Team SoloMid bounced back from a tough loss to Cloud9 by sweeping first-place Immortals to kick off Saturday's action during Week 5, Day 2 in the North American League of Legends Championship Series in Los Angeles.
Immortals (7-2, 14-8 match record) drafted a strong teamfighting composition to go up against TSM's split-push-focused offense in Game 1. IMT needed to dominate early to shut down the split push and got off to a good start, with jungler Jake "Xmithie" Puchero's Rek'Sai setting up plenty of kills. However, Team SoloMid (7-3, 16-7 match record) didn't fall far behind and started to crawl back into the contest thanks to a bevy of positive teamfight trades. It was the Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg show in the midgame, as he unleashed his Syndra and destroyed IMT in teamfights. Even with a Baron power play in tow, Immortals could do nothing to make up for TSM's teamfighting presence. Bjergsen continued to kite around fights and pick up kills late en route to a 11/2/3 KDA and Player of the Game honors. Immortals' defense managed to find some kills late, but it wasn't enough to stop TSM from pushing to a series lead.
Team SoloMid stuck with a good split-pushing composition in Game 2 and focused on the top lane early. TSM jungler Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen secured first blood on Rek'Sai with a gank into top lane just three minutes in. A lane swap added to TSM's turret lead as it secured an extra turret with Rift Herald, but the team couldn't pull away in terms of gold. Capitalizing on a handful of sloppy engages from TSM, Immortals mounted a small comeback in the midgame. While the teamfight victories gave IMT a lead in kills, it was still behind in turrets. That gave TSM just enough room to come back, winning a 3-for-0 teamfight near the 21-minute mark to regain control and remain in the driver's seat the rest of the way. A couple of teamfights would be all it would take for TSM to bust down Immortals' base for the Game 2 victory.
Immortals hope to redeem its Week 5 against the struggling Phoenix1 on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET while Team SoloMid's next series will be Saturday, July 15 against Phoenix1 at 3 p.m. ET.