Team Solo Mid has been a dominant team in North American LCS ever since its creation, but their current form has been far from top of the league.

Despite winning early game more often than not, TSM has been unable to close out games and show any competence in macro-level strategy. By the start of week 5 day 2, TSM was the team with the longest time played with a gold lead, and yet their record was 4-5.

As we look into their game against Cloud9, one of the most competent macro level teams in NA, some of TSM’s strategic flaws become clear.

At 9 minutes, TSM has vision of Cloud9’s bottom jungle quadrant, and they know Svenskeren isn’t there, and he is most likely topside. He could be clearing his jungle or on the move to gank top. In this situation, TSM should try attempt a play botside or take a fight topside and hope to win the 2v2.

But that’s not what happens. TSM knows Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen could be around and yet choose to flash, take turret shots and hope to burst down a slippery Gnar with 2 tank champions. The play obviously fails and the result is abysmal. Instead of getting Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell ahead, they give Cloud9 two free kills.

A few minutes later, at 13:50, TSM commits 5 men to bot. Not even if they killed Sneaky would this would be worth it. Hauntzer didn’t need to teleport, and instead he could have moved to midlane to defend the turret and keep it healthier, so they wouldn’t lose it to Rift Herald and lose the game on a mid lane fight under the perished tower.

Against Clutch Gaming we see another prime example of TSM’s recurring mistakes.

In this clip, they pick a fight, initiating on Skarner, without proper vision and with their carries in a bad position as well as Gnar being completely out of the fight and nowhere near his Mega Gnar form. A lot more went wrong in this game, but picking up a fight without proper vision and without all members in position is an overaggressive and risky move.

This season, their lanes are stronger than ever, their players mechanical skills is top-notch and their early game is good enough to put them ahead most often. However, macro play is one of the most important and difficult aspects of the game and it’s what separates the good teams from the great ones.

It’s not clear who is specifically responsible for TSM shotcalling at any given time, but the competition in NA LCS is fiercer than ever and if TSM doesn’t improve soon they may have to get used to the bottom half of the standings.