The 2016 League of Legends World Championship kicked off in San Francisco with an upset to the home crowd's liking. North American fourth-place finisher in the summer split, Counter Logic Gaming, came out of the gate strong and shocked European champion G2 Esports to take the opening game of the tournament at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in front of a raucous crowd.
G2 Esports deployed a strategy centered around the poking abilities of Jayce and Jhin in the top and bottom lanes, while CLG decided to attempt a risky strategy focused around flanking and charging at the opponent. It was the early-game teleport presence of Darshan "Darshan" Upadhyaya that tipped the scales in the North American club's favor. After getting its footing in the game, CLG leaped out to a lead thanks to the overwhelming pressure of Jake "Xmithie" Puchero on Olaf (6/0/5), the last champion selected in the pick/ban phase.
In a game where CLG couldn't hang back in fear of G2 Esports' long-range attack, the Mid-Season Invitational finalists made the Europeans react to their up-tempo play. Whenever G2 started to stabilize from the early mistakes, Xmithie would visit one of the three lanes, usually backed by Darshan, to terrorize another lane. CLG never let the back-to-back European champion get off the ground and closed out the game in a tidy, one-sided fashion.
Immortals' Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin helped CLG train while bootcamping for the world championships in Korea. If Xmithie's performance from Game 1 is any indication, the brain trust of Immortals' and CLG's starting junglers is something for the rest of Group A to worry about in the upcoming days.
CLG's next game will be Wednesday against wild-card combatant Albus Nox Luna from CIS, and G2 Esports will follow that game with a match against group favorites ROX Tigers of South Korea.