Not to downplay the effect of 'The ban' (Though maybe it should be called 'The Unban'?), but the dissolution of S.S. and migration of some of its best to LQ was clearly the point when things started snowballing. You're right that TKO put up a fight in the NW and nearly rimmed Yellister, but he was right on the front and not prepared to weather that kind of sustained aggression. Can you imagine what the map would look like right now if GK1001 and DaBahamaLlama had ended up in TKO? Or even if they had started their own splinter tribe with the SS remnants and fought against LQ?
Having an almost completely secure flank allowed LQ to gear up for a massive push into the core. And while it was a huge deal to pick up GK and DBL since now both are in the top 5, at the time it was more important to not have them as threats. If even a few large SS players had ended up in TKO, the difficulty of securing the NW would have went way up for LQ and had a huge impact on the amount of force they were safely able to devote to fighting for the core.
(Edit)Also forgot to say: thanks for the time and effort you put into these weekly reports DBL. They've been an excellent read