TSM Clinch Playoffs Spot with Akali Pick

The last game of the regular season was a must win match for TSM, with a victory allowing them to advance to the playoffs for the NA LCS Summer Split. While a loss today was not necessarily the end of their season, their dominant victory over Team Liquid certainly helped get them into the right mindset as they prepare for another day of tie-breaker matches to determine overall seeding. Here’s a brief breakdown of the match.

(Editors Note: The thumbnail for the official highlight package is incorrect, but the video is accurate.)

Team Liquid actually started out as the dominant team, claiming first blood in the bot lane before a return attack allowed them to pick up more kills and the first Dragon of the match. When Team Liquid tried once again to attack the bot lane, an unfortunate series of events transpired to keep them from claiming any kills, and when TSM mid-laner Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg roamed down he was able to pick up two crucial kills for himself, getting rolling with his champion, the recently reworked assassin Akali.

It didn’t take long for Bjergsen to showcase his skill at the champion, as TSM won another team fight to claim the second Dragon of the match while Bjergsen picked up another three kills. While Team Liquid did continue to fight back, it quickly became apparent that this match would come down to a battle between the star players, with Bjergsen facing off against Team Liquid bot laner Yiliang "Peter" "Doublelift" Peng.

It seemed that no matter what Team Liquid did, they could not find a way to deal with Bjergsen’s Akali, as he continued to threaten the back line in every team fight. TSM moved to claim the first Baron of the game after another successful team fight and used this power to aggressively shove multiple lanes at the same time, breaching the defenses of Team Liquid to take down the first inhibitor of the game.

After more posturing, TSM managed to bait Team Liquid into another fight at the Baron pit, where a risky skirmish came out in favor of TSM as they claimed the Baron buff and wiped Team Liquid from the map. From there it was just a relatively short fight before TSM were able to once again take down Team Liquid and close out the match to secure their spot in the playoffs.

For more League of Legends action, check out the match recaps from yesterdays games, here, and for more information on the tie-breaker series for playoff seeding, check out the official schedule page, here.