Classic series - M5 vs. TSM - IEM Kiev 2012 final

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

'Classic series' highlights a great, historic or otherwise interesting series from esports history, examining the circumstances which led to the two opponents meeting, the dynamics of the match and the significance of the outcome.

When Moscow Five (M5) met Team SoloMid (TSM) in the final of the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Season VI Global Challenge Kiev, there was a lot more on the line that merely the title of champion for that event. It was the first offline meeting between the two teams, who were billed as potentially the best in their respective regions. Online scrims between the two had been one-sided in the Russian team's favour and it had been a few months since NA had been on top in the battle of the two biggest regions in competitive LoL, at the time.

Both teams steam-rolled their way to the final with impressive play and looked to each be in peak form. Their battle would set the tone for the rest of season two, with Moscow Five going on to dominate European tournaments and TSM to become the supreme power in North America. This first meeting, battling over a $6,000 difference between first and second, would establish who Moscow Five was, pitted against one of the very best teams in the world.

Tournament: IEM VI Global Challenge Kiev
Date: 2012-01-22
Stage: Final
Series: M5 2:1 TSM
G1 M5 1:0 TSM
G2 M5 1:1 TSM
G3 M5 2:1 TSM
Moscow Five:
Top - Darien
Jungle - Diamondprox
Mid - Alex Ich
AD Carry - Genja
Support - GoSu Pepper
Team SoloMid:
Top - TheRainMan
Jungle - TheOddOne
Mid - Reginald
AD Carry - Chaox
Support - Xpecial

Prelude - TSM climb the NA ranks

TSM had established themselves one of the elite North American teams in offline competitions in the Summer of 2011, finishing third at the S1 Championship, highest of any NA side, and taking second and third place finishes at IEM VI Cologne and MLG Raleigh, both times losing series to eventual champions CLG. With CLG winning the latter two tournaments with stand-ins, the title of best NA team was very much still up for grabs. In October's IPL3 and IEM VI New York events, TSM finished third and 7th-8th, respectively.

In late October TSM moved into a gaming house in Long Island, New York, geographical home of AD Carry Chaox. Living in the gaming house allowed them to practice against European teams as well as those in their native North America. It also allowed the team to devote more time to practice, with their tournament placings having steadily gone downhill since the height of their IEM runner-up finish.

The change in dedication and environment had shown immediate results, as the team won MLG Providence a month later, in late November. After losing to Epik Gamer 1:2 in the upper bracket, the team defeated Team Dignitas, winners of IPL3 a month and a half prior, and earned a rematch with Epik in the final. There, they gained the ultimate revenge, going 3:0 to win the extended series 4:2. CLG had not attended the event, due to not qualifying, so TSM took the top spot in NA by default, but could not consolidate their claim yet.

In the online NA qualifier for IEM VI Kiev, TSM went undefeated in series and dropped only a single game along the way to qualification. CLG Prime failed to qualify, leaving the NA representatives for the event as TSM, Dignitas and Curse.

M5 arrive on the scene

M5 had been born out of an organisation change from Team Empire. Featuring a trio of players (Alex Ich, Genja007 and Darien) who had played together in a previous team (MTG) a year prior, and on and off again since, they came together to form the new Team Empire line-up for the IEM qualifier, bringing in Support player GoSu pepper and his friend Diamondprox. The team lost in the first round of the upper bracket, to the little known Guru Gaming, but this sparked a lower bracket run all the way to a decisive third place match-up. With three teams in the Cross-Realm qualifier earning spots at IEM Kiev, they needed to win this final series to ensure they would be present in Ukraine.

The opponent was SK Gaming, one of the best teams in Europe, but also one which had recently seen some of its high profile players leave to form absolute Legends.EU. The qualifier series is famous for the epic triple ultimate combo Empire used from their Nunu, Karthus and Ashe. Winning the series 2:1, they had booked their trips to Kiev. Changing to the Moscow Five organisation before the tournament, they continued to impress with online performances in scrims against the elite teams in Europe. Most crucially, for the context of the match-up addressed in this article, M5 would scrim against TSM online before the tournament.

Online practice sparks a new intercontinental rivalry

Online practice between the two teams quickly sparked a new rivalry between the two sides. Moscow Five dominated the scrims between the two teams, winning in stomps most of the time, even letting TSM's Reginald have Karthus one game simply to see what he was capable of doing with it. In a vlog on January 12th, a week before the IEM event was set to begin, Chaox and Reginald revealed that they had just finished scrimming M5 and had gone 1:5 in games against the Russian team, being stomped "hella hard".

