NA LCS Playoffs - CLG vs CRS

By Johnny Ngo on August 26, 2014

image via https://esportsunlimited.com

This match was one of the most hyped up playoff matches of the 2014 season. After Counter Logic Gaming took their leave to boot camp in Korea, bringing in a whole team of subs for Week 11 to play CLG’s final matches, LCS fans were wondering what the new and improved CLG would bring to their playoff match against Team Curse.

CRS had been looking very mediocre during most of the summer split until the very end, going 3-1 during super week and securing a fourth place spot heading in the playoffs. CRS was looking stronger than they had been all season, taking down LMQ, TSM and DIG. Many did not know what to expect in their match against CLG, and the results surprised many viewers watching from all corners of the globe. Even with 69 percent of community votes predicting CLG would win, CRS proved them wrong and took down CLG 3-0 in a best of five match. You can watch the CLG vs CRS playoff games here.

http://na.lolesports.com/na-lcs/2014/na-regional-2014/matches/round-1/curse-vs-counter-logic-gaming

Here’s a quick rundown of each game:

Game 1: With CRS on blue side, they banned Vayne, Zed and Kha’Zix. CLG banned Tristana, Alistar and Corki. Quas immediately locked in Nidalee as soon as the draft ended. CLG picked Nunu and Kog’Maw, which CRS later found out would be a mid lane AP Kog’Maw instead of a bot lane AD Kog’Maw. Doublelift played Twitch and Xpecial played Zilean in the bot lane. Voyboy had a relatively relaxed lane phase against Link’s Kog’Maw, putting him down almost 20-30 cs during laning. Xpecial’s Zilean later became a huge problem for CLG, since it allowed Voyboy to play on the front line and kill any of CLG’s priority targets. Quas was a huge split pushing threat, since Seraph can do very little as Lulu to stop him. Doublelift got a nice number of kills and assists on Twitch and Link was able to catch up in gold, but after one 4 v 4 initiation where Doublelift got deleted by Voyboy, the 52 minute battle ended in with CLG’s nexus being destroyed.

Game 2: The Kog’Maw pick did not work out well for CLG, so this time around they banned it instead of Alistar. However, CRS went ahead and left Zed and Kha’Zix open, banning Alistar themselves as well as Doublelift’s Twitch.  Dexter took the Kha’Zix that was left open and IWillDominate picked up Nunu. Quas got Nidalee again and Voyboy took Syndra again. After a number of bad rotations by CLG, CRS got themselves a 17 minute baron and finished the game 5 minutes later.

Game 3: CLG finally decided to spend bans against CRS’ comfort picks, banning Tristana, Syndra and Nidalee. CRS once again banned Vayne, Twitch and Alistar. Still on blue side, CRS first picked Nunu, and CLG took Lulu and Kog’Maw. Kog’Maw was played by Doublelift this time in the bot lane. CRS took Yasuo and Maokai to replace the banned out Syndra and Nidalee, respectively. Cop’s Corki got massive and in just 34 minutes, CRS closed out the game, securing their spot in the semi finals against Cloud 9.

Twitter blew up when CLG’s nexus was destroyed for the third time. No one expected the new and improved CLG, who just underwent boot camp in Korea, to get 3-0′d. Many fans were unfortunately disappointed with the results and CLG now has a chance at being relegated.

CLG is now moved to the fifth and sixth place match in the playoffs where they will face DIG. The winner of the match will secure their spot in the Season 5 LCS Spring Split. The loser will be relegated and will move to the 2015 Spring Promotion tournament, where teams from the Challenger series will fight them for their spot in LCS. According to lolesports.com, the Spring Promotion Tournament will take place on September 9-11.

The promotion tournament can be a scary event to play in. Players’ careers may end if they do not make it to the LCS. Teams might disband, players may be kicked off or maybe we will see some old faces retire. CLG and DIG are two teams who have been in the professional scene Season 1. There’s a chance neither of them will get relegated into Challenger, but unfortunately we will definitely see one of NA’s favorite teams in the promotion tournament.

After TSM plays LMQ for a spot at worlds, CRS will play C9 in a best of five for a spot at the world stage in the semi finals of the playoffs. The match will take place around 7 PM on Aug. 30, 2014. Stay tuned!

http://na.lolesports.com/na-lcs/2014/na-regional-2014/matches/round-2/cloud9-vs-curse

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