TSM was the second team to advance in North America’s First Strike competition, after they destroyed underdog squad Renegades in the quarterfinals 2-0.
TSM was locked and loaded right from the start of the match, going up 11-1 on Ascent. After winning the opening pistol round, TSM never looked back and made quick work of Renegades with a 13-1 final score.
TSM’s triple-duelist lineup strategy with Phoenix, Raze, and Jett played perfectly to their aggressive playstyle, which led to Taylor “drone” Johnson, Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik, and Matthew “Wardell” Yu outdueling Renegades’ entry players.
After the match, Devon “randyySavage” Bréard admitted that the team knew exactly what TSM was up to throughout Game 1. But they failed to capitalize on the information and continuously made minor mistakes that prevented the team from gaining any type of momentum.
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TSM continued to take control of Game 2 by winning the early round gun fights. Even when Renegades found successful entry players to the sites, TSM would find a way to punish their sloppy post-plant defenses and clutch the round.
Wardell also put on an amazing quarterfinals performance on the Jett with a 36/11/1 KDA record in Ascent and Bind combined.
After their semifinals win over Renegades, TSM is now one step closer to proving they’re the best team in North America. But for that to happen, they will have to defeat the impressive Team Envy squad that earned the first seed in the First Strike North America closed qualifier.
READ MORE: Team Envy is the first team to qualify for the NA First Strike semifinals
