CLG vs Golden Guardians

Finally, to close out the day, we have a clash between Counter Logic Gaming and the Golden Guardians. Hardly anything worth writing home about. In fact, these two teams are pretty much two of the worst and least capable "challengers" in the LCS. There's no other way to phrase it, frankly. Counter Logic Gaming did have that pretty darn unexpected surge, but the hype came crashing down fairly quickly.

For seven days straight they were the hottest team in the LCS, but we knew it was only a matter of time before their peers went back to the drawing board and devised a counter-plan for CLG's all-in style of play. And, sure enough, that's exactly what happened. The CLG hype train didn't last that long — just three games, to be more exact. Week 4 gave us a glimpse at the CLG of old: mediocre, reactive, and sloppy in every which way. Despite playing the exact same team comp, CLG were no longer able to execute. As a result, they dropped to Immortals, Team Liquid and Cloud9 all in the span of just three days.

The Golden Guardians aren't much better, of course, but no one expected anything from them coming into 2021, so it's not like anyone's overly surprised at their mediocrity.

Betting on either team feels like an ill-advised decision. They're separated by the slimmest of margins, so predicting any sort of outcome with confidence is pretty much nigh impossible. Will CLG win? Well, the odds are definitely on their side, but that doesn't mean they'll be able to execute and get another win on the board. With CLG, it's all about the fundamentals. They're all extremely experienced, but you wouldn't always be able to tell based on how sloppy they can get. Strange stuff, really.

Regardless, they're better across the board and should, by all means, be able to get the "W." Just don't expect a particularly clean or commanding showing as you'll probably be left wanting. The boys in black and blue are better, but not by much. GGS are no slouch, but they're bound to make an egregious mistake or two, at which point CLG should be able to capitalize and punish.