To no one’s surprise, TSM has made it to the finals. This marks their tenth consecutive qualifier for the finals – no easy record – but only three teams have ever taken the title of best in the NA LCS. The question now is if this IMT roster is more superior than their premier roster – a split that had them win an amazing 17 games in a row.

But even with the excitement of the finals bubbling up, Worlds is on the horizon, and the third place match between CLG and DIG will make it that much easier for those teams to try and make it to the grand stage. So the matches here aren’t just about North America, but are a setup for the much larger matches to come.

FINALS 3rd place match: counter logic gaming vs team dignitas

DIG and CLG share a weakness and a strength – decisiveness. Both teams believe in making a bold decision and sticking to it, but where DIG has done remarkably well with it most split, CLG has not. CLG has continually followed through on bad decisions that have thrown leads or even entire games. However, DIG has also started to show their own flaws. TSM completely dismantled them – even decimating them in their most comfortable composition, and many of their decisive calls felt more like desperate calls.

If CLG hopes to win, they have to compete against their own over eagerness to engage as well as shoring up their defenses against power supports. This will mark the third series in a row against extremely competent supports, perhaps the second best in NA, so it’s not like things are going to get easier.

What to expect:

CLG’s weaknesses are obvious. DIG will more than likely target Omargod as the weak link (which he is as a rookie) and probably bottom lane as well. Even an untrained professional can see that CLG’s bottom lane is struggling against power supports, so we can expect this to be an uphill battle against DIG.

Huhi and Darshan may be a path forward, however. DIG failed to target TSM mid laner Bjergsen with bans and paid the price. CLG has been a much better drafting squad than DIG has – Darshan has cleverly tricked picks that he counters in the past – and Huhi is a dark horse mid laner, often drawing from his enormous and diverse champion pool to surprise and decimate enemies. If DIG underestimates either of these lanes from CLG, it will cost them dearly.

finals: TEAM SOLO MID VS immortals

If history will be any indication, then we are already looking towards TSM. Of ten NA LCS finals, TSM has won half. If they win this split, that will put them at 6 of 10 finals won. That will be three times higher than any other team (those teams being CLG and C9). IMT, on the other hand, came into the NA LCS with the most impressive winning streak in the history of the region but faltered when teams started to see through their seemingly invincible lineups. With a seven game winning streak behind them, IMT is looking fairly invincible again.

But just as before, a close inspection of IMT or TSM will see weaknesses. Even against the best lineup TSM has ever had, DIG won a solid victory by out CCing them and pressuring them on objectives like Baron. IMT, on the other hand, only won their first game to CLG because of poor decision making on CLG’s part. Unfortunately for IMT, TSM plays a much more controlled game, and it’s unlikely that they will make the same reckless dives that defined the CLG games. The victory here will be determined by which team can better strategize against the few flaws that have surfaced in the playoffs.

What to expect:

The Bjergsen hype train is going to be noisily roaring through this entire Finals Series. That isn’t to say that Bjergsen isn’t talented, but several weeks back when he faced P1’s Ryu, he only marginally beat him on CS while Ryu was much better at roaming and asserting himself across the map. But if Pobelter tries to beat Bjergsen in laning, he may have a tough time. Bjergsen’s fundamentals are up to par with his hype, but his overall presence, roaming, and pressure is a flaw in his style and one which Pobelter could try to exploit.

Considering TSM’s struggles with Adrian, we expect Olleh to be a heavy factor in these games. He is most likely the strongest support this split, and he has consistently harassed and saved his team much to the detriment of his enemies.

However, TSM has showed much better team fighting and unity. In IMT’s series against CLG, a play that should have cost Pobelter his life was narrowly avoided by a roaming Olleh, but we later found out neither of these players had communicated this strategy. Olleh’s skill averted a disaster, but it shows a huge flaw in their cohesion. On that front, TSM has done vastly better as a solid unit. We’ll have to see if IMT have shaped up their form for this finals match.