Counter Logic Gaming LCS Week 6 Preview

The League Championship Series (LCS) rolls into Week 6, and Counter Logic Gaming are still tied for first with a 7-3 record. They will have an opportunity to knock one competitor out of the tie, by playing Team Liquid on Saturday. Then Sunday CLG look to take down Golden Guardians like they did in Week 3. CLG currently holds the 1-0 record over both of these teams, and securing the head-to-head advantage could come into play during playoffs. 

Day 1 – Team Liquid

Last time CLG faced TL, they drafted strong poke and zone control for Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage, Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes and Vincent “Biofrost” Wang, while providing Raymond “Wiggily” Griffin a comfort pick and Kim “Ruin” Hyeong-min a power pick. CLG should probably try a similar strategy this time around. Pushing Jake Kevin “Xmithie” Puchero onto Olaf while Wiggily piloted Sejuani seemed to be the biggest factor in CLG’s victory. Forcing defensive uses of Ragnarok made the Olaf pick obsolete against the siege and poke of Viktor-Caitlyn-Lux. Keeping Xmithie on the back foot resulted in almost all of the neutral objectives going to CLG.

TL will probably target CLG’s bottom lane in most of the draft. Ruin and PowerOfEvil have shown so much flexibility that bans against them essentially make them less predictable. Generally Wiggily has taken the Sejuani or Trundle when available, but he just debuted Sylas jungle and carried against TSM. Stixxay and Biofrost have shown the most tendency towards comfort picks, and last time TL spent three bans on bottom lane. Expect this time around Lux and Sivir will be picked or banned by TL. 

CLG could double down on that strategy, as Cloud9 did in their win over TL last week. C9 used all five bans on bottom lane champions, and picked Sivir-Lux, forcing Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng and Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in onto Lucian-Braum. PowerOfEvil also seems like the type of player to pick up the Veigar that Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer played. TL may have been the strongest North American performer at Rift Rivals, but they are far from invulnerable.

Player to Watch: Wiggily

Wiggily truly took over the game last time these teams matched up. He abused Sejuani’s strength against TL, invading, placing vision, engaging and front-lining. With much of TL’s early strength coming from Xmithie, CLG will want Wiggily to match it. CLG’s most convincing games stem from Wiggily’s confidence, and, following his Sylas win over TSM to break the organization’s extended loss streak, confidence should not be an issue. He currently holds the most Player of the Game awards in the LCS, five of CLG’s seven wins. A CLG win in Week 6 would most likely be number six. 

Day 2 – Golden Guardians

Golden Guardians is another team looking vulnerable within the LCS. They only beat Echo Fox in their last five games, losing to Clutch, TL, TSM and CLG. GGS is starting Ian Victor “FBI” Huang and Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun over Matthew “Deftly” Chen and Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung, so this meeting with CLG may be slightly different than before. TSM and TL beat GGS with Skarner-Azir, two champions CLG has yet to show. OPT won with Jarvan-Azir, so that combination may also be up for grabs.

When CLG won the first time versus GGS, Juan “Contractz” Arturo Garcia continuously played around Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell and Henrik “Froggen” Hansen in the early game. Meanwhile, Deftly and Olleh kept pressure bottom lane with Draven-Nautilus. This strategy proved fairly effective in gaining GGS a lead, but PowerOfEvil and Stixxay stayed patient, scaled up, and a couple of fights around 30 minutes won CLG the game. 

This time around, these two teams may trade more in the draft. Huhi has shown two mage supports, Lux and Yuumi. Contractz and Wiggily will pick or ban Sejuani. The solo laners all seem content picking or banning anyone from their six to eight champion pool, though. CLG and GGS should have similar advantages early game, but CLG’s objective control and teamfighting is currently much better. 

 Player to Watch: Ruin

Last time around, Ruin tanked the early and mid-game, but made a crucial late-game play to assist in the win. Hauntzer has been a powerful side laner for GGS in their last few games. GGS may try to take advantage of these tendencies, and Ruin will have an important role to play from draft to lane to splitting. Of course, early jungle pressure will play into their match-up. With preferred picks like Aatrox, Renekton, Jayce and Sylas, the top lane could get pretty hostile pretty quickly. 

CREDITS

All statistics from Games of Legends

Images from nexus.leagueoflegends.com and Leaguepedia

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