It wasn't supposed to be this hard for Team SoloMid. Not at the Mid-Season Invitational in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Not against the GIGABYTE Marines.
And yet, here we are. In the most unexpected series of the tournament so far, the North American hopefuls pulled off a reverse sweep against an explosive and dynamic Vietnamese team. With the win, TSM secured a spot in the main event next week in Rio de Janeiro.
The first game kicked off with TSM showing little respect during a risky jungle invade. TSM paid the price by handing over first blood to Marines. From there, it was the Marines' show. Duy Khanh "Levi" Do dictated the pace of the game on Kha'Zix by snowballing leads, picking up kills across the map and pocketing towers and drakes. The tipping point was when Marines snuck a baron at 29:50 and followed with a quadrakill on TSM. The game closed out at 32:18, with Levi posting an impressive 9/1/7 KDA (kills/deaths/assists).
Game 2 saw history repeat itself, this time with Levi's Kha'Zix going aggressive early in the enemy jungle. Instead of disengaging with the stolen blue buff, Levi got greedy and grabbed a kill on Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen. Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg's Syndra was around to stop the Kha'Zix snowball before it could begin. As both teams traded reckless kills throughout the mid game, TSM stuck to the plan: focus on dragons and towers. But despite its best attempts, TSM constantly found itself on the losing end of teamfights. Give Marines an inch, and they take a mile. That was exactly how Game 2 ended.
In the third game of the series, Marines' early game went on the fritz, with Levi feeding his Graves and double buffs to Jason "WildTurtle" Tran. Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell's Gragas picked up two easy solo-kills, outclassing his lane opponent Cong Minh "Stark" Phan. That lead continued as Gragas transformed into an unbreakable brick wall. On every part of the map, TSM had control and coordination. It hit back with a revenge win to push the score line to 2-1.
Levi's Graves and Van Cuong "Optimus" Tran's Fizz picked up first blood on Bjergsen's Orianna in Game 4. TSM fell behind early while the Marines picked up towers across the map. Successful rotations encouraged the Marines to go for a risky endgame near the 25-minute mark. It was here that TSM turned the tides in a base defense that took Marines out in one fell swoop. After a Baron and another successful teamfight, TSM evened up the series 2-2 and took the match to the final game.
In Game 5, the pace slowed. Marines picked up first blood on a mispositioned WildTurtle around 12 minutes in. A messy teamfight in the bot lane at the 17-minute mark left TSM in shambles while Marines continued picking up Infernal Drakes and objectives. Svenskeren stepped up in the mid game, flashing into dragon pit blind, stealing the dragon and winning a teamfight to put TSM back in the game and the tournament. Several Barons later, TSM sieged up Marines' base and the Nexus turret and can now turn its attention to Rio.