GAME 1
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Phase,RGP,TSM
Ban,Adagio,Catherine
1,Ardan,
2,,Skye
3,,Fortress
4,Taka,
5,Skaarf,
6,,Reim
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The first game started off with instant aggression on both sides – by the two minute mark, both teams had three kills each. TSM’s Reim and Fortress combo had intense early-game damage and tankiness, and Taka’s early-game can snowball into a victory in the right hands. However, despite being held off at first, TSM’s superior mechanics and target focus allowed MICSHE’s Reim to invade aggressively and steal a lot of Taka’s jungle farm, preventing him from getting the early advantage and snowballing. From there, TSM executed teamfights flawlessly, pushing turret after turret – Rage Pinger’s first turret went down just after the 8-minute mark, and just four minutes later at 12:00, RGP only had one turret left. TSM finished the game off at 14:00 in a dominant first game.
Result: TSM: 1 RGP: 0
GAME 2
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Phase,TSM,RGP
Ban,Catherine,Skye
1,Adagio,
2,,Ardan
3,,Skaarf
4,Ozo,
5,Fortress,
6,,Krul
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Despite seeing very little play in North American public matches, Alliance picked up an Ozo as their second pick in a surprise buff-the-Ozo comp. RGP showed some strength in the early-game, but by the mid-game, Ozo’s Three-Ring Circus (which has three auto-attacks) in combination with Adagio’s Agent of Wrath was completely deleting TheBigDog’s Skaarf, making him a nonfactor in fights. Ozo’s insane stickiness when paired with a Fortress kept TheBigDog either dead or too afraid to participate in fights, and though 12tacos12’s Krul was strong, it ultimately wasn’t enough to hold TSM off. At 15:30 TSM buffed themselves up with infusions, took Kraken, and then pushed to the win.
Result: TSM: 2 RGP: 0
TSM, formerly Alliance, boasted an extremely strong showing tonight, dominating both games in the series while playing innovative team compositions. TSM flexed their muscles by demonstrating their incredibly deep hero pools, fielding a seldom-played Reim in the first game and a never-played Ozo in the second. An incredibly gifted team both cerebrally and mechanically, it’s not hard to see why TSM is the number one seed coming in.
Vainglory streamer, ShinKaigan, interviews TSM roam player, FlashX.