TSM Is the Best Team in North America

Definitely not the best team in the world yet, but after being crowned Intel Extreme Masters Season 9 World champions TSM has proven to be the top dog in NA.  With Cloud 9 being in arguably the worst form they’ve ever been in since their formation, and CLG having some late-game team fighting issues, TSM’s consistency has put them ahead of the pack in NA. While Bjergsen may have been the MVP of the tournament, Lustboy put on a great showing.  His engages were spot on all tournament, and was able to almost solely turn game one of the finals around.

It looks like teams still haven’t figured out a way to shut TSM down.  The teams only loss of the tournament, against the Flash Wolves, was primarily due to just poor play from TSM. Teams consistently look to camp Dyrus in the top lane, but as a result Bjergsen is able to get strong advantages from the lack of jungle pressure in mid.  However as we saw with the last game of the finals, Dyrus is also capable of becoming an unkillable juggernaut if not kept in check.  The other NA teams need to find a way to combat this team, because with the confidence they’ve just gained by winning a big international event, they’re just going to get better.

Cloud 9 Has Been Bumped Down a Few Clouds

Nobody expected them to come into this tournament and dominate the GE Tigers in their first round match, but some people did feel they had a shot to make it far via the losers bracket.  No one thought, however, they would go 0-2 and be swiftly expelled from the competition.  C9 just looked lost towards the end of the match against the Flash Wolves, a team that was deemed one of the weakest coming into the tournament.  In the past Cloud 9 has said they’d never make any roster swaps, but you have to wonder if they keep struggling will that decision change,  The solo lanes have been under-performing lately. With the rest of North America only getting better, Cloud 9 needs to fix their problems fast.  Will we see them return to form? Will we see someone new donning the C9 blue for the summer split? Find out on the next episode of Dragonball Z.

Southeast Asia Shouldn’t be Taken Lightly

The YOE Flash Wolves came into the tournament as arguably the weakest team, and were just one game away from making the finals. This is a region that hasn’t had much international success since the Taipei Assassins won the season 2 world championship, but that doesn’t mean they should be taken for granted. The Flash Wolves knocked two of the best western teams, Cloud 9 and SK Gaming, out the competition, and came one game away from eliminating the team that went on to win it all. We’ll see if Southeast Asia can continue to step up at the Mid-Season Invitational, coming up in May.

Is Korea Declining?

The GE Tigers came into this event undefeated in the LCK, and were expected to easily blow the competition out of the water. The other Korean team, CJ Entus, were also expected to reach the finals. Both of these teams under-performed.  CJ Entus didn’t even secure a victory in the tournament, and were sent packing after two convincing losses against TSM and World Elite. The Tigers on the other hand, made quick work of the group stage, and even found themselves ahead of World Elite 1-0 in the semis. What happened next stunned everyone, including the Tigers.  The top ranked LCK team dropped two games in a row to the bottom ranked Chinese LPL team, and found themselves eliminated.  These were two of the top teams Korea has to offer, and they both dropped the ball. During the off-season, we saw a mass exodus of Koreans heading to China.  Can we expect more of the same in the future?  One thing is for sure, chain rule tells us that by beating the team that beat the GE Tigers, TSM is better than the top Korean team.