Graphic by @Nole_Body.
Group A has wrapped up at the 2015 World Championships, and Counter Logic Gaming finds themselves on the outside looking in, ending the tournament with a 2-4 record and failing to reach the Quarterfinals. CLG’s 2015 season is officially over, and it’s time for the dissections to begin. This is the 2015 CLG Autopsy Report. Continue reading The CLG Autopsy Report: New Peaks, Old Valleys
Are we really seeing this? Are Cloud9 actually 3-0 after the first week of the World Championships? Better believe it. Hai Lam continues to lead to his squad of merry men on an ascent from the depths of the North American LCS to the top of the world.
But is Cloud9 a fairytale or a fluke? Are they the real deal, contenders for a deep run in the knockout stages? Or are they about to be brought back down to earth? That is literally the million-dollar question.
After Cloud9 dramatically qualified for the World Championships by running the North American gauntlet, winning three best-of-fives in three days, I wrote in detail about the team’s “Hai Rise”, describing how Hai’s return inspired massive improvements in their early-game play, followed by refinements to their late-game. The more time the team has had together, the better they are executing on the new style they’ve adopted.
It’s tempting to look at Cloud9’s growth and say the sky’s the limit, and there are definitely plenty of positives in Cloud9’s play. But try to rein in your enthusiasm: there are some big warning signs that could point to Cloud9’s impending crash.
At an international event like the League of Legends World Championships, there are usually some obvious power imbalances, but there are always a few key group stage matchups that could go either way, unpredictable games that will have huge effects on the later stages of the tournament.
At Worlds 2015, two of those key matchups are Counter Logic Gaming vs. the KOO Tigers in Group A, and KT Rolster vs. Origen in Group D. Both are scheduled for their first meetings on Sunday, October 4.
Let’s get ready for the matches with some head-to-head comparisons of the teams. I also ran a reader poll to get some popular opinion on these two matchups, and I’ll share the results below.
