The LCS has gone through a lot of changes for the 2023 season. The format is the same but the times and dates have changed and most of the teams have mostly new rosters. This should be an exciting time for the LCS for a lot of reasons and heading into the Spring Split, teams will be looking to show that they made the right moves. To start things off, here is the CLG 2023 LCS Spring Preview.
[Related: What is the 2023 LCS Start Date?]
A lot of fans were hopeful that 2022 was going to be the year that the faithful would be rewarded. The Sping Split was not that. CLG would struggle and go 6-12. This would make the decision to only change out Jenkins for Dhokla that much more confusing. Yet, the faithful were rewarded. While Dhokla was better, the entire team came together to finish the Summer at 11-7 which was good enough for fourth in the LCS.
CLG would barely scrape by Golden Guardians after pushing eventual champions Cloud9 to a 2-3 loss in a very surprising series. Then they turned right around and took Team Liquid to the brink but lost 2-3 as well. It was a very successful Summer for CLG that showed the core of Contractz, Palafox and Luger were truly coming into their own.
Top- Dhokla
Jng- Contractz
Mid- Palafox
Bot- Luger
Sup- Poome
CLG are the only team to run things back coming into 2023. According to their own posts, they did look at potential moves but felt it was best to keep the team together. After seeing how the team played better than the sum of their parts, it is hard to argue with the decision. This roster is primed for a do or die Split though. If they can show their Summer 2022 selves then top teams better be watching their back. If they struggle then look for the team to make changes quickly as they try to keep most of the roster intact.
Outside of maybe Cloud9, there will not be a roster more ready to go at the start of the season. They will not need the time to learn better communication, they will more be working on strats and comps. This should give them a big advantage in every game. The concern for CLG fans should be if they struggle at the beginning. As the rest of the LCS scales for the latter portion of the Spring Split, their talent will shine through. This is not to say that CLG do not have good talent on the team, but their weaknesses will become more obvious as time goes on. Some of these players have struggled to adapt in the past and if they do so again, it could be the end for their time of the team.
Making the playoffs will be as important this Spring as it has been since the LCS dropped championship points. CLG have to be at the top of their game or they will get passed up. It is tough to count them out but the teams projected to be above them have only gotten stronger. Expect a strong first round-robin from CLG and then a team that limps into the playoffs.
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