More than simply losing to the European side, what had irritated TSM's members had been perceived trash-talk from M5, who had even joked with viewers of their streams that they only reason they would continue to practice TSM, who they had now beaten soundly a number of times, was because their fame would help gain M5 more fans. This particularly annoyed TSM leader Reginald, who seemed driven to want to beat M5 in Kiev and claimed he would then talk trash to them.

"Going into IEM Kiev, I wanna win a lot, but I don't care as long as we place higher than m5."
-Reginald, speaking in a Chaox vlog on January 12th (Youtube, 2012)

So, despite having never faced M5 offline, and the Russian side having never attended an offline tournament before, both teams came into the event knowing that M5 were one of the favourites and one of the strongest potential opponents for TSM.

"Before Kiev, we were scrimming European teams and we'd ask who they thought was the best. They'd always say themselves [...] and Empire [the team who became Moscow Five], at the time. We knew Empire was going to be the team to beat, before we got to Kiev, because the times we scrimmed them they demolished us and every other team in the European circuit was saying they were the best. So we knew that Kiev was probably going to be a really hard series."
-TheOddOne, Jungler of TSM, on his team's expectations for M5 prior to facing them at IEM Kiev (Team Acer, 2013)

M5 got to Kiev earlier than most of the other teams, arriving a week before the event and beginning to practice their for their offline debut.

"in scrims we were playing a lot, like 8-10 hours a day, and we started to win everyone. Our team had so much confidence coming to Kiev, that I wasn't sure that we could win it, but the team was sure about it, so we just came and dominated almost every game there."
-Alex Ich, Mid laner of M5, on preparation for IEM Kiev (Team Acer, 2013)

How the teams arrived at the final

M5 had stomped their group stage, winning impressively over Team Dignitas, Sypher and aAa. In the semi-final they had face SK Gaming, who were attending with a stand-in jungler, and again it seemed there was no serious opposition which could stand in the face of the might of the Russian side. M5 were constantly ahead and building their gold lead in game one, waiting for the key moment to break the game open entirely with kills and win outright. The second game saw them completely smash the German side to pieces, finishing in double digit kills while taking only one death. M5 were through to the final without having lost a single game.

TSM were in dominant form themselves, crushing Curse, SK Gaming and White Lotus in the group stage. In the semi-final they met Dignitas and utterly destroyed their fellow North Americans, constantly leading in kills and gold in both games. At the end of the semi-final series, Dignitas had scored only three kills total on TSM. Reginald and company came into the final knowing that they were matching M5's unbeaten streak in the tournament so far and that the tournament title would come down to the two teams who had battled online earlier that month.

"What happened at [IEM] Kiev is they did a snowball strat and basically the games were pretty boring in that IEM, because we copied that strat once we saw it in action, because we didn't have probably the playstyle to counter it, which is stall like crazy. So we just did the snowball strat to them and everyone else in the tournament. So, in that tournament, if you look at the VODs, they are just complete stomps from maybe 5 minutes on when people start taking the enemy buffs over and over. So almost every game in that tournament for TSM and M5 were basically stomps."
-TheOddOne on TSM and M5's domination in Kiev (Team Acer, 2013)

The Final - the title and $6,000 on the line

VOD:

Game 1 M5 1:0 TSM
TSM:
Bans - Ryze, Gangplank and Nunu
TheRainMan - Irelia
TheOddOne - Skarner
Reginald - Cassiopeia
Chaox - Graves
Xpecial - Sona
M5:
Bans - Rammus, LeBlanc and Karthus
Darien - Shyvanna
Diamondprox - Lee Sin
Alex Ich - Galio
Genja - Kog'Maw
GoSu pepper - Taric

The opening game began with a feeling out process between the two teams, the difference in gold only 0.5k after nine minutes or so, with no kills and no objectives taken. Darien's Shyvanna stole away TSM's blue at 9:24 and ten seconds later a 3v3 fight at mid saw M5 go two for one in kills, taking a very slight gold lead. At 11:02 Genja's Kog'Maw killed Chaox's Graves in the bot lane and M5 used this opportunity to take the dragon at 11:34, pushing their gold lead up to 1.4k.

M5 Jungler Diamondprox stole TSM's red buff during the 14th minute and Darien took their blue. Reginald managed to kill Diamondprox, bringing TSM back to 2:3 in kills and just over 1k down. A key fight in the first game took place at the dragon around 18:35. Despite TSM stealing the dragon, M5 killed three TSM members without reply, going up 6:2 in kills, even if the gold lead remained close at 1.2k to the Russians. Over the next six minutes, the game was all M5 plays, with them adding two more kills and taking the first three towers of the game, their gold lead approaching 4k at this time.

