IPL4 starts today

[Dantski]

Just another note about the TSM top lane, Sullla mentions how CLG shutdown Dyrus in the first set of games. I imagine they'd have been more than happy to do so again but Dyrus was able to escape ganks far more easily when he played Vlad and Saintvicious + HSGG weren't able to get ahead like before.

I was confused by HSGG's picks the last 2 games, Cho is reasonably safe sure but since he likes to build Shurelias on him I felt that made him far more vulnerable in the teamfights where TSM would often just kill him straight away. Picking Olaf vs Vlad in the final game was a head scratcher too, I guess the idea was to survive the lane and just rush in on Ashe/Cassiopeia each fight but the one time I remember him doing this he wasn't anywhere near close enough to having the damage to get a kill.

While TSM did win the tournament, I'm not sure their changes have made a massive difference in performance, Reginald is still inconsistent and Chaox is still really strong in teamfights. With TheRainMan you feel he would've played a different top lane in the final 2 games though and maybe Dyrus' pool of champions just suits TSM better. I also feel like Dyrus got more help toplane in this tournament from his team than RainMan got in 2 years.

[Sullla]

We'll have to disagree on this one then, Seyruun. Solomid's performance immediately and noticeably improved as soon as they replaced Rain Man. I don't believe that he was scapegoated at all; Rain Man rarely won top lane, and was very frequently shut down by the other team's top laner. Rain Man's incredibly childish antics certainly didn't help the team either. Yes, the rest of Solomid is also incredibly childish and immature as well. But Rain Man wasn't helping matters there, and as someone who's watched TSM pretty closely, they adopted a much more professional training schedule since his departure. Dyrus is simply a better player in top lane, and also a better team player. You can't tell me it's a coincidence that TSM won 3 of the last 5 tournaments they played in, after rarely winning much of anything before that.

[Deceptus]

We'll have to disagree on this one then, Seyruun. Solomid's performance immediately and noticeably improved as soon as they replaced Rain Man. I don't believe that he was scapegoated at all; Rain Man rarely won top lane, and was very frequently shut down by the other team's top laner. Rain Man's incredibly childish antics certainly didn't help the team either. Yes, the rest of Solomid is also incredibly childish and immature as well. But Rain Man wasn't helping matters there, and as someone who's watched TSM pretty closely, they adopted a much more professional training schedule since his departure. Dyrus is simply a better player in top lane, and also a better team player. You can't tell me it's a coincidence that TSM won 3 of the last 5 tournaments they played in, after rarely winning much of anything before that.

Many of The Rain Man's champions at the time had losing matchups (indeed, TSM's losses to, say, Moscow 5 in the tournament in which they "invented" Shyvana, to which TRM was supposed to pick Irelia at a losing proposition; I can't name things off the top of my head right now though).

Besides, look at how TheOddOne's playstyle looks like. He had to support a toxic mid lane who throws tantrums at his fellow players. TheOddOne camps mid lane most of the time, this leaves little ability for The Rain Man to receive help in case the matchup really is bad.

I'd say it's more like Dyrus just plays different, better (for overall team synergy) top lane picks, rather than flat out saying that Dyrus is more skilled. Note that Dyrus became a TSM member about at the same time as they finally started to get their act together (inclusion of Jonas to mediate their inside issues), and I don't think Dyrus is the cause, more like correlation.

At most the team roster change doesn't make much of a difference. The Rain Man is a great LoL player, even if he's a douchebag. The Rain Man was also victimized by his teammates (Reginald -.-) and fans alike (wtffff Chaox's "OP MF'" is failing and Reginald keeps dying and TheOddOne won't secure his buffs but let's blame The Rain Man dohohoho) so no wonder the novelty of "practicing with his team" when the general consensus is "calling each other names" quickly wore off.

[Sir Bruce]

It's also not true that TSM immediately became better when Dyrus joined. Their first week or so of scrims he fed endlessly and lost top lane horribly over and over. He was clearly not used to the level of play that TSM (and TRM) had been experiencing up until then. However he learned quickly and TSM was more devoted to practice than before.

As a sheer empirical matter, it is close to impossible to determine whether the switch from TRM to Dyrus mattered more or less than the change in TSM's general approach to practice, analyzing the meta, improving teamplay, and lifestyle changes, since both changes happened at the exact same time. Any resulting change in TSM's performance is partly the first and partly the second and we don't really have a good way to untangle which matters more other than guesswork and speculation. About the only thing we can say is that the entire set of changes has been positive for TSM. My personal speculation is that although TRM and Dyrus are about the same mechanically, Dyrus was much more willing to learn the champs they needed and to devote time to practice teamwork and that made the difference.

[sunrise089]

It's also not true that TSM immediately became better when Dyrus joined. Their first week or so of scrims he fed endlessly and lost top lane horribly over and over. He was clearly not used to the level of play that TSM (and TRM) had been experiencing up until then. However he learned quickly and TSM was more devoted to practice than before.

That's really interesting to me if true. Had you told me that he fed at first and then did better I'd have theorized it was due to different playstyles/team synergy. If what you're saying is true that suggests there is a certain tier of player who given the chance may all preform roughly the same. That isn't true, for example, in most physical sports.

[Krill]

Is there any truth to the rumour that IPL5 is at the Cosmopolitan...and a bunch of CLG and TSM players just got banned from there after IPL4 finished for whatever reason?