CLG go into the LCS break as league leaders. After a weekend of unexpected results, they took advantage of their rivals stumbling.
Counter Logic Gaming quietly snuck back into the first place in the North American LCS thanks to a 2-0 weekend. Wins over Cloud 9 and Team Liquid saw the former league leaders reclaim the top spot after slip-ups from Immortals and Team Solo Mid. Unexpected results abounded in the LCS, with Immortals losing both of their games, including a shock defeat at the hands of Phoenix 1. Their other loss came against TSM, who suffered their own surprising defeat against Cloud 9.
TSM’s vs Cloud 9 was the opening game of the weekend and it looked like business as usual for the Spring Split champions after they won a back-and-forth game one. Game two looked to be heading the same way, as TSM built up an almost 5k gold lead at one point. But Sneaky’s Tristana had gotten huge, picking up nine kills and even stealing a critical baron. He ended the game 9/0/5 and carried his team into a third game. Games one and two were close, but game three was all Cloud 9. Smoothie’s Bard was particularly impressive, going 3/0/13, but it was a team effort in which, objective-wise, C9 only gave up one turret and one dragon.
TSM bounced back the following night to take a win over Immortals. Although the win in itself wasn’t hugely surprising, the 2-0 manner of victory certainly was. Game one’s gold graph is all over the place, and TSM didn’t take a particularly big lead until very near the end. Game two was a little more in their favour but again, it wasn’t until near the end that a big gap opened up.
Immortals second match loss of the weekend - only their third of the season - was more of a shock. Phoenix 1 has the exact opposite record of Immortals and prised themselves away from the foot of the table with their surprise victory. In fact, with an earlier win over Envy, P1 actually went 2-0 for the week and are tied for 8th place in the league.
With their rivals slipping up, it fell to CLG to take advantage. A 2-1 win over Cloud 9 was a great start to their weekend, especially with game one of the series looking quite one-sided. Game two was closer, but C9 held the lead from start to finish, steadily ramping up to an inevitable game three. The final game was the closest and most entertaining of the set. CLG had a narrow lead for 10 minutes, then Cloud 9 took the advantage for about 15 minutes, only to give it back over in time for CLG to ride it home.
CLG wrapped up the weekend with a dominant victory over Team Liquid and go into the Rift Rivals break as league leaders. Huhi went deathless in both games against the league’s bottom team while Stixxay was an even more impressive 17/1/5 over the course of the series. Confidence in the CLG camp has to be soaring going into the Rift Rivals event.