From 24 minutes to 26, the teams traded a kill a-piece, with TSM taking a dragon and Darien again stealing a blue buff. Another key team-fight took place at 26:08, as M5 went 1:2 in kills, but took baron. TSM fans had reason to celebrate 10 seconds or so after the fight, as Genja found Reginald recalling in a bush, only for the TSM captain to outplay the Russian ADC with his ultimate and get the kill. When Genja's passive secured the kill on a low health Reginald it set the tone for how the rest of the match would go, with TSM being able to secure some kills but never build off them into anything of significance. M5 took their fourth tower, while TSM had still yet to secure a single one.

At 29:12, a big fight around the bot lane had M5 give up two deaths but ace TSM, leading 17:8 in kills now and over 8k in gold. M5 took towers and an inhibitor in the next few minutes, then backed off to take the dragon and baron. At 34:32 the final fight of the game occured in TSM's base, with Darien helping lead the way with a triple kill to give M5 a 1:5 trade and the game before the 36 minute mark.

Darien and Genja had carried the game in kills, scoring 10 each and numerous assists. The team-fighting and coordination of the entire team was shown in Diamondprox, Alex Ich and GoSu pepper all being in double digits for assists. The biggest weak point for TSM had been TheRainMan's Irelia, going 1/6/6 against Darien's Shyvanna.

Game 2 M5 1:1 TSM
TSM
Bans - Ryze, Gangplank and Galio
TheRainMan - Tryndamere
TheOddOne - Lee Sin
Reginald - Cassiopeia
Chaox - Sivir
Xpecial - Sona
M5
Bans - Rammus, LeBlanc and Karthus
Darien - Irelia
Diamondprox - Shyvanna
Alex Ich - Mordekaiser
Genja - Kog'Maw
GoSu pepper - Nunu

M5 came to the second game with identical bans to the first, mainly aimed at TSM mid laner Reginald. TSM again banned Ryze, a favourite of Alex Ich, and Gangplank, but this time made their third ban Galio, the champion Alex Ich had played in the first game. Reginald continued to play Cassiopeia, having dominated Dignitas with it in both games in the semi-final, and TheOddOne took Lee Sin from Diamondprox. With Nunu no longer banned, M5 took it for GoSu. TSM were unafraid, having crushed Dignitas' L0cust on the champion in the semi-final.

The game began with an invade on the lower side of the map catching out Darien and giving Chaox first blood. TSM followed that up with the second kill around mid, as TheRainMan took out GoSu. Less than three minutes later, Diamondprox attemped a gank onto Reginald at mid, but the TSM man turned it into a kill onto Alex Ich and put TSM up 3:0 and 1.7k in gold. The next six minutes were quiet, but then a great seven minute run by TSM saw them rack up two individual kills, take three towers and secure a dragon. They were leading 6:0 and up three towers to none at the 19 minute mark, firmly in control of the game.

A 19:17 fight at the dragon results in a 4:1 win for TSM, able to turn that into an uncontested baron less than a minute later. From there on M5 could do nothing and the NA team stomped the rest of the game, taking three more towers, going 7:2 in kills over the next seven minutes and winning the game at around 27:00. M5's opener had been a one-sided beatdown and TSM had replied in kind. The men doing the damage for TSM had been Reginald and Chaox, while Diamondprox, Alex Ich and GoSu pepper had combined for 1/14/7 on the M5 side of things.

Alex Ich's performance was particularly of note, as the AP Mid player had only barely lost out in farm with Mordekaiser, but had only scored a single kill over both of the first two games, with most of his impact in the first coming in the form of assists. Was M5's leader perhaps choking in his offline debut? Had TSM figured out the formula to beating M5 after the first game?

Game 3 M5 2:1 TSM
TSM
Bans - Ryze, Gangplank and Galio
TheRainMan - Irelia
TheOddOne - Lee Sin
Reginald - Karthus
Chaox - Sivir
Xpecial - Alistar
M5
Bans - Rammus, Casseopia and LeBlanc
Darien - Shyvanna
Diamondprox - Skarner
Alex Ich - Mordekaiser
Genja - Kennen
GoSu pepper - Sona

TSM stuck with the same bans as the game they had just won, while M5 this time left Karthus available and banned out the Casseopeia that Reginald had been having so much success with that tournament. TSM took the opportunity to secure Karthus for themselves. The top lane would be a repeat of the opening game, with TheRainMan on Irelia and Darien on Shyvanna. The Jungle match-up would be the inverse of the opener, with Diamondprox on Skarner and TheOddOne on Lee Sin. Alex Ich was undettered by his trouble on Mordekaiser in the previous game, picking it again.

