Counter Logic Gaming survived a scare from Echo Fox on Saturday, taking a 2-1 series win to kick off Week 2, Day 2 of the North American League of Legends Championship Series in Los Angeles.
While Echo Fox (2-1, 5-2 match record) was playing with substitute jungler Jonathan "Grigne" Armao, its incredibly risky draft in Game 1 featuring zero tanks against CLG's strong pick potential probably wouldn't have worked even with starting jungler Matthew "Akaadian" Higginbotham in the game. CLG jungler Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett got the ball rolling early as Rengar, picking up kills across the map to put CLG on top. After securing a 23-minute Baron, Counter Logic Gaming (3-0, 6-2 match record) was nye unstoppable with Dardoch picking up a quadra kill shortly afterwards. After CLG took a second Baron kill and its third Infernal Drake, there was nothing that Echo Fox could do, especially when Dardoch kept pouncing on EF's backline to finish with a 9/2/3 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) as CLG took Game 1 in 37 minutes.
Echo Fox came back stronger in Game 2, with Grigne's Lee Sin getting mid laner Henrik "Froggen" Hansen ahead early on as Taliyah. Froggen did what Froggen does best: kill everything around him and make as much gold as possible. Echo Fox rotated well, playing around Froggen's massive damage output and his ability to change teamfights across the map with the Weaver's Wall. CLG threatened to comeback after Echo Fox settled into a late-game lull, but Froggen and EF's teamfighting composition was too much for CLG to handle. Securing a second Baron kill, Echo Fox finally pushed into CLG's base to take Game 2 in 40 minutes and force Game 3.
Tensions were high heading into Game 3, as Dardoch's Graves picked up first blood in the top lane. Echo Fox quickly took control, though, as EF top laner Jang "Looper" Hyeong-seok's Kennen could not be contained in the splitpush. While CLG managed to stay a bit competitive to try and prolong the game for its late-gate scaling composition, Echo Fox still was solidly ahead, and looked to a 24-minute Baron to get the edge it needed to close out the series win, but Dardoch made a spectacular Baron steal and led CLG to a 4-for-0 follow-up fight. Suddenly, CLG was massively ahead with a Baron power play of +7,867-gold, knocking down inhibitors with unbreakable teamfighting. CLG completed the miraculous comeback in 33 minutes with a 4-for-0 teamfight at Echo Fox's Nexus, completing the 2-1 series win to stay undefeated.