No team has inspired such single-minded and raucously vocal devotion as perennial Twitch chat darlings TSM. A deserved early reputation as the brash, loud-mouthed nerdbros of North America has evolved into one of a more mild-mannered but enduringly popular team whose trademark aggressive play often dictates the pace of their games. While the recklessness of their play has been scaled back along with their personalities following Reginald’s retirement, TSM remains capable of the go-for-broke gambits that thrill fans and brought them to prominence. Team Coast, their week 6 opponents, employ a style reminiscent of an unrefined TSM, relying heavily on the aggressive play of their solo lane carries, ZionSpartan in particular. While even the most frantic NA games can’t compare to the absolute bloodbaths that the Chinese scene is known for, the 45 kills in this week’s TSM v CST are a testament to how quickly kills can rack up when trigger happy teams clash. Unfortunately for TSM, the volatility that constant risk-taking introduces into a game turned against them. A series of tactical misplays resulting from overaggression and greed put CST in strong position to claw their way to a victory despite good efforts by TSM to stabilize their situation in the late game. TSM should not have lost to CST on paper, and this defeat should serve as a reminder that no team can completely dispose of caution and expect that being the better overall team excuses them from the need to make intelligent decisions.

TSM went hard from the word “Go,” as TheOddOne solo invaded CST’s Red Buff and refused to back down after being seen despite his solo laners not being in position to assist. He was inevitably collapsed upon by CST’s mid laner and jungler, giving up a pointless first blood in a textbook case of fatal greed.



In what would become a recurring theme, a successful pick-off against Bjergsen saw the teams head into the first Dragon fight with a 4v3 advantage for CST. Aware that CST had burned three ults to kill Bjergsen, TSM took a calculated risk with an outstanding 3v4 engage that melted everyone but Wizfujin with a three man Tibbers stun setting up a round trip Boomerang Blade and fully channeled Heartseeker Strike.



The resulting 2-for-1 and Dragon reset was a best case scenario for TSM that swung the gold lead into their favor, exemplifying the positive outcomes that such manly play can seize. However, in keeping with the overambitious precedent set at CST’s first Red, TSM overcommitted to their posturing when CST went right back to Dragon. They split their bot lane and remaining members on opposite sides of the pit, giving CST a strong opportunity to engage on either half. CST pulled the trigger with a Leona ult on Bjergsen and TheOddOne to take three unanswered kills as well as the Dragon.



TSM’s poor positioning around the Dragon should have forced them to attempt other objectives or wait on a Pantheon ult as in their last teamfight win, but their needlessly aggressive posturing led to CST retaking the lead.

Although TSM successfully navigated the knife’s edge of aggression in the first Dragon skirmish, TheOddOne’s first death and the second Dragon fight showed that the skill gap in the NA LCS is not such that even the likes of TSM can make reckless plays and expect victory every time. This was further evidenced by a pair of 1v1 kills in the solo lanes, where careless overextensions by Bjergsen and Dyrus allowed Shipthur and ZionSpartan to pick them off with ease.

Bad positioning was once again the culprit in TSM’s next teamfight loss, where Bjergsen got greedy and exposed himself to a Charm just for the sake of autoattacking the inner mid tower while pushing 2v4.



TSM could have put significant damage on the turret and backed off, but Bjergsen’s apparent need to be damaging something at all times gave up a 2-for-1 in CST’s favor and reversed the push. The price of all this aggression and overextension was a 3k lead for CST 20 minutes into the game, which they were able to double following a successful Baron six minutes later. While the awful decision making that gave up the Baron (Dyrus was farming bot, and WildTurtle backed with vision of literally CST’s entire team around Baron) is hardly exclusive to TSM, the high risk/low reward aggression that they stuck to despite repeated failures suggests that they are as strategically shallow as most of their peers when playing from a deficit. This was evident in the top inhibitor turret fight that sealed the game, where TSM was able to trade 1v1 in response to CST’s dive. Inexplicably, they then chased a team that still had Baron buff, and WildTurtle even Flashed to chase Ahri before being turned on and easily killed for his trouble.



CST was unsurprisingly able to ace TSM from there, taking bot inhibitor at the cost of only their support.

