Coming off an upset victory against the Golden Guardians, Clutch Gaming looked to improve their record against 100 Thieves. However, 100T played proactively yesterday against Team Liquid and looked to turn their split around with a victory over CG.
Draft
After seeing Flyquest defeat the Sona-Taric, Clutch Gaming allowed 100 Thieves to draft the support duo. However, Clutch seemed to understand that the lovers duo, Xayah and Rakan, not only countered the cheesy bot lane, but also played to their strengths for team fights. In addition, Tanner “Damonte” Damonte showed his deep champion pool by playing Lux against Max “Soligo” Soong’s Azir. Finally, Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon utilized his favorite pick for the top lane, Rumble.
Early Game
Clutch seemed in complete control of the match within the first five minutes. Cody Sun would take the first tower plate and a massive 22 CS lead against the Sona-Taric bot lane. Furthermore, Huni continued to poke out Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho in the top lane and would eventually get first blood in a 2 v 2 fight all before 5 minutes. Clutch continued to snowball their lead after taking the infernal drake by diving onto Bae “Bang” Jun-sik and easily taking the bot lane tower.
CG couldn’t be stopped in the early game. After taking the Rift Herald, they took a team fight around the Baron Pit and came out on top finding kills onto the 100T Jungler and Midlaner. Before 15 minutes, Clutch would have two Drakes, two Towers, and Huni would find a stellar solo kill onto Ssumday. Lastly, In addition to their massive neutral objective and kill lead every lane was ahead in CS by at least two Minion waves.
Late Game
Clutch continued to snowball their lead in the mid-game with a victorious shorthanded 4v5 team fight in the bot lane killing both Soligo and Bang. Soligo found his screen grey once again as Nam “Lira” Tae-yoo chased him into the jungle to give Clutch another kill in their pocket. Clutch began to seige the 100T base
with the Baron buff, taking down both the Mid and Bot lane inhibitors. However, while attempting to take the top lane inhibitor 100T caught Huni too far forward and forced Clutch to reset a man down. Clutch attempted to close the game out time and time again, but 100 Thieves were not ready to lose. Finally, after taking Baron a third time and killing every elemental Drake, CG found kills onto Ssumday and Maurice “Amazing” Stückenschneider. This allowed them to make their final push onto the nexus and take victory against 100T.
Final Thoughts
This Clutch Gaming team looks much different than their Week 1 version. CG’s newfound early game productivity and neutral objective control has allowed them to take the drivers seat in both of their matches this week. If Clutch continues to improve their game play, they could be a team to watch to solidify a playoff spot.
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