For complete League of Legends recaps, standings and stats, click here.
Tensions were high on Sunday as a Team SoloMid faced off against FlyQuest in Los Angeles for a spot in the North American League of Legends Championship Series Finals. In dominating fashion, TSM secured a 3-0 sweep to punch its ticket to Vancouver.
Game 1 showed off strengths from both teams as FlyQuest looked strong in the early game with its mastery of chaotic teamfighting. Mid laner Hai "Hai" Lam had a textbook early game on Talon, impacting the side lines with roams. Although FlyQuest stayed ahead early on, once TSM started picking up items, FlyQuest's AD heavy composition became much less potent. TSM took control through clutch Redemption uses from support Vincent "Biofrost" Wang's Karma, giving TSM superior sustain alongside massive damage in the mid game. Additionally, top laner Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell's Nautilus used his plethora of crowd control to pick off FlyQuest members to devastating effect, dominating a late game teamfight that allowed TSM to take a Baron kill and build a huge lead gold lead before closing out the Game 1 win.
In Game 2, TSM struggled in the early game as FQ jungler Galen "Moon" Holgate's Ivern secured first blood early on. Initially, FlyQuest lead the game in objective tempo while falling behind in kills, but could not keep up with TSM's blistering mid game pace. TSM routinely picked off FlyQuest players, often catching support Daerek "LemonNation" Hart's Karma trying in vain to maintain FQ's vision in the jungle. FlyQuest threatened to turn the game around with a Baron that helped FQ chip at TSM's gold lead, but TSM weathered the storm. Team SoloMid got the better of FlyQuest in an elongated fight which started as a 5-vs-3 but ended with the reigning kings of North America crushing FlyQuest's defenses to knock down the Nexus to force match point.
Game 3 started like the others when Moon secured another first blood, this time on Kha'zix. After earning a small kill lead in early game, FlyQuest wasted little time in surrendering control over to TSM, who took a teamfight win in bot lane followed by a tower and Mountain Drake. From there, TSM ramped up its aggression and seemingly rode the momentum, and Søren "Bjergsen" Bergs's Weaver's Walls, to decisive fights. TSM was quicker to roam across the map and turn skirmishes into all-out teamfights, where Hauntzer's Nautilus was unkillable, routinely landing Dredge Lines on high priority targets for easy kills. In general, the coordination and map awareness of the TSM allowed it to steamroll through FlyQuest on its way to victory, easily securing its spot in the 2017 NA LCS Spring Split finals.
Team SoloMid looks to put together back-to-back Split Championships when it takes on Cloud9 at 3 p.m ET on Sunday the 23rd, while FlyQuest fights Phoenix1 on the Rift for third place at 3 p.m ET on Saturday.