Team Liquid vs Team SoloMid: By the Numbers

NA, like Europe, likes to bring down its leaders quickly.

Team Liquid learned from their Saturday game and put it all into action in their game against TSM.  Team Liquid was able to secure objectives early, controlling Dragon for the entire game and bringing down the outer layer of towers by 15 minutes.  TSM kept making little mistakes, and Team Liquid would capitalize on them.  However, once Team Liquid finally cracked into TSM's base just before 39 minutes, the game took an interesting turn.

With most of their turrets down and their base wide open, TSM rallied and fought off wave after wave of super minions for the next 14 minutes.  It was as though things started to click for them.  However, in the end the damage Team Liquid (and the minions) had managed to exact from TSM's base proved too much to bear.

Dyrus has a really rough start.

1.  What's up with Dyrus?  This isn't the first game in the last few weeks that we've seen Dyrus struggle in the early game.  Granted, the pressure Quas brought to the table was impressive (more on that later), but Quas cannot be blamed for those missed Equalizers.  He struggled to catch up, and was really only starting to bring Rumble to bear after Team Liquid had already broken through the Inhibitors.  Dyrus has managed to perform quite well on tanky top laners in the past (Maokai, Sion, even Rumble), but he's been having a rough time with these recent picks.  Perhaps Santorin needs to spend a little less time helping Bjergsen get rolling, and a little more time helping Dyrus.

The cleanse followed up by the stun that set up the Pentakill.

2.  Bjergsen's cleanse.  This is a point for both teams--Team Liquid identified and thoroughly focused one of the major damage threats of TSM, and TSM had a backup plan.  The Summoner Spell proved invaluable in a number of late game team fights that allowed TSM to lay down a massive amount of damage (typically in the form of WildTurtle).  However, on the other side of the coin, Team Liquid was consistent with their initiation--lock down Bjergsen, then focus on the rest of the team.  This strategy gained them victories at Dragon, and later again at Baron.

Now that's a smite steal.

3.  IWDominate is a real threat.  He did well in his game against Winterfox, but he did even better initiating in this game (not to mention his Baron steal).  Again, he averaged over 12k damage per death.  He's going to be a jungler to watch over this next year.

Quas will let none escape.

4.  Quas is bringing something new to the top lane.  Season 4 ended with the rise of the tank top laner.   Dyrus exemplifies this sort of top laner, one who plays a pretty passive lane and brings a solid front line later for team fights.  Quas, though, likes to get into the fray and do a healthy bit of damage besides.  In this match, he took more damage than IWDominate and returned about 45% of the damage he took.

Don't let the triple kill fool you--this is the rocket that secures the Pentakill.

5.  WildTurtle proves, again, that he's ridiculous on an ADC.  If WildTurtle had started rolling a bit earlier in the game, we would have seen a dynamically different game.  Between him and Bjergsen, TSM has a solid damage component.  Like many other teams, Team Liquid underestimated WildTurtle's ability to turn around a fight (but probably never again after that Pentakill).  This balance is what gives TSM such an edge over other teams--whenever you shut down one (either Bjergsen or WildTurtle), you've always got the other to worry about.

Team Liquid storms the enemy base with the borrowed Baron buff.

6.  Team Liquid's got the objective control.  At least, up to the Nexus towers.  In this game, they completely controlled objectives from the beginning.  They took all 11 towers, 7 dragons, and 2 barons.  TSM was completely throttled and was only able to take the outer ring of towers.  Up until breaking into TSM's base, Team Liquid was looking exceptional in their rotations.  This play style is the sort that will lend itself well to competing on the global level.

We could always use seeing that Pentakill again.

What could have been done differently?  TSM really needs to extend the support to Dyrus in the top lane.  They rely heavily on getting Bjergsen and WildTurtle rolling, but pushing so heavily for their carries while leaving their frontline to fend for himself will ensure this happens again and again.  Team Liquid, on the other hand, has done wonderful things with their focus.  If they want to win again, they'll need to keep up the pressure on Bjergsen, and make sure to introduce some focus on WildTurtle.

Other interesting statistics:

• Team Liquid hunted more as a team, averaging 3.9 teammates at every kill.  TSM didn't do too badly either, with 3.1 present at every kill.

• Santorin had a ridiculous 100% Kill Participation throughout the match.  2nd place was Lustboy with 95%, and 3rd KEITH with 87%.

• IWDominate was a really effective tank in this match, earning himself a 1.7 on the scale.  2nd place at 1.14 was Santorin, followed by Quas at 1.11.

• WildTurtle gave much more hurt than he took with 1.94.  2nd place was KEITH at 1.7, and 3rd Bjergsen at .99.