League of Legends Group A/B Recap; TSM's Chances at Worlds

This week's group stage at worlds has been intense. Group A (Samsung White, Edward Gaming, AHQ, Dark Passage) and Group B (TSM, Star Horn Royal Club, Taipei Assassins, SK Gaming). Teams have laughed, cried, and struggled to grab a position in the quarterfinals.

Writing from the country of Apple Pie and Freedom I'm here to bring you an end of the week wrap up and some thoughts about TSM's chances at the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Finals.

At the end of the week, in Group A, Samsung White and Edward Gaming have secured their spots for the Quarterfinals. In Group B, Star Horn Royal and Team Solo Mid have secured their respective spots as well. Arguably each team, with the exception of SSW has fought hard to qualify for their quarterfinals spots with fairly decisive performances all around in Group A; SSW and EDG  are definintely leading the charge as we move forward into quarterfinals. Showing that they have a command of the game and revealing little of their secrets to other competitors. However, SHR and TSM have put on equally powerful performances showing the home crowd of Taiwan why they deserve to go over TPA.

TSM's Chances at Worlds: After watching some of the games below you begin to understand exactly what kind of shot NA has at becoming the champions, that is, a very slim one. Granted the additions of Locodoco and Lustboy have been beneficial to TSM, the entirety of NA has what I feel been in a slump. Wildturtle has been hit or miss on all picks except Tristana. Bjergerson while having definitely stepped up still has yet to fully master the primary shot-caller role, apparent in their last game against SK Gaming. Amazing has roughly two and a half champions he can really perform on. While Dyrus has also stepped up, he can be prone to tilting; apparent in his first game against SHR.

So while their showing in group stages was a strong one. They have a long way to go before beating SSW who they're matched against first in the quarterfinals.
What TSM needs to do if they intend to survive:

• Get Wildturtle to master one other champion so he isn't completely shut down. Laning phase needs to be buffed or else Mata and Imp will most likely destroy them. 
• Bjergerson needs to be able to focus; more embracing of the shot callers role so that he isn't as distracted when out of lane. Granted he's probably equal or better then PawN in Solo-Q, PawN operates much better since he doesn't have to shot call since DanDy and Mata have picked that up.
• Dyrus needs to play more games in Korean Solo-Q to prevent him from going on tilt against high jungle pressure and mechanical outplays.
• Amazing needs to expand champion pool greatly. His two best performances are on Lee Sin and Lee Sin. Seriously I can't quite recall other champions he has had good success on, other than a mildly impressive Nunu in LCS.
• They have to run some strategy's against SSW. Locodoco should be watching OGN footage to figure out where Samsung White excel currently and tailor plans for Dyrus and Bjergerson especially. Since more likely than not Wildturtle will be the chink in the TSM armor SSW will try to exploit.

Even after doing all of the above the chances of TSM winning are still only 40-60 in my opinion, mechanically SSW is far more sound than TSM still. But, we've all seen dark-horses win before at worlds. I'm looking at you TPA.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Feel free to comment below on your thoughts and feelings of where TSM stands and how much you'll be screaming your head off if they beat the Korean team SSW.