In the bot lane GoSu took Xpecial's Sona, on which he had been playing in the opening two games and one of the Dignitas games in the semi-final. Sivir and Alistar, the bot lane TSM took, was the one they had used in the second game of the semi-final against Dignitas. Now they would face a Genja on AD Kennen and GoSu's Sona.

TSM got the early start, with TheOddOne killing Diamondprox at 3:28, but a kill from Alex Ich onto the very same Jungler at 10:04 was then turned into a dragon for M5 less than 30 seconds later. Darien stole the red buff before the 10th minute was up. A 2v2 situation at top lane around 12:11 saw Darien killing TheOddOne and Diamondprox taking out TheRainMan, putting M5 up 3:1 and 2.5k in gold. Alex Ich added a kill on Reginald at top seconds later, with Chaox replying back onto GoSu before the 13th minute.

M5 took the first tower of the game at 14:57 and Darien stole the blue buff 10 seconds later. TSM took a tower at 15:53, to even it up, but seconds later Diamondprox successfully pulled off a gank onto Reginald in the mid lane to put M5 up 5:2 in kills and around 3.6k in gold. Over the next four minutes, M5 took an uncontested dragon, the bottom tower and had Darien steal another blue buff.

The key fight of the deciding game came at 22:45, as M5 took the baron as TSM engaged onto them in the pit. Losing no one, M5 aced the NA side and then pushed to take two middle towers, the middle inhibitor, the dragon and a bottom tower. Now up 6:1 in towers and 10:2 in kills, with a gold lead of over 13k gold, the game was all but over for TSM. TSM pushed for another tower and inhibitor, getting four unanswered kills in TSM's base and finishing the game. M5 were the champions of IEM VI Kiev.

"finally, we met in the finals and it basically was the exact same strat against each other, snowball vs. snowball. The first game we lost by landslide, the second game we won by a landslide, because we snowballed off level one. Third game didn't go so well because Darien kept taking our jungle and got really far ahead.
[...] Dignitas and SK were in that tournament and they didn't even stand a chance against M5"
-TheOddOne (Team Acer, 2013)

Darien's Irelia had helped Team Empire even qualify for the event in the first place, carrying in the lower bracket of the qualifier, perhaps playing a role in TheRainMan taking it in the first and third game. That proved no help for TSM at all, as Darien had played a significant impact in both games with Shyvanna, racking up kills in the first and giving them fits in the third by stealing buffs over and over. The decider had exposed a flaw in the TSM approach, with TheRainMan never following Darien, allowing the Russian to steal buff after buff and wreak havoc in TheOddOne's jungle.

In light of the way the online scrims had gone, one could suggest that M5 letting Karthus be picked in the decider was a bait, as Reginald finished the game 0/4/0 on him. Alex Ich redeemed his awful Mordekaiser performance of the second game, hard carrying the decider with an 8/0/3 performance. In the end, it was Darien who likely put in the MVP performance of the final, exposing TheRainMan's weaknesses and going a combined 15/3/16 to TheRainMan's 3/9/13.

"Moscow 5 plays very different from their scrims. In every scrim, they banned Gangplank and Irelia, but in tournaments, both are highly valued picks.
Aggressive counter jungling was ran twice in this whole tournament, the second SK vs M5 and the final TSM vs M5 game. Aggressive buff taking, on the other hand, is a very valid and very powerful strategy that every EU teams aim to utilize, with M5 mastering it and was used by nearly every single team."
-Xpecial, Support player of TSM, speaking about the IEM Kiev final (Reddit, 2012)

The aftermath

The aftermath of this series was firstly to set-up the eventual CLG vs. M5 showdown that took place during the semi-final of the IEM VI World Championship, less than two months later. Saintvicious, CLG's jungler, had been critical of the play of some of the TSM players in the IEM Kiev final and had stated that M5 would "end up being the next dig, do well one tourney and get overhyped." He had also claimed that aggressive counter-jungling wouldn't work against a team with a proper Top lane-Jungle combination.

It also further strengthened the TSM vs. CLG rivalry, as the Jungler had also mentioned that his team had beaten TSM in so many scrims that the American side had stopped letting them stream their scrims. This win put Moscow Five in position to claim the title of world's best team, as they did conclusively when they won the IEM World Championship undefeated that March.