The 2022 LCS Spring Split is right around the corner with the start of the Lock In Tournament. Teams are split into two groups for this event. Group A consists of 100 Thieves, Cloud9, FlyQuest, Golden Guardians and TSM. Group B includes CLG, Dignitas, Team Liquid, Immortals and Evil Geniuses. With a brand new roster CLG will surely be looking to figure out where they are at to start the season. Before it all begins, here is a CLG 2022 LCS preview.
[Related: All 2022 LCS Rosters and Academy Rosters]
CLG Team Page
2021 Summer Review
CLG are coming off a horrible 2021. They placed last in the LCS while spending a ton on their roster. Finn, Broxah, Pobelter, WildTurtle and Smoothie were not able to get it done. Their performance was bad, but there were other issues plaguing the team. The now infamous “Bud Light Beheading” is certainly one of these. General Manager Tafokins told the team that there would be roster changes while recording it and putting a sponsor in the video. Needless to say, this was tone-deaf and fans reacted strongly leading CLG to take the video down. This video was the anthesis of CLG in 2021. A horrible mess that was the butt of every joke in the LCS.
So where do CLG go after such a disastrous split?
CLG 2022 LCS Spring Split Roster
Top- Jenkins
Jng- Contractz
Mid- Palafox
Bot- Luger
Sup- Poome
Coach- Thinkcard
CLG 2022 LCS Coaches:
CLG did the only move that really could have been done, blowing up the entire roster and coaching staff. The team needed a purge and it happened. The first move was signing former Evil Geniuses GM, KimDynasty, as the new Head of CLG. Kim helped with the 2020 reintroduction of Evil Geniuses to the LCS and had brought them great success in just two years. Next was finding a GM and Head Coach. CLG went with Jonathan McDaniel and Thinkcard from Golden Guardians as their new GM and Head Coach respectively. Both Jonathan and Thinkcard have done great work in the past and brought teams to Worlds. Some positional coaches, strategic coaches and analyst were also picked up including Apollo, Croissant, Damonte, F1re and Prussian.
CLG 2022 LCS Players:
While coaches are great, there needs to be a solid team backing them for success. CLG decided to go with Academy / LCS players who have proven their ability to compete. One of the LCS players they went with was Contractz who did play the majority of 2021 in Academy. He ended up earning the LCS spot and outperformed Svenskeren in scrims on Evil Geniuses. Contractz has a ton of competitive experience and should be a great leader for this team in the Jungle.
Palafox started his year in the LCS as the starting Mid Laner for FlyQuest after dominating Academy in 2020. Unfortunately, the whole team struggled and he failed to show that spark that made him so unique. It even got to a point in which FlyQuest swapped their entire LCS and Academy rosters. It is hard to know how much of this performance was on Palafox, but he is a bit more of a mystery in comparison to the rest of the roster.
Jenkins is coming off a solid 2021 in which he had the impossible task of replacing Alphari. Despite the circumstances, he did a solid job. While he wasn’t Alphari, he was able to compete with almost every LCS Top Laner and proved he deserved a spot. If he can bring over that energy to CLG, they should be in a good spot.
The Bot Lane of CLG is potentially their best position. Luger and Poome were the most dominate Bot Lane in Academy last year. Luger is a Turkish ADC who played in the TCL before joining 100 Thieves Academy last year. Poome is a relatively newer Support player who played a few games with the 100 Thieves LCS team in 2020. After that, he has been smurfing in Academy with Luger in 2021. CLG is most likely going to play around this Bot Lane duo. Luger can carry team fights if given the resources and Poome can have some nutty engages. Not too much to complain about for the Bot Lane, it’s just really solid.
CLG 2022 LCS Schedule
Predicted Spring Placement: 8th
Potential Range for the Team: 10th-6th
CLG has a lot of talent, but the main question is whether that talent can stack up to the rest of the LCS? On the lower end, they are probably going to be better than teams like Dignitas or FlyQuest. Will they be better than Golden Guardians or Immortals? Probably not. They have the potential, but there is a lot that could go wrong with this team.
The main issue is just that a lot of these players aren’t proven at the LCS level. Sure, Contractz is to some degree, but Jenkins, Palafox, Luger and Poome are all not. There is even a chance that Contractz could fall apart. Luckily, this is where CLG Academy comes in. If any player on this team tanks, CLG has a solid replacement waiting in Academy. Their Academy roster consists of Dhokla, RoseThorn, Triple, Prismal and Breezyyy.
At the end of the day, this CLG team is meant to be a starting point to build on. This team isn’t designed to win the LCS. CLG want to see if any of these players work out. If two of them do, this should be considered a win. CLG can then build on that for their future. If this whole team tanks, it’s going to be a really long year once again for CLG fans.
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