This article is part of our Additional Recaps series.
North America's Team SoloMid concluded its tournament-long dominance with a 3-0 dismantling of Europe's Unicorns of Love in the finals of Rift Rivals 2017, giving North America bragging rights in Berlin on Saturday.
Team SoloMid commanded Game 1 from early on as star mid laner Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg was inexplicably allowed to play LeBlanc. Bjergsen excelled on The Deceiver, earning a CS (creep score) lead and kills despite going down for first blood. Meanwhile, jungler Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen proved for a second time this tournament that he's just as big of a threat on Kha'Zix as he is on Lee Sin, picking up a triple kill just before the 12-minute mark as TSM turned a tower dive. With TSM winning every skirmish and spiraling out of control, a 23-minute Baron led to an easy 30-minute victory, putting TSM up 1-0.
Game 2 looked like a rerun of the first as TSM found the first two kills of the game in a tower dive just four minutes in, snowballing from there. Svenskeren had a stellar game on his signature Lee Sin, earning a 3/0/4 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) in the first 13 minutes of the game on TSM's first seven kills. Unicorns of Love nearly came back with a clutch 4-for-1 teamfight at 21 minutes, but Svenskeren came through again with a Baron steal, securing the buff from under the Unicorn's hooves. TSM had no problems breaking open base with the buff and ending the game in 29 minutes, threatening to clean sweep UoL with a 2-0 lead.
Unicorns' bot lane looked to flip the script in Game 3, with AD carry Samuel "Samux" Fernandez Fort and support Zdravets "Hylissang" Iliev Galabov using the Xayah/Rakan duo to grab first blood in the 2-vs-2 less than three minutes in. Indeed, all of UOL looked to be resurging as it found a small gold lead in the early game through kills and turrets. Unfortunately for Europe, Team SoloMid came storming back into the game with a clean ace in the mid lane at 25 minutes, granting it a Baron kill and stampeding all over Europe's dreams. Unicorns of Love did a good job holding off the Baron-powered push, but Bjergsen's Kassadin had come into its own, Rift Walking in and out of danger to lead TSM to a 35-minute teamfight win and 3-0 series sweep.
Team SoloMid return to North America with heads held high to take on Phoenix1 on Saturday, July 15, at 3 p.m. ET. Unicorns of Love, meanwhile, will look to continue its domestic dominance over Group B against Misfits on Friday, July 14, at 2 p.m. ET.
