A Long Time Coming – North American LCS Summer Finals

Sunday was a historic day for the North American LCS. Known for consistently falling short of their potential, Counter Logic Gaming defeated their long-time rivals (and winners of the past two Summer Finals) Team SoloMid in a best-of-five series. Their victory was quite convincing - they didn’t lose a single game. This series was also significant as it marked Doublelift's first LAN win. The community tended to be quite split on predicting the results of Summer Finals; many saw TSM's domination of Team Liquid, the first place team during the Summer Split, as a sign of their return to form, whereas others instead insisted on Counter Logic Gaming being the superior team. While nowhere near perfect, these three games were incredibly one-sided. Let's take a look at how Counter Logic Gaming defeated Team SoloMid and claimed the first spot at Worlds.

Game 1

Counter Logic Gaming thoroughly outsmarted Team SoloMid during picks & bans. By banning Maokai, they tricked TSM into choosing Gnar for Dyrus. CLG responded by putting ZionSpartan on Yasuo, a champion who fares very well against Gnar. The game began with a lane swap from TSM; WildTurtle went top to face ZionSpartan and Aphromoo, while Doublelift enjoyed solo-experience in the bottom lane against Dyrus and Lustboy. After swapping to the top lane, Lustboy gave up first blood to ZionSpartan during a gank. CLG proceeded to dominate the mid-game, picking up both kills and towers left and right. Around thirty-two minutes in, Counter Logic Gaming aced TSM and claimed Baron. The rest of the game was fairly straightforward – CLG pushed down TSM's towers, won a team-fight and destroyed the Nexus before the 40 minute mark.

ZionSpartan uses teleport to catch WildTurtle out of position.

Game 2

In Game 2, Team SoloMid took built a team composition around Bjergsen's Yasuo, with Alistair and Nautilus providing ample knock-ups for his ultimate, Last Breath. CLG initiated a three-man gank onto Bjergsen just before the five minute mark, granting first blood once again to ZionSpartan. A few minutes later, Santorin died in the top lane as ZionSpartan used teleport to thwart a nearly successful gank. This game was incredibly action-packed, as constant team fights and skirmishes broke out at nearly every opportunity; Doublelift even earned a Pentakill during a fight in the bottom lane. CLG pushed their advantage and destroyed TSM's nexus thirty-one minutes into the game.

Doublelift secures a Pentakill.

Game 3

In Game 3, both teams opted to start with standard lanes. Around thirteen minutes in, Pobelter shoved the minion wave into Bjergsen's tower and roamed to the bottom lane. Xmithie joined in on the action, and CLG managed to kill WildTurtle and Lustboy. CLG took the bottom tower and later rotated to take the top tier 1 as well. Lustboy was caught around twenty minutes in, and the ensuing team-fight led to CLG acing TSM, with only Xmithie and ZionSpartan left alive. As the game progressed, WildTurtle fell victim to Doublelift's Ashe arrows and was caught multiple times in the mid lane. This allowed CLG to win team-fights, claim objectives and eventually end the game.

WildTurtle falls victim to Doublelift's sharpshooting.

Closing Thoughts

Yasuo played a huge factor in Team SoloMid's undoing. In Game 1, we saw ZionSpartan become a terror on this swordsman – both in team-fights and while split-pushing. In Games 2 and 3, Bjergsen's Yasuo was quite underwhelming, despite having multiple knock-ups on his team. In fact, Dyrus's Nautlius outdamaged Bjergsen's Yasuo in both games. Some of this can be attributed to the pressure CLG exerted on Bjergsen through repeated ganks. By continually leaving play Viktor open, Bjergsen was not able to wave clear fast enough to keep up with Pobelter's roams. Also, Viktor is an incredibly strong mid lane champion - arguably one of the two best on this patch, with the other being Azir. Overall, Counter Logic Gaming had the edge over Team SoloMid in terms of picks & bans, rotations and coordination. They simply played as a more cohesive, collective unit than TSM, and are thus fully deserving of the first seed at Worlds.

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