The Summer Split of the North American LCS Playoffs concluded this past weekend in a packed stadium at Madison Square Garden. It also marked the conclusion of the dynasty of Team SoloMid and Cloud9’s dominance over the North American region, as for the first time a new champion was crowned in North America. Counter Logic Gaming, after almost four tortuous and catastrophic years, have finally raised their first trophy since MLG Raleigh 2011. They swept the defending champions 3-0 in a dominating fashion, looking in control from the very first minute of play.
CLG’s victory brings them back to Worlds after a two year absence, and as North America’s new hope for international success. They looked dominant over a team that they had never beaten this year, and comfortably are the best North American team right now.
Meanwhile, Team Liquid and Team Impulse battled in their third straight third place match. Unlike the previous two, this match was fairly one-sided in favor of Team Liquid, who took the match quite easily in a 3-1 victory. Although TL did not secure their Worlds spot with their third place victory, they looked strong and as clear favorites to qualify as the third seed from North America for the first time in the team’s history.
Results
| | | | | | | | | | |
CLG | 3 | |||||||||
TiP | 3 | |||||||||
TiP | 0 | |||||||||
dignitas | 0 | |||||||||
CLG | 3 | |||||||||
TSM | 0 | |||||||||
TL | 1 | 3rd place match | ||||||||
GV | 1 | TL | 3 | |||||||
TSM | 3 | |||||||||
TSM | 3 | TiP | 1 | |||||||
Recaps
TL vs. TiP
+ Show Spoiler +TL and TIP came off of a disappointing semifinal result last week. TIP were completely dominated by CLG en route to a 3-0 while TL squandered early leads against TSM away. Both teams looked rather out of sorts in their respective semifinals, so it would this third place match was necessary for the team to prove that they could, in fact, win when it counted.
Unfortunately for TIP, the loss of XiaoWeixiao continues to burden the team. They could not get rolling when it mattered, and an underwhelming series from both Gate and Apollo proved catastrophic to the team. TL were able to capitalize on the mistakes made by TIP’s carries and claw out a 3-1 victory despite being down on multiple occasions.
The first game looked even, but with Impact’s Ryze having quite a substantial lead over Quas’s Maokai. Things looked to have turned for the worst for TL when they got aced at Dragon by the Ashe/Leona Combo, with Impact cleaning up with kills on his hypercarry Ryze. TIP would slowly ramp up to a 7k gold lead with their advantage, but failed to push it hard enough to close out TL. A disastrous missed Arrow at 37 minutes led to an amazing Fenix Shockwave that gave TL 2 kills and the Baron, and gave them a little more breathing room.
That Baron was the one spark that gave TL life back in what appeared to be a lost game. They took 3 turrets in succession until catching out Impact while sieging the bottom inner turret. TL pushed on this advantage as Piglet’s Vayne proved too dangerous for TIP to deal with. Within three minutes of grabbing the game-changing Baron, TL had destroyed the nexus and led TIP by 1-0.
TIP would draft a Shen/Evelynn composition with a Soraka support for the global heal. This worked wonders against TL’s Juggernaut composition as the Shen/Evelynn submarine composition allowed Rush to get extremely fed on Eve and destroy anyone who he caught without vision. TIP would snowball to win the second game, with Rush finishing with an impressive score of 9/0/6.
With the score even at 1-1, Impact took a leaf out of Smeb’s book and picked the top lane Malphite into Quas’s Sion, with the Ashe onto Apollo. After a first blood for Piglet onto Adrian’s Janna, TL would push their advantage slowly, taking the outer ring of turrets but not contesting the dragon. A drawn out pause would take place over the next few minutes, with the highlight of most of the match being the war of attrition of the two top laners, whose extended duel drew the cheers of the crowd, and also the boos when Impact decided to walk away from it. TIP would make a Dragon for Baron trade, which was a costly disaster that cost TIP the game. With TL already having a gold lead and a turret lead, the game once again exploded in TL’s favor. With the Baron TL would grab two inhibitors before a game-winning teamfight in the base won TL the game with yet another Baron push.
