Week 2 of the 2019 LCS Summer Split continued with game three of the season, Counter Logic Gaming faced OpTic Gaming. While OpTic finished Spring Split in seventh place, they kicked off Summer Split 2-0. Last week they took down Clutch Gaming and 100 Thieves, with CLG next on the chopping block. From draft to in-game execution, CLG ran into several issues resulting in another loss.
Draft
Round one bans saw several power picks taken off the board by both teams: Ryze-Yuumi-Sona for OPT and Aatrox-Akali-Neeko for CLG. Of course, OPT had to first pick Sylas, leaving Irelia and Xayah for CLG. Sivir and Sejuani finished OPT’s first picks, followed by CLG drafting Jarvan IV for jungle. For round two bans, CLG targeted Jayce and, strangely, Leona.
Rakan and Orianna fell in OPT’s final bans, prompting CLG to pick Lux support. The draft rounded out with Thresh-Poppy going to OPT and Vladimir to CLG. OPT’s composition was much more teamfight focused. The Sejuani, Poppy or Thresh can engage, while Sivir and Sylas dish out damage. CLG’s picks focused more on early pressure and potentially splitting the map.
In Game
OPT started the game by catching Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage out of position and forcing his Flash to survive, then his Teleport to reach the lane. Despite this early handicap, PowerOfEvil was able to secure First Blood by solo killing Crown in mid lane before five minutes. Moments later, Raymond “Wiggily” Griffin secured a kill on Terry “Big” Chuong in bottom lane, thanks to CLG’s duo chunking his health. This pulled CLG to an early 1,000 gold lead.
Crown ended up striking back with his own solo kill at six minutes, pushing OPT’s mid lane to roughly 10 CS ahead. Meanwhile, Kim “Ruin” Hyeong-min gained his own 10 CS lead, bullying Niship “Dhokla” Doshi’s Poppy with Kleptomancy Vladimir. The game stayed fairly quiet for the next several minutes.
Around 12 minutes, Wiggily and PowerOfEvil engaged onto Crown in mid lane, but William “Meteos” Hartman was waiting in the wings and turned the fight around. While CLG’s bottom lane collapsed, Dhokla and Noh “Arrow” Dong-hyeon teleported in to assist, which earned OPT three kills and the Cloud Drake.
OPT took the Rift Herald just after turret plating disappeared (each team knocked down three plates). Minutes later, they dropped the Herald mid lane, took the first turret plus the second turret and Mountain Drake. Ruin responded with the top lane turret, but fell shortly after. Crown took the final out turret next, allowing OPT to invade CLG’s jungle and spread their vision. Ruin’s duelist pressure allowed him to take the bottom turret.
Without vision in CLG’s red side jungle, OPT engaged onto Wiggily and took him out. They quickly turned to secure the Baron and recalled. OPT moved the siege up mid lane, while Crown took top turret. Ruin hid in the blue side brush, hoping for a flank, but when CLG finally decided to go in OPT killed four of them without dropping anyone. They easily closed out the game from there.
Conclusion
This was a pretty weak look from CLG. They rebounded from PowerOfEvil’s unfortunate level one, but once he threw the solo kill back mid, CLG seemed to get shaky. For most of the game, Ruin was their strongest point, but he ended up trying to group up with the rest of the squad. Wiggily’s Jarvan engages were continuously answered by Meteos’ Sejuani or blocked by Big’s Thresh.
The draft was a bit strange from CLG, as well. The Lux pick felt a bit forced from Vincent “Biofrost” Wang when Rakan was available, as Mark “MarkZ” Zimmerman pointed out in the analyst segment. OPT overall seemed to control vision very well, while CLG were always on the back foot. This split-pushing composition did not seem to fit as well with CLG’s playstyle, as their strongest moments in Week 1 came from teamfighting. Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes did not get to show much this game. CLG drops to a 1-2 record and face TSM for Week 2 Game 2.
CREDITS
Images from Riot Games’ LCS broadcast
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