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Team SoloMid has stomped Dignitas 2-0 to win the League of Legends North American Regionals at PAX 2012, earning a cool $40,000 and a place in the $1,000,000 Season 2 World Championship this October.
While the second annual Dota 2 International saw Na’Vi and LGD clash in Seattle’s nearby Benaroya Hall, PAX was home to the biggest League of Legends event in North America this year so far. Eight teams battled through this single elimination tournament, with only the top three teams securing a place in the Season 2 World Championship and automatic qualification into Season 3.
With Counter Logic Gaming emerging victorious over Curse Gaming earlier in the day to secure a 3rd spot finish, crowd favourites Team SoloMid put on a clinical display to win their sixth major LAN event of the year and continue their North American dominance at the expense of Team Dignitas.
Game 1 saw TSM go with an aggressive split-pushing composition, including Dyrus on Shen and TheOddOne on Shyvana. This game plan was executed to perfection with TheOddOne stealing red-buff away from Dignitas’ IWillDominate at level one, setting the tone for the rest of the game.
However first blood went to Dignitas on top lane. Crumbzz playing Rumble managing to turn around an early gank, picking up a kill before going down himself.
The continued pressure and aggressive counter-jungling from TSM pushed them 7000 ahead in gold by 20 minutes, and with an early oracle on TheOddOne’s Shyvana they were continually able to deny map vision resulting in a three-man Baron pick up with Dignitas completely unaware.
TSM pressed their advantage; Dyrus split pushing with Shen whenever possible knowing he can be a teamfight presence at any point with his global ultimate. With Dignitas so far behind, TSM were able to methodically pick up all three base towers and inhibitors with little resistance.
Dignitas were able to briefly rally through two kills for Imaqtpie on an extremely farmed Kog’Maw, however this was just delaying the inevitable as TSM picked up their second Baron, pushed into the base and sealed game 1.
Game 2 saw Dignitas go with the poke comp that successfully got them through their semi-final match up with CLG the previous day. The picks: Nidalee, Janna, Nunu, Gragas and Caitlin all able to provide long range damage when forcing objectives.
TSM, opting to ban out Shen in order to deny Dignitas first pick, went with a largely AoE composition: Vladimir, Morgana, Corki, Soraka and Skarner.
Dignitas took the initiative at level 1 opting to swap lanes, sending Caitlin and Janna top to shut down Dyrus on Vladimir. However TSM were the early aggressors, with Chaox picking up first blood on bottom with the help of TheOddOne and proceeding to destroy the first tower of the game in under 4 minutes.
TSM were now in full flow, Reginald baiting in Scarra’s Gragas with very little health allowing TheOddOne to emerge from behind mid tower and pick up yet another clean kill. Dignitas were clearly on tilt, being caught numerous times out of position allowing TSM to gain a massive advantage by 30 minutes: 7000 gold ahead and up 10-1 in kills.
All TSM had to do now was play smart and exploit their advantage, and they were aided by Dignitas’s Patoy getting caught in his own jungle which promptly led to a kill and an easy Baron pick up for TSM.
By 34 minutes, TSM had once again used their Baron buff advantage to systematically take down all 3 base towers and inhibitors, whilst Dignitas’ Crumbzz valiantly attempted to apply back some pressure by taking a base tower and sneaking a Dragon..
It was all to be in vain though, as Dignitas were unable to defend the next push by TSM who closed out the game by 38 minutes to become the North American Regional Champions.
Team Solomid pick up $40,000 and become the ninth team to qualify for the Season 2 World Championships in Los Angeles this October along with Team Dignitas, CLG.na, CLG.eu, SK Gaming, winners of the European Regional Finals Moscow 5, World Elite, Invictus Gaming and Taipei Assassins. Three more teams will qualify from Korea and South East Asia.
