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Don't blink or you might miss the improving Counter Logic Gaming, who took a dominating 2-0 sweep over Team EnVyUs on Saturday to kick off Week 8, Day 2 of the North American League of Legends Championship Series in Los Angeles
After announcing the release of controversial jungler Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett earlier this week, Counter Logic Gaming (11-4, 24-10 match record) unleashed the power of teamwork on an unsuspecting Team EnVyUs (8-7, 20-20) in a chaotic and bloody series that looked more like the League of Legends Pro League than the NA LCS. CLG's gameplan remained consistent in both games; get in the grill of NV jungle star Nam "LirA" Tae-yoo, roam around the map as a team to knock down towers, and throw your virtual bodies on the line for each other in relentless skirmishes and teamfights.
To say that LirA had a bad day is an understatement, as he got caught in his jungle by a kill-thirsty CLG at just two minutes in Game 1. LirA's attempts to recover as Elise backfired tremendously when CLG top laner Darshan "Darshan" Upadhyaya's Camille killed him to take his double buffs and give CLG a dream start. To make matters worse, LirA went all-in on ganking his way back to relevancy, purchasing early Mobility Boots to get around the map, but at the cost of being too squishy to do anything once his plans blew up in his face. He didn't immediately get slain in Game 2, which must've been a relief, but CLG's early pressure threw him off of his initial jungle clear, setting newly minted CLG starting jungler Omar "OmarGod" Amin far ahead. LirA found minor success in focusing the bottom lane, picking up first blood for NV at five minutes, but beyond that LirA struggled to make an impact.
With huge leads, CLG easily closed out both games after kill-hungry and intelligent macro plays in the midgame led to decisive Baron calls. The new-look CLG still showed that it has great map movement and more than proved its willingness to pull the trigger on fights. If anything, the addition of OmarGod seemed to empower the rest of CLG, especially Darshan, who played phenomenally well in both games and led the charge on multiple occasions. It's not even fair to NV to blame any individual member for the loss; it simply learned the hard way that Counter Logic Gaming has its eye on another NA LCS title, and it will get to the promised land the same way it does anything else: together.
CLG will face Phoenix1 at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, while Team EnVy prepares to battle Team SoloMid on Sunday at 6 p.m. ET.