As the Mobile Masters comes up soon, teams have been trying to prove themselves on the Fold that they are worthy of attending this prestigious event. SK Gaming, who are currently dominating Europe, will be in attendance alongside East Asia’ Ace Gaming, 3 of the best teams from North America, 2 NA challenger teams, and Fnatic. But none will be going in with more hype than the boys from TSM and they seem keen to take the tournament at the rate they are going.

NA VainGlory 8 Autumn Split 1’s Triumphant Conclusion

This season has been a bit of a weird one. Cloud 9 didn’t seem like they had any competition in NA after they destroyed the other teams with picks that were downright disrespectful, yet worked. While Weapon Power Petal was always a nice meme to toss around, C9 got it to be the meta and even one a game with Captain Skye. This was also the team that won the Unified Summer Finals this year by decimating Immortals, now Tribe Gaming.

What happened to them? Just like last split, the only team that seems to be on the same level as C9 is TSM. Granted, Nova Esports took a third place finish this week, but it all started with TSM’s 2-0 smash over C9 to get them in that position in the first place. And wouldn’t you know it, it was with a style pick to counter the WP Petal; Weapon Power Adagio got TSM shut down OldSkool in his tracks.

This seemed like the actual finals, to be frank. Not to harp to harshly onto Rogue, but it was well known that going into the day that eVoL had been feeling ill all day. With how heavily Rogue has relied on eVoL to set up the fights, it was incredible that they were able to take down Nova before facing TSM. However, you could see that the life was out of ROG. That being said, TSM still played clean Vainglory. Game 1 was a rough early game, but a strong mid and late, and then Game 2 was TSM slapping ROG all across the Fold.

Expectations at Mobile Masters

Now TSM is on top of the world, right? They should be able to clean house and even topple a foe as towering as ACE. Cloud 9 were the hope of NA before, but it should move to the team that is playing better at the moment, correct?

This sort of logic doesn’t always work. Teams can go through ups and downs. TSM is assuredly on a rise while C9 are on the decline. But the track record for TSM this Autumn is troubling to place them as favorites even though the odds are in their favor. However, we still aren’t sure whether this is to be a trend for TSM or just a fluke. With this victory in week 3, they still sit in 3rd place and five points out from tying C9. TSM has had a tendency to be inconsistent; their power in game determined by their emotional state. In even this week, they dismantled C9 and ROG 2-0, yet were forced into a game 3 against, tied for last, Gankstars in a really close series.

The hopes for TSM to win it all at Mobile Masters is there still. If they can ride this wave of success and energy into Vegas next week, they truly can contend for the trophy. But I would hold my breath and see which version of TSM is going to arrive. Will it be the innovating and clinical TSM that bested C9, or the TSM that struggled to defeat GS?