Game four was easily the highlight of the series, with the previous three games being rather underwhelming. TIP would get an early lead with Rush’s Eve and Gate’s Teleport Diana ganking bot lane and later top lane, getting a four kill advantage and around a 3k gold advantage. TIP would fight very intelligently in the beginning, capitalizing on having more people at a single location at any given moment. This would later turn around in the top lane as TL got four kills for free once they fought a 5v5, reducing the gold lead down to around 2k. TIP caught out Piglet near the middle inner turret, but crucially did not manage to kill him. This would cost them dearly as they overdove the turret after Apollo got caught by Quas’ Nautilus, and without crucial ultimates would lose the teamfight for only Fenix. Another teamfight at Dragon resulted in a five for two for TL, but Rush managed to smite steal it, leading to a three to nothing Dragon advantage for TIP. TL would win close extended teamfights but at one point were too hurt to go for Baron while TIP made a desperate Baron call. Fenix managed to steal the Baron with Orianna’s Shockwave-Dissonance combo, giving TL a big advantage for the first time this series. Once again, with Baron TL were decisive, and they would once again end the game quickly after securing the first Baron.
TL’s form was almost the reverse of their form against TSM. Against TIP, they closed rapidly whenever they got a substantial lead. Even though they still looked a little shaky at several teamfights at neutral objectives, they still pulled ahead far enough in the mid game that they could win when it most counted. After a bad loss for TL, this result is very promising.
TIP on the other hand are hurting from both a meta shift and the loss of their mid laner. With less priority being placed on Sivir, Apollo has been forced to play other hypercarry champions, where he hasn’t been nearly as effective as he was earlier. His unreliability has proven a big thorn to TIP, who lost their tertiary threat in the Rush/Impact/XiaoWeixiao trio. Before, they could count on their midlaner to at least go even and be a threat with the massive amount of farm he received, even if he wasn’t needed to win the games. Gate so far has been pigeonholed as a supportive mid, and the time he was placed on a carry Diana he proved ineffectual. TIP’s chances at worlds have been really hurt and they need to look better if they want to grab the third spot at worlds.
CLG vs. TSM
Going into this match, only a minority truly believed CLG would take the finals. CLG’s long history of disappointment, tragedy, and collapse at all the wrong moments left everyone believing that CLG would find a way to lose to their rivals. They hadn’t taken a single game off of TSM for the entire year, never finding answers to any of TSM’s moves.
Yet somehow, today, CLG proved that they had improved. Over the course of three games CLG proved that they were not only able to beat their arch-rivals, but did so in absolutely dominating fashion, blowing TSM out in three consecutive games. Although they were aided by a bad drafting phase from TSM and an untimely underperformance from star mid laner Bjergsen, CLG’s performance here was undoubtedly the best they’ve ever produced in three years. Every single CLG member did well, with Zionspartan leading the way with an absolutely dominating performance over Dyrus. Pobelter would look impressive on Viktor while Doublelift had fantastic positioning and even scored a pentakill on Jinx in game two. CLG appears to be the first team in NA to master the triple threat composition that is highly prevalent among the top echelon of teams in the world, including teams like LGD, Fnatic, and SKT T1.
The first game started off brilliantly for CLG, which remained the pattern for the remaining three games. The early first blood for Zionspartan’s Yasuo allowed him to become a massive threat, which Dyrus could not deal with on his Gnar. Whatever TSM tried, CLG had an answer. They would pull the trigger without hesitation, resembling more of an LPL team rather than an NA team with their unbridled aggression. After a lengthy dance around the Baron, CLG would ace TSM in mid lane for only Aphromoo’s Braum. CLG grabbed Baron, and shortly after, the game.
TSM, left unable to counter the mismatch in top lane, would attempt to counter Zion’s Yasuo by picking it for Bjergsen. CLG immediately shut it down by immediately three-man ganking Bjergsen and getting first blood. CLG had a laneswap advantage with Doublelift’s Jinx getting an early turret for free, and a failed gank on top lane combined with a late teleport from Dyrus led to another kill for CLG and a 2k gold advantage at 7 minutes. Another fight at top lane gave TSM their first teamfight win with a 4 for 3 trade. TSM finally looked like they were in the game for the first time in the finals series.
This turned around when Dyrus’s Nautilus attempted to set up a gank on Zion’s Gnar for Bjergsen. Not only did Zion outplay them in a 1v2, but he baited them for long enough to give CLG two more kills. TSM would hold on for a little longer, first going even in an almost-lost fight, then winning 4 to 2 after CLG overstayed by Baron. The game would finally break open after Pobelter made a brilliant play with Viktor to bait all of TSM, resulting in a clean ace and Baron. With the Baron buff CLG would push into the base, but disaster happened when Zion ulted in the wrong direction and Xmithie used his Gragas ultimate to get TSM members closer to CLG. Doublelift however would clean up the fight with a Pentakill on his Jinx, nearly ending the game. One more push from CLG put them up two games to zero, and in prime position to take their first NA finals.
