1. Scared?
Doublelift: TSM is boosted
TSM: pick us I dare you
Doublelift: new phone who dis

I’m actually really excited for the extra bit of spice that’s been sprinkled into these Playoffs thanks to the player banter. It’s not like Doublelift hasn’t said anything provoking about the Spring Final rematch against 100, either. Picking between 100 and TSM wasn’t really about which team was weaker or stronger. 100 just has strengths that TL can mitigate much more easily than TSM’s strengths — notably the difference in mid lane between Bjergsen and Pobelter. So 100 is probably the better team, but TSM is the less favorable matchup. And if you’re paper, then you pick rock. TL is an organization that has experienced a ton of heartbreak in the past, and because the ticket to Worlds isn’t set in stone, I’m glad to see them take the matchup selection seriously. TL has only lost consecutive games once this split (even that was over two weeks) — I think they’re going to be incredibly difficult to knock out, and I just don’t think 100 has made enough strides to cover the gap between these two teams that was apparent not just in the Spring Finals, but also over the course of the regular season, where TL 2-0ed them. But also, yeah, sure, Doublelift is totally afraid of TSM.

2. A week off is a… good thing?
I bet you’re wondering if C9 spent their off week practicing or if they just played WoW the whole time. But what if I told you that playing WoW is practicing. One of the most important things come Playoffs for a team to have is consistency. That means an aptitude for routine. And what better game than WoW for that? It’s not like Jensen’s just going to sit in the practice tool all week timing his Ekko ultimates. C9 certainly looked like the strongest team in the league to end the regular season, but a week off can be pretty disrupting. When you’re rolling, you want to keep that momentum going. It’s like skipping a day of the gym, and then suddenly it’s a month and you’re ordering Papa John’s again even though you have some doubts about them. C9 can substitute players in if push comes to shove, but that seems more useful for individual player matchups against teams. TSM has played the same five players all split, though, and in an extended set, I’m just not sure how C9 would utilize substitutions. Especially with the meta being fairly standard now. I also just don’t really see a world in which they sub out Jensen for Goldenglue when Bjergsen is the opposing mid laner. So that leaves us with two pretty similar teams (though C9’s team play seems to be better) — an NA top, an EU mid, and a rookie jungler. What’s left is the bot lane — are Sneaky and Zeyzal better than Zven and mithy? If you’re a C9 fan, that’s going to be a scary question to answer. But the hope is they have the best macro play in the league — can they overwhelm TSM’s individual talent?

3. Hello, my name is TSM. You killed my father…
This season, TSM is like the Dread Pirate Roberts — their name alone strikes fear into opponents even if they haven’t been particularly dangerous. However, like the current Dread Pirate himself, they’re actually still pretty talented. They need to win the split outright or they’ll find themselves competing in the gauntlet for the first time in franchise history — that’s exciting if you’re someone who likes to watch a giant struggle. But for TSM fans, this continues to be a roller coaster of anxiety and the only therapy is winning. They squeezed by a FOX team that couldn’t even practice with their star top laner because he was sick. That’s not exactly a show of confidence. Now they’re tasked with taking on the hottest team in league, and while they’ve had C9’s number (it’s nine) in recent years, this time C9 is decidedly the favorite. Grig’s inexperience was a pain point for TSM in the set against FOX, but with a full five game series under his belt, I think he should be a little less rattled going into Semifinals. Plus, C9 has a whole bunch of rookies on their squad — that should negate any issues he had with his nerves. A win here resets the narrative for the playoffs, and TSM can pull a LeBron to prove to us the regular season doesn’t matter that much.

4. Seize the Ssumday
You know that dad who plays basketball with his kid and lets the kid win for a while? Maybe dad “accidentally” dribbles it off his foot or jacks a bunch of weird off-balance shots while screaming “Kobe!” But then the kid is finally one point away from winning and suddenly dad tightens his headband, bends his knee, and goes full Charles Barkley on them as he proceeds to decimate them with his overwhelming size advantage. That’s what 100 looked like against FLY. They’ve got that dad-bod vibe on lock. The most impressive part of the set for me was that they swept FLY without relying on Ssumday to hard carry them — like, yeah, he played well, but it wasn’t 1v9. 100 won with better late game shotcalling that bailed them out of two early deficits. For 100 fans, that’s great to know that if 100 can make it to late game, then they have a good shot of winning. But these comebacks also mean they’re falling into early deficits too often. TL will be much better at closing out games, and I think 100 absolutely cannot perform that poorly in the early game again. To me, this means prioritizing a counterpick for Ssumday in top lane — he needs to perform like the MVP if 100 hopes to win this.

5. Dardocked
Another strong start to a regular season followed by another playoff flop — that is the unfortunate reality for Huni’s tenure in the NA LCS thus far. His woes continued this year with FOX, though this time, that culminated in a 2-3 loss last weekend after he couldn’t practice with the team all week. That’s really just unfortunate timing — I could sit here and preach about how players should be mindful of their health, but sometimes these things just happen. From a mental standpoint, I think it’s good for FOX to be able to point at something completely out of their control as being the primary catalyst for their loss — that should give them a second wind going into the Gauntlet. Dardoch also played a strong series as he asserted his dominance over Grig, and if he can continue to deliver from the jungle, then FOX will be an extremely tough out in a five game set. I don’t think we should dwell on that set for too long, though — not having your superstar player at full health isn’t ever going to bode well for a team. The question here is if they can stay focused over the next couple of weeks. Also, make sure Huni only plays Gangplank so he can eat oranges for his health.

6. Bye, FLY
If you’ve ever played with a top laner who feeds first blood at level one but then goes back into lane and then immediately fights the person they just died to, then you’d know they just die again. Which is what happened when FLY ran it back in Game 2 of the set against 100 with the exact same champions on both sides. I don’t always disagree with that decision, but the only reason Game 1 was even close was because 100 spoonfed Santorin’s Nocturne three kills on a failed dive attempt. It was the perfect early game for Nocturne, and they still couldn’t execute, so how did they expect that to change in Game 2 when 100 had already seen the jungle pathing? Anyway, I think FLY did well to secure two early game advantages over 100, but they just couldn’t pull it together when it came to team coordination and macro movements around the map. That’s an extremely difficult thing to fix — it means your collective shotcalling and communication structure is failing you. And now that FLY’s season is officially over, you have to start asking if that’s something that can be taught or if some pieces need to change. And I will say that historically, there are few, if any, examples of an average team suddenly finding a magic switch without any roster changes.