Normally I wouldn't just pick TSM, but IMO I can't find a better example of how a single pick sets the game for a single team. Not meaning that the game is already won in champion select, but that a single pick can get into your mind, making you play poorly.

So let's start with the champion select of SHRC vs TSM on day 1.


Bans were pretty standard. SHRC focused completely on top lane (altough the Nidalee ban wasn't necessary, since Dyrus doesn't play it) while TSM focused on player champions (Corn's Fizz - Insec's Lee Sin - Uzi Lucian). Ban phase didn't favour anyone.

However SHRC first pick set the whole champion select in their favor. In a meta where Assassin's like Zed or Ahri are being played to huge success, Zilean is the perfect counter to that. His bombs blast you early game and once you try to assassinate him post 6 his ulti counters completely your whole damage. When SHRC picked him, the champion select was swong in favor of SHRC. Why? Because TSM had two choices with that pick:

Option 1: Pick Zed (or any other assassin) and try to get fed with camping or pick ups away from Zilean and avoid teamfights without forcing the Zilean Ult and then reengage with the ult down for him (for that, the team comp should be focused with multiple ways of engage).

Option 2: Don't pick an assassin, go for a safe laner (like Orianna) and hope that Zilean goes from a mid pick to a support pick (so that his impact gets slightly reduced in terms of damage).

Option 1 is too risky to choose in a professional level (especially between these two teams). Picking an assassin against a Zilean and hope to get picks is not worth when a Zilean mid counters the whole damage that a assassin can do to a single target (because Chronoshift). If Zed gets countered hard, then there is one less treath to deal with. Even if they have more ways of engage, one disengage champion can counter that strat.

Option 2 is a more logical pick, but then again, Zilean can be put in a support role opening ways to a Zed or Ahri pick, making it a lose-lose situation (especially in teamfights, since an assassin can go in, get focused but having a Chronoshift makes an assassin twice as dangerous, since he can still do damage after an all-in).

What should TSM do here?

Not pick the mid laner so early with that Zilean pick. TSM should wait to pick his mid laner in the last pick, when SHRC has the full team unfolded, maiing a counterpick to their midlane then. First pick should be any other laner that not mid.

What did TSM did?

They took the bait and picked Zed followed by Ryze. Altough Bjergsen is a very good Zed player, there's not much you can do against a Zilean who can deny you kills if you enter with Death Mark on a target. After this, the champion select was completely in favor of SHRC. They had the mid and top laner known, so they could pick according to that. Zilean offered them a very safe pick without showing too much of their strategy.
To top it of, TSM picked Nami. Altough Nami is a very strong support, they should deny Janna from SHRC, since that pick offers even more counter to Ryze and Zed. Janna is a strong disengage champion, forcing Ryze and Zed to enter two times to be in range to do damage to the targets in a teamfight (not only that, but her shield and ult denies even more the damage input). With that, TSM could find an opening for Zed to pick off someone from separating him from the team with Monsoon.

IMO I never saw such a weak judgment in terms of picks by TSM. They should've waited to pick their mid laner and work around that. Their first picks totally backfired them, and in game it was shown that a Zilean+ Janna combo can destroy Zed and Ryze.

Onto the 2nd Game:



Pretty focused bans in this game. SK banned 3 champions that could carry while TSM focused completely on Freddy. The bans were expected.

In the champion select, SK first picked Kha'Zix which Svenskeren can play pretty well, while TSM locked in Maokai and Janna focusing completely on teamfights with those picks ( Maokai can engage and Janna can disengage if things don't go as planned). However the second pick by SK threw TSM offguard. Swain was picked. TSM never saw it in the LCS, so they didn't know what to do against it. They tought that Swain was a counterpick to Maokai (IMO if it is, is with Nevermove landind on Maokai before he can engage). This signle pick didn't cost the game for TSM, but it result in poor decisions by them (without taking credit to SK in any way) which lead into their loss. Diving Swain over and over again while Vayne was getting farm with no fight back and getting splitpush without an proper answer by TSM was probably the most noticed not only by the analyst desk, but by some viewers on the streams. Since TSM didn't know what to expect agains a Swain their plan was to shut him down constantly to keep him away from getting an impact (in one of their attempts to do so, they gave a double kill to Nyph's Morgana which tells how bad they wanted Swain to be down). In the end it came to a teamfight where all those towerdives didn't matter. Vayne and Kha'Zix got the fight they wanted, and TSM lost dued to a chain of bad decision that lead to bigger bad decisions.

I'm not saying that I hate TSM (altough I do not like them) or that I think they are dumb. They should have been more patient, more able to judge situations and adapt to them instead of just shutting down without caring for the other lanes or straight up picking the worst comp possible against a Zilean. These kinds of mistakes in competitive play may cost you titles (in this case, these mistakes cost them a tiebreaker vs. SHRC that could have flowed into a quarter final bo5 vs EDG instead of SSW). Not being a fan does not mean that I can't see things clearly.


Do you see another option to the picks? What could TSM do in those situations? What would you do if you were in this situation in competitive play? Tell me.