Once again Bjergsen would pick Yasuo as a last pick into Pobelter’s Viktor in a composition very similar to the one they had in game two. TSM started off much better when Santorin and Dyrus invaded Xmithie early, stealing his red buff and forcing him to recall early. A gank from Santorin onto Pobelter backfired horribly as he was forced to flash out and indirectly allowed Xmithie the advantage back again. Pobelter would later roam to Wildturtle and Lustboy’s lane, flanking them and securing the first two kills. After securing turrets and getting a sizeable gold lead, CLG would win a teamfight five for three and break open the game. Another pick onto Wildturtle gave them two more kills and a 22 minute Baron.
With TSM looking down and out, they found a miraculous engage onto CLG 25 minutes in and won the teamfight four to three despite CLG still having the Baron buff. However, CLG would ace TSM at dragon only a few minutes later and continued to press their advantage. The game fell apart for TSM when Wildturtle’s immobile Kog’Maw backed outside of a bush, allowing Doublelift to hit him with an Ashe arrow, and give CLG four more kills and Baron. CLG would simply push their way to a 3-0 victory in only 34 minutes.
CLG looks like an empowered team. They have impressed with their playoff run, winning both series without dropping a single game. They’ve shown that they can play a triple threat style that’s very hectic, a stark contrast from the slow, rotational style that they had earlier in the season and throughout 2014. If the team continues to grow they could be NA’s distant hope for Worlds success, as TSM showed during MSI and over the season that they couldn’t be relied upon.
The former kings of NA have been dethroned. TSM is indisputably no longer the top team in NA, and CLG finally beating TSM in a Bo5 shows that they are dominant no longer. The IEM Katowice champions look out of sorts, but a lot of the problem seems to rest on Bjergsen and Lustboy. Bjergsen throughout this split has played scared, and it showed when he played particularly badly when put onto a carry champion such as Yasuo. He has shown that he can win on champions like Azir and formerly AP Kog’Maw or Runeglaive Ezreal. Gone is the exciting mid laner who took NA by storm on his debut performance on TSM. He seems to be a shadow of himself, not playing the flashy aggressive style that made him so famous. Lustboy as well has seemed to be uncoordinated from his team. Many of TSM’s woes recently have started with him getting caught, or him engaging when his team is backing off. The earlier vision-dominant style that he brought when he first joined TSM doesn’t seem to be persisting.
TSM has managed to get worse after their disastrous performance at MSI. Even though the kings were weaker, it took an entire split to dethrone them. CLG, the only team that could overcome TSM, is the only team that can carry NA’s hopes. TSM has not impressed, and have failed to deliver this entire split. The entire North American region has very dim hopes for Worlds.
A Look Forward: NA Regionals and Worlds
Two of the NA spots for the World Championships have been decided, and the last one will be decided in the regional gauntlet. C9, Gravity, TIP, and TL remain as the last contenders for the final spot for worlds. In the next week they will play to determine the last team standing.
TL, based on their form in the third place match look like the clear favorites for the final spot. They have been playing consistently well throughout the season and looked better in their third place performance than they did in the semifinals. They also have the benefit of being the final team to play in the gauntlet, which means that they have much less to prepare for. TIP may have a chance against TL, but the team is currently crippled and they have yet to play to their full standards. If they can find the form that led them to nearly taking playoff bye from TL, they could probably do very well when the time came for the World Championships.
Gravity looks to be in chaos. From having the best record in North America for a brief moment of time, the team has been in free-fall with Move’s collapse in performance, culminating in a 1-3 loss to TSM where they simply imploded. If they’ve improved in the time in between the finals, they could possibly see themselves being an outside threat, but Move has to play like he did in the middle of the split.
Cloud 9 is a strange wildcard team. They’ve been steadily improving ever since switching Hai to the jungle position for Meteos, and managed to barely stop their free-fall into relegation by clutching seventh place. Oddly enough, they seem to be the most prime to make an unexpected run into Worlds, as no one has seen them compete in a month of play. NaJin White Shield was in a very similar position to Cloud 9 last year, and they ran their gauntlet with the most impressive form that any team in any gauntlet has run. It’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility for Cloud 9 to qualify for Worlds.
In any case, the third seed from NA does not look like they will be making a big impact in Worlds. All NA teams seem significantly behind CLG, who are the weakest of the first seed teams out of any region. NA’s hopes rest almost entirely on CLG – unless either TSM or the third NA seed make drastic improvements, neither will be making it out of the group stage at Worlds.
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