▲ Photo by Paul de Leon for Riot Games

The 2020 League of Legends Championship Series Academy League Spring Playoffs kicked off today with 4th seed TSM Academy and 5th seed 100 Thieves Academy facing off in a best-of-five series in the Quarterfinals. Despite the two teams' closeness in the standings of the 2020 LCS Academy League Spring Split, TSM Academy's victory was extremely one-sided. A 3-0 sweep of 100 Thieves Academy earned TSM Academy a Semifinals match against Dignitas Academy.

TSM Academy Jungler Mingyi "Spica" Lu spoke to Inven Global's Nick Geracie to break down his team's win over 100 Thieves Academy, his improved synergy with Mid Laner Jackson "Evolved" Dohan, and the upcoming match against DIG Academy.

Spica, that was quite the convincing win from TSM Academy. Was the series as one-sided as you expected, and if so, what was your game plan heading into the match?

We definitely had a rough regular season, but I don't think regular season really matters that much in the grand scheme of things because the post-season is very different. In playoffs, you're playing a best-of-5 series, but in the regular season, anything can happen because it's just one game.

Our gameplan heading into this Quarterfinals was playing through bot because we have a very strong bot lane duo. I played Jarvan IV all three games, and he's very good at playing through bot if the enemy has an immobile AD Carry champion, so that was our gameplan. We just played through bot and took over the game from there.

In regards to your three Jarvan games, your performance was absurd: 3 kills, 3 deaths, and 49 assists for a 17.3 KDA.

*Laughs* Oh wow!

It was an absolutely insane performance for you against 100 Thieves Jungler Juan "Contractz" Garcia, who, like you, has experience in the LCS. Did your experience in the LCS with TSM's main roster last summer come into play in this series today?

Oh yeah, I think the LCS games definitely helped me a lot. The biggest improvement I've noticed is in the form of communication in terms of making plans with the team and how you want to play through a specific lane as a Jungler. I think that was the biggest thing I learned in LCS last year. Jarvan IV also really matched well against the way 100 Thieves Academy wanted to draft, so that's why I think it was able to work so effectively.

Your Mid Laner Evolved played Syndra all three games, so TSM Academy's Mid/Jungle picks stayed the same for the entire series. You've played most of your career on TSM Academy with Nicholas "Ablazeolive" Abbott in the mid lane, so what's it been like developing synergy with Evolved this season?

I will say it's definitely been a bumpy ride. From the beginning of the split, we had a lot of issues around communication and playing around mid lane in general, but I think this past week or two we have really improved on that. As you could see in the series today, I think we have pretty great synergy at this point. We've fixed a lot of previous mistakes that have cost us losses, and we've been able to fix them pretty fast.

Do you have any thoughts on your upcoming Semifinals match against Dignitas Academy?

I think Dignitas will definitely be a tough opponent. After today's match, I have confidence that we will be able to take on DIG Academy.

You'll be up against your former teammate Jonathan "Grig" Armao in the Jungle matchup. Do you think that matchup will be pivotal in the series because of your familiarity with one another?

*laughs* Yeah, I think it's always fun to play against ex-teammates, so I think it will be an interesting match. Grig is really good at jungle pathing, so I want to see how I can stand up to him after the entire Spring Split.

Thanks for the interview, Spica, it should be an interesting match next weekend. Until then, is there anything you want to say to the TSM fans?

Shout out to all of the fans that support us on stream and on Twitter.