Echo Fox Lineup:
Colin “Solo” Earnest: Top Kennen (3)
James “Panda” Ding: Jungle Jarvan IV (2)
Kim “Fenix” Jae-Hun: Mid Zoe (2)
Apollo “Apollo” Price: Bot Tristana (3)
Nickolas “Hakuho” Surgent: Support Galio (1)
TSM Lineup:
Sergen “BrokenBlade” Celik: Top Ryze (4)
Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham: Jungle Sejuani (1)
Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg: Mid LeBlanc(3)
Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen: Bot Ezreal (1)
Andy “Smoothie” Ta: Support Alistar (2)
TSM split push to victory
Riding high on a four game win streak, TSM entered week six of LCS action as one of the hottest teams in the league. Standing in their way of extending that streak was an Echo Fox squad featuring a brand new jungler, Panda. For TSM, picking up this win was vital to further cement themselves at the top of the league while also putting distance between themselves and a large middle of the pack.
Both sides came out of the draft with strong scaling compositions, but where they differed was in play style. Echo Fox clearly wanted to look for the 5v5 team fight while TSM, as they have often during this win streak, opted to assemble a split pushing composition that allowed them to use their macro play to bleed opponents off the map.
Putting it mildly, the early game for TSM was rough. Largely thanks to the play of Panda, Echo Fox were consistently one step ahead of TSM, allowing them to have a 3,000 gold lead when the turret plates fell at 14 minutes. However, Echo Fox fell into a trap that TSM commonly found themselves in earlier in the season. Despite the strong early game, Echo Fox were unable to substantially snowball that advantage during the mid game. TSM defended well, constantly sending BrokenBlade into the side lanes to split push and alleviate pressure elsewhere on the map.
Although he ended the game with a 0/4/0 score line, BrokenBlade was arguably the most instrumental member to the TSM victory. At 34 minutes he nearly backdoored Echo Fox, but died before he and the late arriving Bjergsen could secure the last hits on the Nexus.
Regardless, the implications of that play all but sealed victory for TSM. Without Nexus Turrets, Echo Fox could scarcely leave their base, especially considering the constant pressure in the side lanes applied by BrokenBlade and Bjergsen. The game would drag on for another 16 minutes with TSM biding their time until Echo Fox eventually slipped and wilted under the cross map pressure of TSM.
With the victory, TSM extended their win streak to five and will look to keep the momentum going in an important match tomorrow with second placed Cloud9.
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