The League of Legends starts the new season in 2020. A LCS match between the actual star team from the USA, Team Solo Mid, and Immortals turned into a nightmare for both teams. Over more than an hour, shockingly little happened.
This is the situation: Team Solo Mid, TSM, is actually one of the largest and most professional eSports teams in the world. Between 2014 and 2017, they won 5 out of 8 possible championships of League of Legends in the USA.
Before 2018, TSM decided to reassemble their team. The management broke up the core of a team that became US champions 3 times in a row. Since then, the team has been in a crisis.
Before 2020, this should change now. Again, TSM radically reshaped the roster. With
- the jungle talent Dardoch
- the return of veteran Biofrost as support
- the signing of a new ADC from Europe, Kobbe
- the development of young German top laner Broken Blade
- more power for star mid laner Bjergsen
should bring the turnaround.
Here’s how the game went: The match against “Immortals”, a mid-tier LCS team, lasted over 61 minutes. It was a match with few kills. In the end, it was only 9-9.
While jungler Dardoch died 5 times, TSM-ADC Kobbe managed to not die even once throughout the game.
Both teams were relatively even in gold until minute 55, with slight advantages for TSM, but then Immortals prevailed.
The game was marked by fear on both sides to seek the decisive fight and make a decision. Thus, Immortals missed significant advantages through Baron Buff or Elder Dragons.
In the end, a strange scene decided the match. A teamfight in front of TSM’s base was about to unfold, but Dardoch and Bjergsen avoided the fight and apparently wanted to flank. Dardoch died in the process. The teamfight did not take place.
2 players from Immortals broke through to the Nexus and destroyed it in seconds, without any decisive teamfight occurring.
Teams miss chance after chance
This is the reaction: The match is harshly criticized on Twitter and reddit. A fan even coined a term:
- Actually, the LCS is known for a “clown fiesta”, which refers to games where everyone just goes all out, ignoring any tactics
- However, this was a “clown siesta”, as players seemed to have taken a nap
In general, it is criticized that both teams put too little pressure. TSM also drafted poorly and had no pressure in the game at all.
The winners Immortals even apologized for taking so long.
Immortals were also confronted with criticism over why they didn’t finish the match with the Elder Dragon buff. The buff is supposed to be precisely for that. However, they casually handled this criticism on Twitter. A second dragon is “insurance.”
In the end, fans said on reddit: No one won the game, not even the fans.
The bitter part: In power rankings before the season, TSM was actually seen in 2nd place, only behind Team Liquid. Immortals, on the other hand, was placed in 9th place.
