Immortals ekes by CLG in tense 3-2 set

So much is on the line for Immortals, but very little of it is under their control.

Still, they did everything they could today to keep their Worlds aspirations alive, knocking off Counter Logic Gaming in an incredibly tight 3-2 set. With the win, Immortals repeats its NA LCS 2016 Spring Split placement, securing 3rd place in Summer.

What, exactly, 3rd place means will be determined by the outcome of tomorrow's 1st place match between NA LCS leader TSM and a surging Cloud9 squad. If TSM wins, Immortals will find themselves at the top of the Regional Qualifier, needing to win just one Best of 5 to make the 2016 World Championship tournament.

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But if C9 wins, Immortals will need to win two more Bo5s to book their tickets to San Francisco, the last of which will be against CLG, who leads them in Championship Points.

Either way you cut it, though, Immortals knew they were going to the gauntlet. After the game, Immortals mid laner Eugene "Pobelter" Park talked to us about how the team approached its 3rd place match after last week's nail-biter loss against Cloud9.

"We were all extremely depressed of course because we got knocked out in Semis again," he said. "We were sad for a few days, and then we kind of resolved that we would still need to try as hard as we can and still qualify for Worlds because it's not over yet. So that's kind of our mindset right now. We just need to give it one last push and do our best to make the last chance."

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According to Pobelter, Immortals didn't make any special plans for matching up against CLG in today's bout. Through the first four games, the winner of the series was far from apparent, with CLG picking up Game 1 and 4. However, the wheels came off for CLG in Game 5. That lapse let the highly aggressive, dominant side of Immortals that fans know and love shine through.

"I think CLG just ended up making a lot of mistakes that game, so we had a really big lead," Pobelter said. "We felt more comfortable making big, explosive plays and just taking things than we normally would if the games are more even. That's a big decider."

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Game 1 was particularly rocky for Pobelter, due in large part, he said, because he hadn't played Karma in over a month, "so that was a bad idea." On the flipside, in the three games Immortals won, Pobelter found himself on his highly potent Vladimir.

"I got to play Vlad three times, which was interesting," he said. "I thought they would probably just take it away...I'm not sure if I'm good at Vlad or Vlad's just a real easy champion to play, honestly."

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With today's victory, Immortals must now await the outcome of tomorrow's main event matchup between TSM and C9. Asked who he thought would win, Pobelter called it for C9 in four games, going so far as to predict "the winner of the first game will lose the third game, and win the series overall."

Should C9 take the day, it would mean Immortals will have to defeat CLG once more, in the NA Regional Qualifier, which begins September 3.