Team SoloMid Comes Up Short At League Worlds 2017

Image credit: LoL Esports/Flickr

Only one hope left for North American League of Legends fans. After being given the "group of life" for the League of Legends World Championships, Team SoloMid was knocked out of group D in a tiebreaker recently.

To rub a little salt in the wound, it was European team Misfits that took the win over TSM. The EU vs. NA rivalry has been fervent for years, with Rift Rivals stoking the flames earlier in the season. But reactions to TSM failing to beat both a World Elite squad on some serious momentum as well as Misfits were strong.

There's no memes here. No excuses. IMT and TSM were good enough to get out. Both teams got tons of breaks. Blow it up. NA needs change.

— The Esports Writer (@FionnOnFire) October 14, 2017

TSM blame list additions
- draft
- Janna
- Chinese mafia
- Jet lag
- Jayce

— Ram Djemal (@Brokenshard_) October 14, 2017

TsM wIlL gEt OuT oF gRoUpS
tSm HaVe ThE eAsIeSt GrOuP pic.twitter.com/GRinS6z2AK

— SkinSpotlights (@SkinSpotlights) October 14, 2017

For TSM?

Blow it up. If you can't get out of this group this team doesn't have it.

End of discussion.

— Mark Zimmerman (@TheeMarkZ) October 14, 2017

Huge disappointment again for TSM at #Worlds2017 crushing for the players and fans. In the end there are no more excuses, better team won.

— Isaac CB (@RiotAzael) October 14, 2017

And these reactions are valid. This is the third year in a row Team SoloMid has fallen short of the mark at the world championships, and it was frustrating to see conservative, safe play while a Cho'Gath farmed away in top lane. Small mechanical mistakes, using spells like Flash at the wrong time, or just a lack of aggression let Misfits take the steering wheel and force TSM into a corner.

In a post-game interview with Travis Gafford, TSM founder and owner Andy "Reginald" Dinh, commented on the reasons why the team failed to make it out of the group.

"We weren't really good at playing around the map," said Dinh. "Our seesaw wasn't strong. We weren't good at playing as five. So every single time we made a play, someone was focused on something else."

Immortals, another North American squad, also failed to make it out of groups earlier in the week. One last hope remains for North America in Cloud9, who will fight to be the sole survivor for NA later tonight against Edward Gaming, ahq e-Sports Club, and SKT T1.