Curse had mentioned how hard they had been working on early game dominance, and it showed here in this game. What made this game interesting was how TSM dealt with the cards being in Curse’s hands. After a few minutes, TSM was able to stand back up on two feet and not let Curse go for the takedown again- it would be TSM turning the tides in the mid to late game that would put Curse on the defensive, which is not where their strengths lie.

The Good:

Curse’s early game dominance

As mentioned before, Curse rose up to the occasion in the early part of this game, establishing what looked like a technique practiced a thousand time- if Team Solomid were to try and trade their bottom towers for Curse’s top towers, Curse knew their composition would allow them the faster exchange and proximity to the Dragon- which they would take the first of the game absolutely uncontested, without losing a single turret to TSM.

With the superior tower taking composition, Curse outpaces TSM heavily.

Curse secures an early dragon after having taken two towers for none.

Bjergsen’s Nidalee

Bjergsen can safely crown himself the King of Bestial Huntresses. If it wasn’t for Bjergsen’s force of will in this game, I strongly believe that Curse could have tilted the win in their favor. In one of Curse’s only attempts to take hard objectives away from the hands of TSM, Bjergsen ran interference completely alone, allowing the rest of his team time to heal and re-group. In fact, the only reason Team Solomid was able to make a come-back this game was due to Bjergsen’s insane play in the bottom lane, it was as if every member of Curse had targeting beacons attached to their champions and Nidalee’s spears couldn’t miss even if thrown out of the map. Bjergsen won the MVP for this game in many-a-books.

Bjergsen runs interference against Curse with poise.

TSM chases Curse down after a pick off of BunnyFuFu for an unofficial Quadra by Bjergsen.

The Bad:

TSM’s Team synergy

This was a weird, sloppy week for TSM. They managed a few victories but showed some complacency or lack of motivation- whatever it was, they weren’t the Team Solomid from the start of the split. In many team fights they were scattered and seemingly disorganized- some members seemed more prime to engage than others, and overall it felt as though their team synergy was off kilter. At one moment before the tides changed, TSM found Curse in their blue side jungle, but could not collapse properly and found themselves hesitating, scattered and ultimately lost a team fight four for nothing.

Theoddone goes hard onto BunnyFuFu but finds that his team has been scattered.

No follow ups for FuFu

I believe part of Curse’s plan was for Thresh to make plays in the mid to late game, using this champion as the primary method to open up picks. With champions like Elise and Leblanc, Thresh fit naturally into the composition. However, very few Thresh hooks were followed up successfully- the one’s that were followed up in the mid to late game were disastrous for Curse. Engaging on clean hooks followed by Leblanc or Elise CC is deadly for any team composition to deal with. And Bunnyfufu’s Thresh hooks were as clean as they get- it was the follow ups that were unaware, unfocused and very late.

Thresh hooks were a plenty this game, but Curse could not properly capitalize.

The Ugly:

Curse’s Plan for Mid and Late Game

Curse seemed lost for most of the game after the 12 minute mark. They knew they had a pick composition – they just didn’t know where and when to pick, it’s as if their minds gassed out early. There was also the fear of Bjergsen- he had been hitting spears impressively and shoving more than one champion off at a time, it seemed like Curse did not have the confidence in their sieging mechanics to really go toe-to-toe with TSM.

Curse secures an early dragon after having taken two towers for none.

Conclusion

This game had all the elements needed for a spectacle soup, but it looked more like a game of frustration and surprises from both sides. Both teams had their own seperate times to shine, but ultimately this was because of one’s lack of coordination for the latter and the other’s lack of preparation for the earlier stage of the game.