Counter Logic Gaming brought together a hodge-podge of guests to discuss issues surrounding the LCS broadcast, as well as CLG’s LCS Summer Split so far. Stephanie “missharvey” Harvey hosts “This Week in CLG powered by Spectrum,” and follows the LCS as a fan. LS is a caster in Korea’s LCK, as well as a streamer and League of Legends coach. Tafo is the GM for CLG League of Legends. LeTigress is a freelance caster and host in the LCS.
$13,111.83 total raised through the generous donations from our fans & matches from CLG & Riot.
Thank you to everyone who tuned in yesterday to our CLG Charity Relay Stream for racial justice and equality. You all are legends and make us proud to have you in our community. pic.twitter.com/TuyOhrJ4wL
— CLG (@clgaming) June 19, 2020
Missharvey began the show announcing different updates from the Counter Logic Gaming organization, including their Racial Equality charity stream raising over $13,000. This Week in CLG also gave away one of the new CLG Pride jerseys to a fan in the chat. According to the store, “CLG and You Can Play team up for the second year in a row for June Pride Month with the CLG 2020 Pride Jersey. Proceeds will directly support You Can Play in their fight to raise awareness around equality in esports.”
Tafo announced that the LCS team is back to practicing in the office, and he joined This Week in CLG via their Newegg Streaming Studio. The LCS and Academy teams had 2-0 weeks last week.
Missharvey brings up that the LCS broadcast and fans like to hate on CLG, especially after the perfect game. Tafo recalls that it is hard to convince anyone otherwise, when the team loses every stage game. Fans simply say “yo, you are in last place,” to teams that talk about winning scrims but lose on stage. LeTigress comments that casters typically stick to historical evidence when analyzing teams for the broadcast. She also says CLG show more promise than last split and it is easy to look back and say “we were wrong” if a team over-performs expectations.
Learning about my opponents in soloq pic.twitter.com/KzgJ2Ln11p
— LS (@LSXYZ9) January 16, 2020
Missharvey brings up commentary from the community that CLG is drafting better. Tafo laughs and mentions LS’ “Sinners or Saints” segment, where he judges drafts and predicts who will win. “Sinners” are teams that draft so that the onus is on them to win early. “Saints” are teams that draft so they can still win lane, but they scale better. LS started this practice during Worlds 2019. He was correct around 80% of games at Worlds and in LCK Spring Split. So far he predicted CLG to win two out of three games, and he was correct in two.
Tafo mentions that LS “wrote him a novel,” in Discord about not liking the Diana mid pick. LS also says early week drafts are arbitrary, because globally everyone is still trying to figure out what they want to play. “Who would predict TSM to do that draft?” he retorted.
LS’ involvement with CLG
Missharvey brings up a fan question, regarding LS coaching CLG players. Tafo explains that there are “always conversations behind the scenes,” but it is hard to coordinate due to the time zone differences. LS is in Korea, so right now analysts just go to LS for certain things. For example, they asked him for guidance regarding reworked Volibear, because he played roughly 180 games with him.
LS says he talked to Ruin after the first day he played Volibear. He has been outspoken about his strength. LeTigress comments that Ruin has always been an “early adopter” of new picks and new metas. She thinks Volibear priority might die down a bit once players learn his limits.
Missharvey relays another question from fans, regarding LCS lagging behind the other major regions in picking champions like Wukong and Volibear. Tafo explains that players stick to their comfort picks more in best-of-ones, because they need every win they can get. LS says it may be stubbornness, and he is confused why pro players “magically” commit to new and reworked champions, but old champions that are strong are adopted slower. “Like Ziggs, for instance. Chovy, one of the best LCK players, is playing it a lot. No one else is playing it. No one else is practicing it. Nobody cares.”
