TSM Starts 0-2: Time to Overreact? Absolutely

Let’s recap week one of LCS. DIG is 2-0 as expected (not), Soaz looks more tilted after a victory than a defeat and side-laning is still a myth in the LCS. All things considered, nothing too out of the ordinary for North America, the premier League of Legends region in the world. Before that gets misconstrued as a legitimate statement, that’s a joke.

There is one interesting development which is TSM’s 0-2 start. Now it’s easy for fans to look at a win-loss record after one week and grab their pitchforks. And it’s often at this time where analysts and writers will remind fans that now is not the time to overreact. Well, this is not one of those times. Overreact away because TSM deserve it.

New roster additions of Dardoch, Kobbe, Biofrost, and coach Peter Zhang were heralded as TSM’s next great attempt at a super team. Every position is filled to the brim with mechanically talented, experienced players. And somehow with all of that going for them and an extra month-long boot camp, they still find themselves unable to transition significant gold leads in the early game into wins in the mid/late-game. It may just be the first week and it may be a new line-up but this is a historical trend for TSM that LCS viewers have grown way too accustomed to.

Anyone whose been following the North American league scene for a while understands TSM’s historical, let's call it “lack of refinement” in the world of macro. TSM’s most effective rosters have come as a result of decisive voices like Doublelift making split-second decisions where the team would often waver. But apart from those few periods in time, the franchise has always maintained issues with playing the macro game out from start to finish. TSM’s LCS winning rosters relied far more on mechanical superiority and clutch plays over the opposition to get the job done. That will no longer cut it in the LCS. The talent in the LCS has levelled-up significantly over the last few seasons and TSM doesn’t have the definitive best players in every role anymore. Coordination, map movements, and proactivity are more important to team success than ever before and TSM’s lack of results over the past few seasons is an indication of what they lack in those areas.

TSM also doesn’t have an excuse for their deficiencies in the mid/late macro game. As mentioned previously, while a team like Team Liquid was struggling to get a visa for their new jungler, TSM was boot camping. They played a TL with a sub-jungler in Shernfire who’d scrimmed with the team for less than a week. TSM took advantage, putting Doublelift down 0-2 and effectively shutting down TL’s star player for the remainder of the game. At least that's what most teams would do. Instead, TSM allowed TL to freeze the lane for multiple waves, allowing Doublelift to not only catch-up to Kobbe but completely dwarf him by the conclusion of the game. And how about that IMT game? TSM had a 2700 gold advantage at 13 minutes. 35 minutes later, TSM had close to the same gold advantage. The team’s inability to press their early game advantage, especially with side-lane management allowed what should’ve been a 30-minute TSM win into a 60-minute fiesta that only NA can produce.

Inexperience is not an excuse either. Bjergsen in particular, their franchise stalwart, has lived through all the iterations of TSM’s mind-boggling, do-nothing-and-slowly-die play styles. He knows better than anyone the issues the team has faced in the past and yet almost every year, its the same story. And importantly, it’s the same story for the most storied franchise in the LCS. A team with all the resources they need. A team that’s had more analysts than they know what to do with.

It’s more than possible that TSM can turn it around in the next couple of weeks. After all, it’s only the first week. But they’ve had more than enough time to work on this issue, both during this off-season and during years past. If they can’t show better performances against a compromised TL and a likely lower-half LCS team in IMT, how much hope is there going forward? It’s not over for TSM but overreact away.