The storied matchup between the NA LCS’ Team SoloMid and Counter Logic Gaming has been called a lot of names: Goliath vs. Goliath, the Salt Wars, and many, many others. Whatever you call the rivalry, it’s always a bloodbath — and the Week 2 Summer Split game between the two squads was no different. After the match, we caught up with TSM’s AD carry Jason “WildTurtle” Tran to break down the most important moments from the big game.

Getting Ahead Early

Things were going well for TSM before they even stepped foot on the Rift. Their team composition of Gnar, Rek’Sai, LeBlanc, Sivir, and Bard was planned in a way that if TSM could last to the late game, they’d be in a prime position to win. “I do think our team [composition] was better,” WildTurtle says. “CLG did have the better laners for bottom lane, but if we were able to survive it and just play around Dyrus’ Teleport, then we should be able to come back at Level 6, and that was our game plan.”

He continues, “LeBlanc is just overall a really strong champion. I think we had a priority jungler, the better mid, a decent bot lane, and a priority top. So we had priority lanes in three roles which was pretty big.”

Not to mention the crowd pleasing Bard pick from TSM’s support Jang-sik “Lustboy” Ham. “It’s one of Lustboy’s favorite picks, he always wants to play it,” Turtle says of his lane partner with a smile. “It worked really well!”

That’s for sure. Along with the rest of TSM, WildTurtle headed bottom early in the game for a five-man gank on CLG’s Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng and Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black. “Bjergsen had priority on their mid laner Azir and then Dyrus had Teleport over Maokai, so it was a really free play if bottom was able to push up,” WildTurtle explains. “So we just pushed up and dove them.”

He explains how the play was also critical for getting himself ahead of Doublelift. “When you get a big lead on Kalista as Sivir, you can basically do whatever you want as Sivir. And Sivir is a better late game champion because she builds crit items where Kalista builds attack speed items and life steal, so if Sivir ever gets ahead on Kalista, then you basically win the game. This play basically allowed Sivir to win the game.”

A Shaky Mid Game

But it wasn’t over just like that. CLG fought hard through the mid game, taking out Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg’s LeBlanc mid just after Eugene “Pobelter” Park fell to WildTurtle. They followed it up by taking a Magical Journey into TSM’s bottom-side jungle to finish off Sivir, but instead of safely retreating, they were shut down for trying to steal TSM’s Blue Buff.

“Dyrus just got his Mega Gnar, and they got really greedy for our Blue,” says WildTurtle. “Dyrus was able to get a good Gnar ult and just clean up here. It was basically them overstaying their welcome, and they got punished for it.”

TSM held CLG off for a bit, until another massacre broke out in the mid lane only a few minutes later. This time around, CLG engaged at a critical moment when TSM’s high-impact abilities weren’t available. “Bjergsen used his big cooldowns and we were still trying to fight… And they had Azir who has very good sustained damage. Azir is going to be hitting you the whole time but LeBlanc can only do her combo and then she has to back off for a bit. We just had to play around LeBlanc’s cooldowns and that’s why we lost that fight pretty badly.”

He goes on to explain how TSM still had the outscaling composition, but the play allowed CLG to catch up. “They potentially could have won the game at this point, because Azir does really well against Sivir, because I have low range and he has long range. They also got Baron here. They could have potentially won, but they didn’t snowball hard enough with the Baron, and we just came back with Dragons.”

Storming through Late Game

By late game, TSM had secured four Dragons to CLG’s zero, and the advantages began piling up. When CLG went for a risky fight right outside of TSM’s base, they were once again punished by diving in too far. “ZionSpartan just Twisted Advanced back in, and we got a really good Bard ultimate on their backline with Doublelift caught in it,” says WildTurtle. The resulting ace put TSM in position to push down both CLG’s mid and bottom turrets, giving WildTurtle plenty of money to pick up a Blade of the Ruined King.

“It makes me the strongest champion in the game if I’m able to get all of my items, because [Sivir does] the highest consistent damage, and if I’m able to hit anyone on their team, I should be able to kill them really quick.”

And kill them he did. Rocking shiny new items and full health, TSM knocked down CLG’s top turret and took a quick Baron before their opponents were able to contest. With ZionSpartan falling first, WildTurtle was able to slice through the rest of CLG almost unthreatened, picking up additional kills on Aphromoo and Doublelift before Bjergsen cleaned up Pobelter. Bolstered by Baron buffs, TSM smashed through CLG’s base to once against come out on top against their rivals.

“It just feels like winning a bigger game,” WildTurtle says, leaning back in relief. “Like when we win against any other team it doesn’t feel as satisfying. But when we win against CLG is just feels a lot better.”

And what are they going to do now that it’s all over? “We just have to focus on not losing to them again, or ever!”