One step away. Following Cloud9's reverse sweep of Team Liquid to make the NA LCS Grand Finals, we are one Team SoloMid victory away from the fourth straight meeting between a TSM and C9 in the finals. Can the reigning champions continue the never-ending war between C9 atop the NA LCS, or will Team Impulse become the first non-C9/TSM team to make a NA LCS Grand Finals in two years?

Team SoloMid: North American Royalty

Highest KDA (Regular Season): Bjergsen, 6.77

Most Kills: WildTurtle, 108

Most Assists: Lustboy, 205

Record Past 10 Games: 6-4

Love them. Hate them. Underrated. Overrated. Whatever you want to feel about Team SoloMid, they know what it takes to win. They've made the finals in each of their four NA LCS seasons, winning twice and only losing to now four-time finalist Cloud9.

The season has been a weird one for the defending champions. The preseason kicked off with IEM San Jose, where they debuted their new Danish jungler Santorin in the starting role after parting ways with Origen's current jungler Amazing. Any hype there was around Santorin was quickly stomped into the ground, as Kikis and the upstart Unicorns of Love shut out TSM in the semifinals and eliminated them from the tournament.

Four months later near the end of the NA LCS regular season and Santorin was a key part to TSM winning the IEM World Championship in Katowice and helped them secure possibly the biggest win in team history. In the middle of those two benchmarks, TSM have been somewhat on cruise control throughout the regular season. Counter Logic Gaming troubled them for a while before falling in the second-half of the season, and Cloud9 had an even worse regular season before turning it on in the end and slipping into second place due to CLG's troubles.

It was by no means a bad regular season for the champs, but it was more of the same that felt like nothing mattered until the playoffs. Dyrus continued to play the sacrificial lamb of the squad, getting little help and gold in the top lane while TSM focused their jungle pressure on helping Bjergsen get ahead early in the mid lane or grab a kill so WildTurtle could get an advantage to win his lane.

As with C9 and how people always expect more from them, TSM is in a similiar spot. Winning the NA LCS and taking the lead in the overall titles against C9 would be a great accomplishment and finish off a perfect end to the first half of the year; however, we all know TSM's true goal: Worlds.

They got there last year, had a bit of luck with SK's suspension troubles in their starting lineup, and they took advantage of that to advance out of the group stages and almost take first place away from eventual runners-up StarHorn Royal Club. Their second place finish meant they were thrown to the wolves against Samsung White in the quarterfinals, getting dispatched 3-1 in a series where it felt like they never truly had a chance to win from the get-go against the 2014 world champions.

Team Impulse presents them with possibly their toughest opposition in playoff history, outside of their constant clashes with C9 in the final. TSM were able to knock off LMQ (the former TiP) in the semifinals last season, and while you could argue they've upgraded their lineup from last, SoloMid expect to have the same results.

Four straight finals appearances and on the verge of the fifth.

Impulse are fun to watch and are capable challengers for the throne, but TSM have seen exciting upstarts come at them before and miss their shot.

Team Impulse: A Shot At Royalty

Highest KDA (Regular Season): Apollo, 6.07

Most Kills: Apollo, 90

Most Assists: Adrian, 174

Record Past 10 Games: 8-2

Impulse are coming at the king, and they better not miss.

Fortunately for Impulse, they have a jungler named Rush who is going to go straight at TSM and not hold back. He's going to take a shot at the king, and he doesn't care if he misses the first time. If TSM dodges once, he'll come back with another. And another. And another. Constant, annoying pressure that won't let up until he kills everyone, or as it has gone at points this season, his entire team dead around him and the five members of the opposite squad piling on Rush.

While TSM is expected to play in their fifth final as if it's where they belong, Impulse are playing with house money. They were considered a 'summer team,' a group of five individuals and an imported Korean coach that would have needed at least a few months and a whole lot of growing pains to meet their true potential.

Maybe in the Summer season when things started to gel they would make their massive push for the Worlds, but look at them now. A great first regular season where their end of the season run put them into the Top 4, and then a decisive first playoff win against a solid Gravity team in the first round. With three different main languages on the team and a few rookies thrown into the mix — one of them being their shot-caller and face punching extraordinaire Rush — it was a weird mix of styles and players that has blossomed into some weird monster that lives on the blood of their opponents.

