onGamers Playoff Predictions – TSM vs Dig & CRS vs CLG
With a close NA Split coming to an end and an exciting playoff bracket set we polled the onGamers staff to see who they predicted for the upcoming matches and pinned opposing opinions against each other.
The predictions:
TSM VS DIG
Why Dig will win - by Duncan 'Thorin' Shields
The two teams had entirely the opposite paths of form as the split came to a close, with Dignitas free-falling and TSM steadily rising. With that said, I always put more emphasis on how teams match up rather than their most recent results, to a degree. A big problem I have with this TSM line-up is that they don't look good under pressure or in the clutch. Dig aren't proven in that respect either, but I think they can front-run pretty well and can keep apace in all areas of the game with TSM. I think this is the closest series of the playoffs to call, but I have Dig taking it.
The X factor of the series is Bjergsen, but I haven't seen the Bjergsen who could tip this towards a TSM win in quite some time.
Why TSM will win - by Travis Gafford
TSM is going to beat Dignitas. Over the course of the past several years, TSM has been the team you can't count out. They're one of the few teams to have made it to every worlds previously and they'll likely make it again.
They started to have a stronger showing once Lustboy came in to fill the role of support towards the end of the split, and having Locodoco around to help them double down during the past few weeks on practice will only push them farther.
At the same time, Dignitas has struggled to find a ledge to stand on in the final weeks of the LCS season. While TSM has been getting stronger, Dignitas has only been struggling more. TSM will beat Dignitas.
CLG vs. CRS
Why CLG will win - by Daniel 'd1dx' Yordanov
On Saturday, Curse and CLG meet for the third time in an LCS playoff stage. Thus far, the CounterLogic flag-bearers have been excellent - a clean 4-0 record in two best-of-three series, once to knock out Curse to Promotion/Relegation and the other being the continuation of the fourth place finishes for Voyboy’s team. The good track record is only one of the reasons why I think CLG will win tomorrow.
CLG prepared for a best-of series in Korea, a place where, traditionally, those are played with every edition of The Champions, giving them a better understanding of the behaviour one must adopt in such a match. Albeit short, the practice under the iron fist of MonteCristo should have elevated the team even a little in the right direction. With him being a specialist in strategy, we should be expecting a solid CLG, capable of taking away objectives from Curse with ease and if necessary, punish them in team fights with their superior mechanical skill.
Last, but not least, there is a small trend during every clash between these two. Curse always seem to ban a marksman champion when facing CLG (Ezreal and Twitch). With the meta favouring Tristana, Kog and Corki, there is a chance of CRS banning one and taking the other two, Tristana being mid, in order to give DoubleLift a hard time. I do believe that such a move would put them behind, as after the tutorial with both coach Monte and analyst Zikz, there are definitely more threats than Peng in the CLG line-up that are worth crippling.
Why CRS will win - by Daniel 'Spellsy' Biery
Curse vs CLG will be hard to predict, we haven’t seen CLG play in almost a month due to their trip to Korea and the break between playoffs meaning nobody knows which CLG will show up, but from the information we have Curse seems to have a stronger chance. They came into the playoffs strong with a superweek performance that bumped them from 6th to 4th, and have won 4 of their last 6 games.
Statistically Curse seems like they have CLG’s number as well. Curse has one of the strongest early games outside of LMQ, and while CRS has a tendency to lose their leads, CLG isn't the type of team that makes solid comebacks. CLG tends to go on “tilt” when they get behind, and have only had 1 “comeback win” this split, compared to teams like Alliance who have had 6 comeback wins. The last time these two teams met in week 10 CRS ramped up an 8k lead by 20 minutes, one of the biggest of the season. The second point where Curse matches up to CLG is in the top lane where the underrated Quas is matched up against the underperforming Seraph. As we saw in the CS@10 analysis Seraph looks not so great, supporting the stats we saw in the CLG thorin theories. I expect trouble in the top lane for CLG and their mid and bot won’t be enough to save them from falling behind early and falling on tilt.
