As the LCS finals loomed, TSM and Team Liquid took the stage. The players lined up to match one another, but TSM’s Zven had an issue. He couldn’t find intro-partner and TL mid-laner, Jensen. The tall Dane walked up and comedically put his hand to his forehead to look over his fellow countryman, indicating that he was too short to see. Everyone had a laugh about it, the two shook hands, and they returned to their teams.

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Picks and Bans, and a whole lotta spice

The shots didn’t stop in the intros, however. Zven kept the disses coming even into the Picks and Bans phase for Game 1. When it was his time to lock in his champion, he first hovered over Ekko. This was a throwback to Jensen’s infamous fail against TSM in the 2017 Spring finals, when he was a member of Cloud9.

[irp posts=”21543″ name=”TSM vs TL LCS finals recap | Reverse sweep for the three-peat!”]

Zven then clicked on the Lucian, a jab now at Doublelift for one of his favorite champions. He even hovered Yorick, and then Jax, a tasteful reminder to a regular season game earlier in the year. In that match, Team Liquid’s Impact first-picked Yorick away from TSM top-laner Broken Blade, who then took Jax and wreaked havoc anyway.

The Games Begin

Going into the series, it seemed for a long while like Zven’s BM (bad manners) would go unpunished. While Zven himself had a modest 1-1-11 Game 1 on Varus, a monster 11-1-6 performance from Broken Blade’s Vladimir was all it took to dispatch Team Liquid in 40 minutes.

The second game was even more efficient from TSM, who closed out the match in 35 minutes. Determined to stave off elimination and a 3-game sweep, Team Liquid then fought back hard to even out the series. After a hard-fought 40-minute TL win in Game 3, and a more convincing 25-minute stomping in Game 4, we were all tied up at 2-2 and jamming out to Silver Scrapes.

“What is he doing?!”

It was Game 5, the match that would decide this historically great series and crown the North American kings, where it would all come full circle. The karmic debt of Zven’s insult needed to be paid, and this is where it would be exacted.

At 35 minutes into Game 5, TSM had done everything right. They had an 8-3 kill lead. They lead in turrets 5-3, and in Dragons 4-1. A 5,000+ gold advantage had them in prime position to close out the series and pick up their 7th title. And then it happened.

It was Zven himself, in all his masculine Danish glory, on his own, away from his team, on some ungodly and inexplicable mission that could only warrant a “WHAT IS HE DOING?!” from caster Azael, who overstepped. He rushed toward Xmithie’s Skarner, missed a bunch of skill shots, and quickly tried to blink back out. But Xmithie caught him with an Impale, Doublelift joined with a Killer Instinct, and Zven had nowhere to go.

Team Liquid made quick work of Zven, turned onto an easy Baron, and ultimately rolled into a series-deciding victory.

Zven couldn’t see Jensen. Maybe that’s what allowed the little Dane to sneak in with the reverse-sweep and steal the series away. It was a good diss, but with a little help from Xmithie, Jensen walked away with the last laugh.