TSM has dug themselves a massive hole to begin the 2022 professional League of Legends season. TSM currently sits in last place in the LCS, having won only four of their first 15 games, and has only three games to work with if they want to make the Spring Split playoffs.
Moreover, despite a historically poor start to the season, TSM is still mathematically eligible for the playoffs, thanks in part to a two-win weekend last week. Here’s how the team can secure a spot in the spring playoff bracket.
TSM will need to win all three of their final games this split to advance to the spring playoffs. If they lose even one game this weekend, they will be eliminated from the playoff race. TSM’s record would improve to 7-11 if they had an undefeated super week to finish the split. Right now, three LCS teams—Dignitas, Evil Geniuses, and Golden Guardians—have seven wins heading into the super week, putting them ahead of TSM.
With that in mind, for TSM to have a chance at a tiebreaker, two of those three teams must go winless during the super week. On Saturday, March 26, EG and Golden Guardians will face off, and since someone is guaranteed to win their eighth game of the split, they’ll naturally shut out TSM by proxy, leaving only one playoff spot open. To have a chance, TSM will need whoever loses that game to also lose their other two games this weekend. According to a Reddit post made earlier today by a user named jnt250, TSM will have to play two tiebreaker games to secure a playoff berth.
TSM will also require Dignitas to lose all three games this weekend. Dignitas has games against C9, Team Liquid, and 100 Thieves, so it doesn’t seem all that impossible. Furthermore, CLG and Immortals, who have not yet been eliminated, must remain below the seven-win threshold in order for TSM to avoid a potential tie with either of them.
TSM’s final split schedule includes games against 100 Thieves, CLG, and Liquid. Two of those teams, Liquid and 100 Thieves, have already clinched a playoff spot, while CLG is directly ahead of TSM in the LCS standings. TSM’s playoff push will continue when the LCS returns on Friday, March 25.