Clutch Gamers vs CLG

There are just two Best of 5s left to be played before the 2019 LCS Summer Split playoffs conclude. The first one on our schedule is an exciting one in nature. Maybe that's even an understatement. This Best of 5, the one determining who's the third best team in the region, has a metric ton of potential -- and no one really expected it coming into the Summer Split.

On one hand, we have one of the OG North American organizations, Counter Logic Gaming. Their name still carries weight in the world of competitive League, but the truth of the matter is that they haven't won anything worthy of mentioning in years. The days when Counter Logic Gaming was dominant and commanding happened so long ago that they might as well be fiction. They're foggy memories, at once both palpable but also surreal.

The odds were definitely not on their side over the last couple of years. The LCS pantheon changed irreversibly, and there wasn't a spot left for them. As a result, they were forced to be a mid-tier gatekeeper. Sometimes not even that much. Their 2019 Spring Split wasn't exactly a masterclass in execution or commanding League of Legends. In fact, they were as mediocre as possible. And these were confusing scenes -- they still had the talent, the recognizable veterans and names that should, at the very least, warrant them a spot in the playoffs. But for one reason or another, things never "clicked."

Fast forward to Summer, and with just a single change to their starting line-up, they're immediately deemed as a top-tier challenger. They almost finished the regular portion of the split in second place as well, a commendable fact considering just how bad they were a couple of months prior.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and they're on the receiving end of a one-sided beatdown at the hands of Cloud9. The one win they registered in the series was basically a series of fortunate circumstances. That, paired with the fact that Cloud9 decided to troll, was the moment they were able to capitalize. And that one moment never happened again. They were destroyed in every sense of the word. It wasn't even competitive. While they did do some things right, their good moves and plays were too few and far between to actually warrant a competitive series.

In short, they were beaten in every facet of play.

Clutch Gaming, on the other hand, took the reigning champions Team Liquid to five games. Let that one sink in. And it wasn't a fluke either, Clutch Gaming really did play incredibly well. They were carnivorous, all on the same page, and they played to their strengths consistently. They didn't go for complex drafts or anything of the sort. Instead, they opted to play what they know and what they can: easy to execute, one-dimensional team comps that revolved around simple engages and potent team fighting.

Might not seem like much, but it was more than enough. Their individual mechanical prowess and team-wide cohesion played an integral part as well. Simply put, they were awe-inspiring, and the moment they lost the series (in rather anti-climactic fashion, one might add), the cheers for Liquid were few and far between. No one was left indifferent.

Now, how these two teams will respond to their losses will heavily dictate their chances going forward. On one hand, Counter Logic Gaming has shown much more over the last couple of months, so through empirical evidence we definitely should give them the benefit of the doubt. That said, they simply weren't strong enough recently so even though they're entering tonight's match as the favorites, they're definitely lacking hype and momentum.

Clutch Gaming, however, have all the momentum in the world. Their most recent level of play was spectacular, and it wasn't a one-off thing either. They improved leaps and bounds in a staggeringly short amount of time, and they want to make the most of the situation. They're hungry, they're prepared and they want to upset the status quo. Whether or not they end up succeeding still remains to be seen, but they have a puncher's chance, to say the least.

In the end, predicting this one match is downright impossible. It really can go either way, and it heavily depends on how these teams bounce back after their recent crushing defeats. Regardless of the final outcome, we should be in for one insane series that could, by all means, go the distance.