TSM’s decision to chase made no sense considering that they were substantially behind in gold, had lost Bjergsen to CST’s Daydreamin, and Coast had Baron. This mindless aggression was probably a last hurrah in the heat of the moment, but a more level headed decision to remain in their base could have stabilized against CST’s push, as ultimates were now down on both sides. When TSM won their second teamfight despite being nearly 10k in the hole, it was due to them smartly kiting CST through several engages, alternatingly chasing and falling back to burn through CST’s engage options until they could quickly take a kill and fall back. That this style worked at this desperate point in the game demonstrates TSM’s aptitude for outsmarting opponents rather than committing to a slugfest with them. That done, a return to aggressive form saw them manage a consecutive teamfight win thanks to an excellent Frozen Pillar locking CST inside TSM’s base, and their decision to take the initiative here was splendid.



However, similarly aggressive but less justified engages had put them in such dire straits to make the win here so impressive. Indeed, continued greed is what drew TSM to the Baron pit in the 42nd minute, where they were able to take the objective (which was contested by Vi and thus inadvisable to begin with) but put themselves in a terrible position for the ensuing fight, which CST started with 4 members but managed to handily win regardless. In their good moments throughout the game, TSM executed fights that few of their peers could have managed. This particular match, though, was determined by the pendulum of their net aggression swinging heavily against them.

The photo finish of Shipthur’s Lich Bane Ahri kiting around the Nexus will be the most memorable part of TSM’s streak-ending loss to many, but the more important play came right at the start, when TheOddOne set the tone for TSM’s story of greed and overaggression at CST’s first red. TSM’s risk seeking behavior can certainly pay great dividends, as it did for them nine games in a row and several times even in this loss, but they should consider moderating their play if they would like to avoid giving weaker teams greater odds of an upset. Their teamfight wins this game showed that they are fully capable of both counterpunching and waiting for opportune engages, and it is these styles that will keep them at a consistently superior level of play. Of course, it seems that the baylife flair that makes them so popular is too deeply ingrained in their DNA to ever be fully removed, and perhaps that’s for the better. That way, there will be more thrills for the fans and more notoriety for the team, but it is regrettable that those same traits could limit TSM’s competitiveness at a world level.

Roster changes inspire both looming dread and anticipatory excitement in professionals, critics, and fans alike. This concept has existed since the first LoL teams were formed, but only the inception of the LCS instilled it with the importance it holds today. With Riot's pro-gamer salary on the line for all LCS competitors, staying at the top of the pack is more important than ever, leading teams to make drastic maneuvers in an effort to avoid relegation. These sweeping changes tend to include role swaps and roster changes, two of the riskiest alterations that can be levied upon a League of Legends squad. Both changes deconstruct a team's synergy, an element necessary to playing at the highest level. Without synergy, a League of Legends team is little more than a solo queue game in Challenger: individually talented but lacking in the communication, strategy, and instinct that guides LoL's best to victory. Roster changes, in particular, can make or break a team, for nothing is more difficult or time-consuming than rediscovering that all-important synergy, especially in the stressful mid-season environment. The importance of roster changes (as well as role swaps) in Season 4 is best exemplified in this week's matchup between CLG and XDG. After a rough few weeks, the results of CLG's pre-2014 roster changes are finally paying off, while XDG's own role swaps could not keep them from losing and the recent departure of BloodWater looks to be the last straw for their LCS hopes.

During the majority of their match, CLG displayed the coordination and team-centric skill necessary to succeed in the LCS, while XDG was little more than five Diamond+ players struggling against CLG's united front. This was evident even from Champion Select. CLG's lineup had a clear plan centered on the now-popular Lulu mid: engage and fight with Whimsy and Wild Growth on Shyvana or Kha'zix after poking with Caitlyn and Lulu, and utilize Leona to lock opponents down or peel for the back line. XDG, on the other hand, selected a smattering of popular champions and Karthus and hoped that their strength would carry them through the game. During the laning phase, neither team looked dominant, as standard ganks and lane farming kept the two teams relatively even. Dexter (CLG's jungler and newest member) even made a few novice overextensions, the most notable of which gave XDG a Dragon. Despite these initial failings, however, most of CLG's movements and ganks were strategically sound, even when they fell flat and allowed XDG to keep pace. The best example of this was LinK's early top lane roam, a sound prediction that flipped XDG's turret dive on its head.