Possibly Impulse's biggest advantage in the series against TSM and a reason why they could become the first team to knock the champions out before the finals, Team Impulse are the opposite of TSM when it comes to how they use their top lane. While TSM are fine with letting Dyrus starve and battle off three guys camping him with only a stick and a few health pots, Rush and Impact, the two Koreans on TiP, have formed a partnership that could be able to exploit the lack of presence in the top lane for TSM.

Another reason why you should believe in Impulse's chances of victory: they play incredibly loose. Although you can compare TSM to an extremely well-coached and put-together machine that knows their jobs and are a brick wall, Impulse see walls and just run through them. Sometimes their reckless running into walls leads them to their death, but there are also times where their fun, free-flowing way of playing can breakthrough any obstacle put in front of them and gain them the win.

When the rest of the junglers around the world are becoming shy of bruiser champions and are reverting to huge tanks or AOEbots, Rush shrugs and continually runs against the brick wall put in front of him. The shot-caller of the team, Rush will pick the same champions that got him to this point, throw Cinderhulk on them to get a bit heavier in battle, and then jump in to fight three people at once with no fear in his mind.

Impulse aren't the cleanest team or really have the look of champion. Their play, at times, can be ugly and resemble more of a fun solo queue game than a world-class match between professionals. Truth be told, they can play a bit insane at times.

But that insanity could be the key to taking down the most decorated North American team in League of Legends history.

The Verdict:

Betting against C9, TSM and Fnatic in the LCS is stupid. C9 and Fnatic qualified for their respective LCS Grand Finals yesterday, putting those teams in the record books for having made the final of every LCS they've participated in. TSM can join those teams with their win against Impulse, getting them to their fifth straight fight for the title and the fourth in a row against Cloud9.

Impulse don't fit the mold of the challengers that have tried to take out C9, Fnatic and TSM in the past. Fnatic, for example, had to beat H2k yesterday, a team that felt like they were on the same page at every turn. They were a group of five from all different countries who worked together for the common goal of victory.

They went up two games to one on Fnatic, looked like they were going to kill Fnatic's streak of finals, and then started to slip. By the final game, the rookies of H2k couldn't handle the pressure and Fnatic, even with three newcomers to the professional scene of their own, held their cool and won the match.

Impulse, well, are crazy. They have a good coach in Fly (former Jin Air coach and SC2 pro-gamer) and don't rely on solely one composition to get the job done, but the experience and communication isn't there. TSM, even with a new face in Santorin, are an established team and work together well in tough spots. Lustboy, even with English not being his first language, has grown with the team and is now one for of their integral members.

Still, even with their craziness and misplays at times due to over-aggression or miscommunication, Impulse have grown at a rate that many couldn't have imagined. They finished the season on a hot streak, climbing from the bottom of the standings and inching towards a top two spot. TSM had a rockier end to the season, dropping some games they probably shouldn't have, but that can go back to the 'cruise control' idea; as long as they finished in the top two and put themselves in a good position for the playoffs, a few loss games were alright to try out different compositions or champions.

Impact is a former world-champion.

Rush is a born fighting game player who somehow found himself playing League.

XWX is the reigning NA LCS MVP.

Apollo turned his career around and became one of the best ADC's in North America.

Adrian had a strong rookie season and improved as the season went on.

Impulse probably aren't going to knock out TSM with their first punch. Or their fourth. Maybe not even their 42nd. But Impulse are a team that can punish and snowball with Impact if given the chance, and Rush is the type of player that is going to make TSM bring their A-game if they want to make the final.

Prediction: Team Impulse 3 - 2 Team SoloMid

P.S: If TSM beat Team Impulse, I'm hereby never picking against TSM, Fnatic or C9 in any playoff game not against each other ever again.

Tyler "Fionn" Erzberger is a staff writer for The Score eSports, and he will be covering both the EU and NA LCS Playoffs. I want to believe in a new future with new finals with new teams. This might not be that season You can follow and tell him your predictions on Twitter.