With the start of the NA LCS coming up this week, here’s a preview for the most anticipated game of the week.
As the North American League Championship Series Spring Split debuts on January 16, the first game of the day between longtime rivals Team SoloMid and Counter Logic Gaming will definitely be the game to watch.
How the rivalry began:
The famous owners of the two organizations, Andy “Reginald” Dinh and George “HotshotGG” Georgallidis, originally started off as teammates. They split ways after the two friends could not agree on how to play the game. Reginald left HotshotGG’s team and additionally took some other players on the team with him, creating his own brand. Thus started a fiery rivalry that livened up the NA scene to this day.
History behind both TSM and CLG:
In the beginning, CLG dominated the scene with multiple number one finishes in pre-season one and season one tournaments, such as World Cyber Games 2010, MLG Raleigh 2011, and specifically IEM Cologne 2011 where they defeated TSM in the grand finals. CLG left NA for Korea during season two, competing in two seasons of OGN. While CLG focused on improving to the same level of the new dominant Korean scene, TSM focused on sweeping NA with multiple back to back victories, including a 2-0 victory at PAX Prime.
With the LCS starting in season three, CLG made their way back to NA to try and prove themselves on their home turf once more, but never seemed capable of catching back up to TSM. In the first split, TSM took a close victory in the finals while CLG were eliminated in the quarterfinals. The next split, TSM took second, heading to the Season Three World Championships while CLG choked in the playoffs yet again, tasting the dust of their long standing rivals.
The same song sang true in the next three splits, even through multiple roster changes. However, during the summer split of 2015, CLG finally looked strong. With both owners retiring and only a couple original players remaining, the two teams met in the finals at Madison Square Garden to duke it out for the first place seed at the World Championships 2015. The prophecies told were finally cut when CLG took a convincing 3-0 victory over TSM, finally pulling ahead of their rivals and heading to their first World Championships since the inaugural one was held.
Predictions:
Both teams have a lot to prove this new split, especially with the roster changes that happened. TSM replaced their entire roster besides their star player Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg in the mid lane. CLG, on the other hand, replaced two players, one of which was their own star player, Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng. Doublelift, not wanting to remain team-less, went to another team in perhaps the most talked about roster shift of all time – his previous team's rival, TSM.
My personal predictions place TSM in first place for the spring split. Along with the pickup of the star player of Europe’s top team, Fnatic’s very own Bora “YellOwStaR” Kim, I do not see how TSM can lose. CLG, however, took a large hit. Losing Doublelift with the replacement of lower tier ADC Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes and a downgrade in the mid lane, I feel CLG will falter against stronger teams.
Conclusion:
TSM dominated the rivalry for three and a half years, only being behind CLG for one and a half. With the roster swaps among all teams, the power shifted in all regions greatly. All teams have something to prove, some just seem to have better resources to work with. TSM is among those teams, while CLG seems to have lack luster players in most roles. Whatever happens will surely be exciting to watch and definitely be written down in the history books from fans everywhere.
