On the night of the North American LCS Finals in New York City, Counter Logic Gaming took a torch and razed North America’s largest fanbase to the ground as they swept Team SoloMid in a crushing 3-0 victory. Taking the first place trophy in North America is an unfamiliar feeling for so many CLG fans since 2011 and 2012 where CLG were last so dominant in their domestic region.

While every player on CLG deserves their rightful praise, one player stands out with a stark comparison of playstyle change from his previous teams and CLG. Every hero eventually finds a place they belong to, whether you’re one of Batman’s Robins, a Mutant finally finding Xavier’s school of Gifted Students, Wolverine going from team to team throughout time or Emma Frost or Rogue who were on several teams before finding the X-men. Darshan "ZionSpartan" Upadhyaya is one of these heroes.

The Origin Story

He first showed up in the 2012 Season on Team Dynamic which was sort of like Teen Titans as everyone on TD was still in high school, compared to the other pros who were over eighteen or nineteen of age. They were capable of taking games or sets off of strong teams now and then but they still lacked when pitted against the the fledged pros of the era.

TD would later become Good Game University, which qualified and placed second in the Spring Split of the 2013 Season LCS. After rebranding to Coast, they eventually were relegated, and ZionSpartan was picked up by Team Dignitas for the Summer Split of the 2014 Season.

For the least in regards to his position on Good Game University, Coast, and Team Dignitas, he would be most known for splitpushing Top lane for the entire game which resulted in a upset wins. Critics jokingly called it the solo top adventure since that was unlikely to work against any top tier team in the world, but when you put this in context of ZionSpartans career, it makes sense.

On an episode of Summoning Insight, ZionSpartan admitted to being the shotcaller for Coast, and in the interview following CLG’s 3-0 sweep against TSM, he said that he had never felt like he played as a team until CLG. Whether or not he meant it intentionally, he threw shade on his teammates in Coast and Dignitas. Coupling these facts together paints the picture of the top laner who decided that the best way to win with those teams was to put the entire hope on his shoulder and go alone.

From Lone Wolf to Teammate

Enter the 2015 Season when ZionSpartan joined CLG, and almost every one of his games were spend grouping with his team for better or for worse, bringing a strong teamfight presence. He only began splitpushing when the situation demanded it, especially considering how dominant the usage of Teleport has been, and grouping with the team for the rest has become his new M.O. which was refreshing after seeing his iterations of Coast and Team Dignitas crash at the end of the split facing risk of relegation.

When CLG failed to finish high in the Spring Split of the NA LCS, fans shared concerns of the team stability after Link nuked bridges on his way out of the team, but the Summer Split with Eugene “Pobelter” Park filling his spot left nothing but high hopes for the team moving forward. When the mid-season losing streak hit, fans panicked but the problem was eventually figured out and solved by the end of the season--almost never before seen by CLG team in LCS history.

After overcoming these troubles, CLG was able to successfully make it to the finals of the NA LCS, which was also their first ever time making it that far in the playoffs. Not only did CLG dominate longtime rival Team SoloMid, they decimated them to the very core. ZionSpartan, in particular had spectacular hero plays in game two and three on Gnar which halted TSM’s advances at the door, solidifying how key ZionSpartan is to CLG compared to how easy it was to eventually break Coast and Team Dignitas.

A Home for a Hero

Going into the 2015 Worlds Championship, ZionSpartan has a difficult task with Jungler Xmithie’s inability to get a visa to compete this year, so they’ll have to use substitute mid-laner Huhi in the jungle unless CLG is able to acquire a Visa for Xmithie in time for worlds. Despite that, it gives a rare chance for ZionSpartan to prove himself at worlds against other top laners of his or a higher caliber.

ZionSpartan’s contribution to CLG is just as important as anyone else on CLG. Just because ZionSpartan is one “hero” he is part of a team of equally important heroes-- and this is his new home, where he’s comfortable enough to shine and operate as a single unit with the rest. It took some years for him to find this home, but it was well worth the wait as there is no guarantee that if ZionSpartan had joined CLG earlier that it would have turned out the same way. It's difficult to imagine CLG's success this year without this particular unit and support staff, but especially without Zionspartan given his growth and adaptation to CLG's team environment.

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Images courtesy of Riot Games and in2lol