LeTigress remarks that team identity probably plays a role in adopting new champs, because they may spend more time on particular picks before shaking things up. Tafo explains that since Volibear and Wukong are bruisers, they are more “plug-and-play,” whereas Enchanters top are more nuanced. “Janna can’t push waves like a normal top laner can, so we have to get Wiggily to push waves with Ruin, and the way that we did lane assignments were fundamentally really different once we got to mid and late game. Those are things you just learn from playing. Janna can do these four things, but she can’t do these three things, so how do we cover that?”
Analyzing LCS versus LEC broadcast
Fans took to Reddit to complain about the LCS broadcast.
As the conversation surrounding the LCS broadcast continues within the community, missharvey opened the floor for the guests to comment with their thoughts. Tafo jumped in to say LEC feels like it has found what it wants to be, including “cringe humor.” They have found an identity, while LCS seems like it is still experimenting, which is something he commends. Tafo feels the professional and well-polished path is a mismatch with having SushiDragon, even if he had a positive reception at the end of last split. He likens SushiDragon to caviar, as in “something you have once a year, but not eat every meal.”
LS starts by saying the LCK English broadcast doesn’t do too much outside of casting, as they do not have an analyst desk or other content (outside of POG State). He feels LEC casters “are everywhere,” including streams and other content. LS also thinks the teams and players in Europe are easier for content, because most of the North American teams are not branded well enough. “I don’t know if there are any villains…That can be bland.” Missharvey jokes that everyone is just against CLG.
LeTigress explains that the broadcast is a team environment, and everyone cares about it. LCS officials put out a joint statement, explaining they do not take the community feedback lightly. Most are happy with the experimentation. She is personally stepping back from social media and personal content so she can consume the “good stuff” out of the criticism and grow from there. Missharvey enjoys Friday Night League, because it is “less stiff,” and LeTigress explains they are still working on synergy and identity. She references LCS Snap as a segment that received positive feedback.
Missharvey shifts the conversation back to CLG. Tafo remarks about the community criticism of CLG last split and coming into summer. “A lot of people portrayed us at the beginning of the season as a 10th place team. We didn’t make any changes? WTF? CLG should get relegated.” He does on to explain that the mid-season reset really helped the team. They suffered from their mindset and lost confidence. Right now, Tafo thinks CLG is a middle-of-the-pack team alongside 100 Thieves and Team Liquid. Not second, not tenth.
Hear our players, content creators and staff talk about causes they support. We will match up to $1000 for each donation.
CLG will start with donations to the NAACP and the Innocence Project.
Join us and talk about the causes you support. #WeAreCLG pic.twitter.com/KeTKxva17b
— CLG (@clgaming) June 17, 2020
The group closed out the show by talking about esports news outside of League of Legends. Missharvey shouted out CLG Melee Coach Bobby, who is supporting Campaign Zero, an organization “aimed at police accountability.” She also points out how many women within esports are sharing stories of sexual harassment and assault. LeTigress commends everyone in the Black Lives Matter movement, and is not surprised at the sexual harassment stories. Unfortunately, they are all too common. She is casting three days of LCS, and she got to cast Valorant for the first time in Immortals’ First Light Invitational. LS will be casting LCK and co-streaming other leagues all week. He runs 24 hours on Fridays.
Tafo mentions Shroud and Ninja might back to Twitch, and missharvey continues to explain that “Mixer is dead.” LeTigress comments that she has had Mixer and Facebook exclusive deals before, and she is curious to see how the new contracts will work. Tafo, an ex-Melee player, also mentions that Melee introduced rollback netcode for lag-free, cross-continent gameplay.
This episode of “This Week in CLG powered by Spectrum” was packed with information for a 40-minute podcast. Tafo gave plenty of information regarding CLG’s LCS team, and his perspective as the General Manager on their Spring Split and Summer Split performance. LS spoke more broadly about the LCS, LEC and LCK, as well as drafting and his relationship with CLG League of Legends. LeTigress gave her two-cents regarding the LCS broadcast hiccups. And missharvey updated everyone on everything CLG, while giving away a CLG Pride jersey and asking fan questions to the guests.
CREDITS
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