Introduction

This past weekend's action culminated in Team Dignitas and Gravity being knocked out of playoffs, while Team Impulse and Team SoloMid emerged victorious and secured spots in the Semifinals. Neither series was an upset, but there were definitely some surprises nonetheless.  We saw seemingly forgotten champions such as Elise, Olaf, and Urgot picked in multiple games, while other more meta champions, such as Viktor, were all but ignored. Furthermore, some of the strategies these teams employed shattered our expectations of how these matches would play out.

Team Impulse 3-0 Team Dignitas

Game 1 featured Team Impulse diverging from the play style they showcased during the Summer Split. Aside from picking up a relatively early kill on KiWiKiD, Team Impulse played a slow, methodical game. Rush played as Elise, and instead of forcing risky early fights, he opted to farm and obtain vision control. He even bought a Sightstone, an item he frequently glossed over in favor of more damage or tank stats. Around thirty minutes in, Team Impulse held a comfortable four-and-a-half thousand gold lead over Team Dignitas. However, poor positioning allowed Team Dignitas to ace Team Impulse, claim Baron and equalize the gold difference. While this kept Dignitas in the game, Team Impulse proceeded to dominate a team fight (thanks to Dignitas lining up in a choke point against Gate's Azir) and close out the game.

Team Impulse are caught out of position and lose their gold lead.  

Game 2 proved to be more action packed. Multiple skirmishes broke out before the fifteen minute mark, netting Team Impulse an early gold lead. Questionable decision making on Helios' behalf caused him to fall behind on Nidalee, a champion who requires gold to be effective. Interestingly enough, Team Impulse threw their lead in this game as well. While five thousand gold ahead, they were caught off guard by a teleport from Gamsu (in Mini Gnar form, mind you) and gave up three kills. Team Dignitas, down a few thousand gold and faced against a hyper-scaling Kog'Maw, was unable to translate this small victory into a win; Team Impulse won the game after thirty-eight minutes.

With Gate far away from his team, Dignitas is able to sandwich Team Impulse and win a team fight.  

In Game 3, we saw an interesting composition from Team Dignitas that included AP Kog'Maw and the newly reworked Gangplank. This game was much like the first two in the sense that Team Impulse built an early lead and proceeded to throw some of it away later on. Around twenty-five minutes in, Impulse executed an extremely uncoordinated tower dive which resulted in Dignitas claiming three kills. In an eerily similar situation to the final teamfight of Game 1, Dignitas chose to fight in the very same choke point against Azir. This cost them the game and allowed Team Impulse to move to the Semifinals.

Team Impulse fails to ensure that the tower focuses Adrian during a dive, resulting in three kills given to Dignitas.  

The results of this series should not be of any great surprise. Team Impulse, despite having a new mid laner, was widely regarded as being the better of the two teams. Impulse showed marked improvement in ward coverage - during the Summer Split, Adrian led all other North American supports in wards per minute, but this was somewhat mitigated by poor warding habits from Rush and Impact. Despite taking the series 3-0, Impulse lost team fights while ahead in gold during every game. They will need to correct this overconfidence if they wish to defeat Counter Logic Gaming in the Semifinals.

Gravity 1-3 Team SoloMid

In Game 1, we saw a departure from TSM's Summer Split strategy, namely getting Bjergsen ahead and hoping that Dyrus and WildTurtle could pull their own weight. Instead, Team SoloMid put Dyrus on Olaf and Bjergsen on Lulu. TSM started by taking Gravity's top tier 1 tower fairly early into the game. A successful lane bounce in the top lane garnered a significant lead for Dyrus over Hauntzer, both in terms of experience and gold – at seven minutes in, Dyrus boasted two levels and forty minion kills over Hauntzer's Shen. Despite this lead, however, Hauntzer proved to be more useful for his team, sporting 100% kill participation for the first thirty minutes of the game. (Dyrus didn't participate in a kill until the twenty-nine minute mark.) This proved mostly inconsequential, however, as TSM opted to accumulate a gold lead through taking towers, rather than kills, and were eventually able to translate this advantage into a win.

Game 2 was more akin to the game-play we saw from TSM during the Summer Split: ineffective pressure from Santorin, Dyrus dying left and right, and WildTurtle foolishly charging headfirst into the fight. Keane opted for Urgot, one of his most played champions. An early gank from Move killed Dyrus and granted first blood to Gravity. Further skirmishes ended favorably for Gravity, but despite being up 8-0 in kills thirty-two minutes in, Gravity was barely tied in gold. This is significant, for it highlights the disparity between these two teams in terms of macro strategy. However, Gravity was still able to out-fight Team SoloMid and secure the win.

WildTurtle uses Valkyrie to chase Move and Hauntzer, only to die without securing a kill.  

Game 3 featured Team SoloMid returning to their strategy from Game 1. They quickly took Gravity's top tier 1 tower and granted Dyrus its gold. A gank from Santorin resulted in a kill for Dyrus, further solidifying his lead over Hauntzer. Unlike in Game 1, investing resources in Dyrus this time around would prove worthwhile; Dyrus went on to claim a quadra kill during a fight at Dragon. The Ashe pick for Gravity this game was rather peculiar, as Olaf is immune to all crowd control for the duration of Ragnarok, and Ashe is sorely lacking in mobility. Presumably, Ashe was selected for a favorable match-up against WildTurtle's Jinx, but Altec and Bunnyfufu were unable to capitalize on this lane advantage. With Gravity unable to stop Dyrus' Olaf from ravaging their back line, Team SoloMid closed out the game in 31 minutes.

In Game 4, Gravity put Keane back on Urgot and banned Dyrus' Olaf. However, Gravity's team composition was severely deficient in wave-clear. This allowed Bjergsen to shove the creep wave in mid lane, roam bottom and pick up two kills and dragon as Keane was stuck under his tower. Gravity found themselves unable to prevent Team SoloMid from taking their towers, due to the aforementioned lack of wave-clear. Around twenty-nine minutes in, Gravity expended everything with one final hurrah in an attempt to kill Dyrus. To their misfortune, Megagnar activated just in time, and TSM were then able to win both the team fight and the game.

Gravity unsuccessfully throws everything they have at Dyrus.  

Overall, Team SoloMid's performance this series showed a significant improvement. Not only do they seem to have realized that getting Dyrus ahead can be quite advantageous, but their picks, bans and overall strategy have certainly progressed. While sporting a rather skilled roster, Gravity still has much to improve upon. Keane's lack of success on meta champions is somewhat alarming (Viktor was open every game), and Move seems to be useless if he falls behind. Gravity also made some fundamental errors in picks & bans. With that said, they still have time to correct their mistakes and secure a spot at Worlds.  

Moving Forward

Will Team SoloMid and Team Impulse see further success next weekend? Only time will tell. Saturday's series will pit Team Impulse against Counter Logic Gaming, while Sunday's will feature Team Liquid taking on Team SoloMid. As for the losers of Quarterfinals, Gravity and Team Dignitas can still qualify for worlds via the regional gauntlet.

If you enjoyed this content, follow the author for more on twitter at @NephilimPatrick. Photo/video credits to Riot Games and LolEventVods.