing them for the first three-quarters of the split. Liquid, on the other hand, have proven time and time again that they’re the best team in the league, even though they don’t look quite as dominant so far as TSM did during their prime.
If we’ve learned anything from watching this season, though, it’s that schedules aren’t everything. We’ve seen the Golden Guardians, OpTic, CLG, and Clutch take down some of the best teams week after week, so the possibility that OpTic show up and upset TSM is still a strong one. If TSM can hold onto their performances from this weekend, though, they stand a chance.
TSM’s greatest issue this split has been that none of their players appear to be on the same page at any point during the game. During the laning phase, there’s disconnect between the jungle and mid, the bot and support, the top and the jungle—pretty much everywhere you look. From the outside, it appears to be a mixed issue of lacking trust and miscommunication. This weekend, though, they seem to be on the right path to fixing all of it.
Sure, there were still some issues, particularly during the mid-game against 100 Thieves, but they still looked significantly better. If they can hold onto the momentum and keep addressing those shortcomings, TSM might have a shot at redemption next month in the finals.
