TSM stun 100 Thieves 3-2, advance in LCS spring playoffs

Led by an MVP performance from Danish midlaner Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg, Team SoloMid pulled out a 3-2 win over 100 Thieves on Wednesday to stay alive in League of Legends' North America-based League Championship Series spring playoffs. With the victory in the opening round of the losers bracket, TSM advance to meet FlyQuest in the second round on Sunday. The Wednesday result eliminated 100 Thieves.

TSM trailed 2-1 before pulling out the last two maps. In the decisive fifth game, TSM rallied despite having a gold disadvantage, with 100 Thieves moving extremely close to victory before a late TSM surge. "I'm not even sure what happened, it was a crazy series," TSM top-laner Sergen "Broken Blade" Celik said in a postmatch interview. "It ended up being really close, but they were really confident in the play, and eventually we got the win. But if it didn't end there, I think the game was over (in favor of 100 Thieves)."

Broken Blade also cited the third game as being a key to the series. After 100 Thieves won the second game as the blue side to forge a 1-1 tie, TSM selected the blue side, which Broken Blade said helped quell 100 Thieves' momentum. "After they won the (second) game in a pretty dominant way, we thought maybe it's good to change things up a little bit," Broken Blade said.

Four teams remain in the running for the championship. Cloud9 will face off with Evil Geniuses in the second round of the winners bracket on Saturday. The loser of that match will meet the TSM-FlyQuest winner in the losers-bracket final on April 18, while the Cloud9-Evil Geniuses winner will head straight to the April 19 final.

The champion will qualify for the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational, which will feature the top teams from every League of Legends region worldwide. --Field Level Media

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