CLG took control mid-game by executing an intelligent strategy that relied on strong team coordination. Using the mid game strength of their team, CLG heavily pressured both outer lanes, nearly destroying both top and bottom inner turrets before 15:00. In the bottom lane, dexter and the CLG duo bullied their opponents away with a coordinated pair of bot lane ganks at 12:00 and 14:00 that annihilated Zuna (now the support) each time. They were similarly aggressive in the top lane, easily killing Benny and XDG's new jungler Nick Wu under the top turret with Lulu's great DPS and a Wild Growth/Whimsy Shyvana. In mid, mandatorycloud's immobile Karthus could neither kill CLG's members with Requiem nor take down the outer turret, leaving XDG sadly lacking as CLG's pace increased considerably. Against CLG's combined assault, XDG looked divided. They were unable to respond appropriately to either instance of CLG aggression due to Karthus's lack of mobility and a communication deficit that failed to identify the proper defense in the situation. CLG gained a 6K gold lead, but they did not stop there. XDG went towards the next Dragon completely absentmindedly and donated Zuna, Benny, Xmithe, and the Dragon to CLG when the team split up without any coordination whatsoever. This sloppy decision-making cannot be unrelated to the absence of their former shotcaller, BloodWater, who might have been able to keep the team from failing this spectacularly.



At this point the game was practically over but XDG's disturbing synergy issues were not. When CLG went for a relatively risky Baron around 21:00, XDG's attempts to thwart it looked half-hearted at best. The Baron was brought half down due to CLG's well-executed zoning and distraction tactics and when XDG realized CLG's ploy, they committed halfway to a steal, letting Nick Wu and Zuna to die in the pit as the less-committed half of the team quickly retreated. If mancloud and Benny had joined their teammates in the pit they may have had enough AoE magic damage with Defile, Dominus, and Requiem to at least prevent CLG from pushing afterwards, if not turn the fight around entirely. However, they merely hung back in the fight to get picked off later when the Baron buffed CLG rushed the middle inhibitor and massacred the remaining XDG forces. Mere moments later, XDG managed to pick off Doublelift but then were split up and picked apart again when they chased LinK and aphromoo in the red side jungle. Link's kiting, shields, and health gain meant that he and the tanky Leona could stall long enough for Nien and dexter to return and decimate XDG one-by-one despite low health AND a 5v4 in XDG's favor. Sensibly, XDG made one unified decision: to surrender to CLG after a completely one-sided game.



CLG struggled in the beginning of the season due to dexter's visa issues, which forced them to bring in Chauster and HotshotGG while relegating LinK to the jungle. With such a blow to the teamwork they'd worked to establish, it was not surprising they had a tough time, but the return of dexter and the realization of their "ideal" Spring Split roster shows the power their synergy holds. In Week 6, CLG's roster changes are finally bearing fruit in the form of the third-place position in NA and their 5:1 record with their main lineup. In contrast, XDG's recent role swaps and roster changes are nothing less than their death knell. When an established team like CLG has such a rough time with an unpracticed roster, it's no small wonder that an already-struggling team like XDG would fall faster and harder after their own changes. Without practiced teamwork and an established synergy, XDG's relegation at the end of this Split seems almost inevitable.

After another brilliant week, CLG will look to crush their opponents in Week 7 to increase the gap between their third-place spot and that of the trailing Dignitas. Playing against the weaker rosters of Curse and XDG should ensure that CLG stay in their bronze throne, especially considering Dignitas plays both the reigning TSM and their recent defeaters, EG. EG, in turn, will seek to escape the lower half of the bracket with their Dig rematch and a battle with their fellow 5-9 team, CST. If they can go 2-0 this weekend, not only will it break their tie with Coast in their favor, but it will also put them in a new tie, one for fourth place. Yet the most important match of this weekend will be another meeting between the two pack-leaders, TSM and Cloud9. A Cloud9 victory would put both teams at 12-3 and significantly increase the stakes of the coming weeks. With the current matchup score at 1:1 and the first-place slot at stake, no punches will be pulled in this slugfest between NA's best.