They’ve done it again.

Team SoloMid punished Counter Logic Gaming throughout the North American LCS Game of the Week. Following TSM’s fourth straight win against their rival in the 2015 Season, head coach Yoonsup “Locodoco” Choi and game-changing support Jang-sik “Lustboy” Ham let us in on TSM’s pulverizing performance.

Falling into place

“I thought the draft went really well,” Locodoco says, explaining how TSM’s game plan was centered around the Emperor of Shurima. “We were either going to do an Azir comp or a counter-Azir comp.”

TSM got their hands on strong initiating champions with Alistar and Jarvan IV, and finished off the comp with massive damage-dealers in Azir, Rumble, and Tristana. “Usually when you pick Tristana you have problems mid game. But because Azir, Rumble, Jarvan, and Alistar are all really strong mid-game champions, it smooths out your curve scaling into the late game.”

Lustboy agreed. “I liked our team comp,” he says with a smile. “After we finished our draft I thought, ‘We are going to win.'” With a mid-game team fight composition designed to trap, stomp, and cook CLG, TSM were constantly on the lookout for opportunities to engage. And an overly eager Xmithie was their first victim.

“We were like, ‘Are we gonna fight? Are they gonna fight? Are we gonna fight?'” says Lustboy. “[The kill] didn’t change anything, but we were kind of happy to get ahead in the early game.”

TSM normally seem content to sit on early leads, but not today. They matched CLG’s early aggression as they beat down their opponents outer ring of turrets in only six minutes. Without any other objectives to go for, TSM began invading CLG’s jungle to steal the ever-important Blue Buff from Eugene “Pobelter” Park’s Kog’Maw.

“Until he hits level 11 with Luden’s, Kog’Maw not having Blue Buff is really big,” says Locodoco. The Void pup’s biggest damage spike comes at Level 11 with Luden’s Echo, so denying early Blue Buffs from Pobelter forced him to reach that spike much slower than usual, on top of the fact that TSM was frustratingly controlling his side of the jungle.

“He has to be careful of dives and can’t be as aggressive,” Locodoco explains. “And it also allows Bjergsen to get a [creep score] lead on him.” According to TSM’s coach, the way they handled the early game was fine. “But after that, WildTurtle swapping bottom again instead of us staying top side and making more plays top side and having Dyrus play safe was actually wrong. So our early game started well, and then we declined a bit,” he says.

The first fight that caught TSM off guard was at Dragon around 24 minutes. As Lustboy heroically charged into the excited hands of four members of CLG, he didn’t actually think it was the wrong play.

“Basically we wanted to team fight there and Bjergsen needed someone to engage, so I thought I was able to engage. I think I did fine,” but as other members of TSM were still making their way to the scuffle after he’d already initiated, they weren’t able to team fight. “It was pretty bad,” Lustboy says.

One combo to rule them all

Maybe so. But Team SoloMid certainly redeemed themselves ahead of the next Dragon fight.

With ward vision of CLG over the wall at mid, Lustboy baited a Death Sentence (Q) from Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black’s Thresh, knowing most of the enemy team was waiting on the other side. He used Unbreakable Will (R) to get out of the Thresh hook and subsequently landed a Headbutt (W) and Pulverize (Q) to knock up four members of CLG while Jarvan, Rumble, and Azir immediately followed him up, resulting in an utterly devastating combo that still didn’t leave Lustboy impressed.

“I actually felt bad after that play for our team,” he says. “I thought we were going to get a quadra kill there. I thought we were going to kill four people, but because some people lived, I was like, ‘Oh damn, we misplayed that.'”

“Afterwards I thought, ‘Oh, playmaking with this comp is really easy…’ and CLG’s tilted, so it’s going to be pretty easy from this point onward,” says Lustboy. “And yeah, it was easy.”

Not that he thinks CLG ever gave up, it was just easier for TSM to make plays because the team fight had put them ahead. After scooping up a Baron buff and picking off a squishy Pobelter, TSM cautiously began working on the slow and steady destruction of CLG’s base. “I think they should have played the early game much better, and maybe, played team fights better,” Lustboy says of his competition. “But I think that’s it.”

And with CLG’s Nexus destroyed once again, Lustboy was pleased with his teammates. “I was really proud of what my team did. We were kind of behind early game, and no one tilted from that. And in terms of communication it was very good this game,” he says.

As for his own performance? “I think I did okay this game. I’m happy with how I did.”

Getting the best of CLG isn’t exactly new for Team SoloMid, but it still feels nice! “Beating CLG is always a good feeling, regardless of how well they do,” says Locodoco. “It’s a grudge match through and through.” On top of that, Locodoco walked away with a few personal victories. “Seeing our mid-game play and end-game play improve is reassuring, and watching players implement things we practiced in scrims makes me proud.”

With their win over Counter Logic Gaming, Team SoloMid once again stands tall at 1st Place in the North American LCS.