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CLG vs DIG

Admiral Howe·7/15/2017, 9:28:31 PM·3 votes·766 views

Back after the Rift Rivals break for the NA LCS, looking at one of the matches i wanted to focus on, CLG vs DIG. Seeing some things i absolutely disliked some things and loved others. First off out of the game, 2 roster changes, one making me scratch my head and the other making me so damn happy. Adrian finally on a team, i feel like he has been passed over for too long this year and was thinking he was going to get the Xpecial treatment, where everyone just tosses him aside. a week's worth of scrimming for this guy, and he comes out looking impressive. I said this guy had the potential to be a top support in NA, he proved that on IMT but TL's refusal to start him and instead pickling Konkwon left me salty. Great Thresh play, great immediate synergy with Adrian, better shotcalling for the team it seems, and being able to smash CLG's bot lane and do some impressive stuff at later points of both games. Second, Omargod on CLG. Im not going to knock the kid, he's new, only has a few games as of now on stage and is coming from a challenger team that seems to have been a tax on his confidence. I'll give him that grace this week but for CLG as a whole, starting someone THIS new so late into the split when teams are starting to gear up and gun after that number 1 spot, was a bad idea. They need Dardoch to help shot call and provide needed aggression that CLG needs early to play their own game. Dardoch has been the guy to develop the playstyle of "i'd rather go 0/20 while making my team look like gods than go 20/0 in game and have my team fall behind hard." and it showed all split, but not having that in these games was terrible. Maybe against a TL or FlyQuest where the rest of the teams leave their jungler feeling and looking kinda weak, Omargod wouldve been a good start but against a top 6 team looking for playoffs.

Ssumday looked to be back on the road to being in a consistent groove in both games but ill hold off on saying "Ssumday is back" after he got smashed so hard in the week leading to Rift Rivals. Shrimp was eating Omargod alive and its funny to see because Dardoch in a game 2 wouldve adapted to Shrimp especially given that they took away the Nidalee who i feel like it was again wrong to sub out Dardoch after losing the Nidalee into Gragas matchup. Normally, a jungler like Shrimp would be decimated by a guy like Dardoch but we didnt get to see that in game 2. Keane looks like he is slowly improving. Im liking the fact that i get to see more of the old Gravity 3 getting to shine more, Hauntzer, Keane, and BunnyFufuu really made Gravity a good team and seeing Keane improving just makes me feel happy. Not a godly performance, but still decent and reliable like he was early in the split. Altec and Adrian were beasts, great synergy and being gifted the Kalista/Thresh was just icing on the cake. Overall great performance from DIG today.

Darshan looked a little uncomfortable on Gnar, usually Gnar into Renekton tends to be a skill matchup at this level of play and Darshan got kind of shafted by Ssumday. I know they wanted to focus on teamfighting, wait for the Renekton to fall off and smash later on but they were just all over the place when DIG realized the "Tilt the Huhi" strat of old still worked. Dardoch, i dont want to go easy on him here but i get why he struggled, Nidalee smashes that jungle matchup early by ganking so early and getting leads like crazy for the team. CLG picking Gragas was a bad idea, idve liked to see a pick with more impact since the Braum was picked in game 1. a Rek'sai couldve really hampered the Nidalee since Gnar and Braum provide the tankiness for Dardoch to play the vision game, fight Nidalee in her jungle and use the tremor sense and wards to track Nidalee and shut her down, similar to what CLG did to Moon in the FLyquest series. Omargod, look i like him, he has the potential to be a big thing in NA but not this late into the split against a team that hungry to prove themselves and a team with so much experience. This was throwing him to the wolves when EVERY game matters in the second half of summer. Stixxay and Aphromoo, Varus is not as good as he was, both comps had too little damage, this is why tank supports are needed and wanted. Tahm Kench was not banned in 2 games with Thresh, they choose morgana for lane and it showed. Tahm wouldve been massive for CLG since a tank support lets Dardoch and Omargod open to help CLG do damage. Stixxay on Varus, i mean Varus is nice but he is falling out of favor and with so many good hyper carry picks still up, it makes me so confused why they chose Varus in game 1 and no Tahm Kench in games 1 or 2. Their draft was just grossly under-damaged in both games. Huhi, CLG fell victim to the "Camp Huhi, win game" strat, and after hearing Huhi go on about how comfortable and confident Dardoch made him, why the hell would you change that? CLG just puzzled me so hard these games and if they dont draft well and keep Omargod in games against playoff spot teams, they are going to fall hard.

Overall picks killed CLG here, no Tahm Kench in 2 games with Kalista and Thresh, instead they opt for the soft lane counter with Morgana. Not banning Renekton in game 2 and taking tank jungle picks with a Gnar top was sad. There is an unwritten rule in LoL where there will be bad times if your top lane and jungle are both tanks. It takes much needed damage away from your team and implies you need a support that has kill threat like Zyra or Bard, instead we got Morganna and Braum. Game 1 with 3 tanks and game 2 with a Tank combo for Top and Jungle with a support with minor kill threat in Morgana. This is why i dont really like seeing Morg outside of Solo Queue as a counter to Thresh. Tahm Kench is THE all around counter if youre worried about Thresh or a team comp like DIG's in general, and lets your jungler pick something like Elise, Rek'Sai, Lee Sin or Khazix. DIG picking Nidalee and Renekton was smart, similar in a way to the Elise/Renekton combo where your team is a tempo monster and if you can hold on, thats a sub 30min GG in your favor. CLG made the same mistake IMT did in the DIG series of too many tanks/non-threats.

1 Comments

III BAKURYU III 7/15/2017, 10:08:13 PM3 votes

I didn't understand why TL didn't use Adrian when TL were/are for a lack of a better word " garbage". Yes, we all know Adrian is more useful as a healing/mage like support but when a ship is sinking having the same mindset for year+ isn't going to keep it afloat and yet, TL still doesn't know what to do.
With Adrian the Altec/Adrian combo makes sense t0 me, I don't think neither are A+ tier at fighting but more so farming, cs, lane pressure control instead. Altec farms and plays passive knowing Adrian is there to help protect him as it's one of Adrian's strengths. Prior to this split Adrian's stats 129 Gms 79 Kills(0.61) 290 Deaths(2.24) 1,369 Assists(10.6) and 3,181 cs(24.6) arguably and potentially could be #1 in Assists given enough time in the NA LCS, his fellow counter parts 6.94 APG Kiwikid 1,444 career Assists 8.90 APG Aphromoo 2,012 career Assists 9.22 APG Lemon 1,522 career Assists 9.38 APG Smoothie 807 career Assists 9.54 APG Xpecial 2,262 career Assists 9.95 APG Biofrost 876 career Assists

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Excluding 2017 Summer Split stats only 2013-2017(Spring)

From What I got from DIG v CLG

X. Stixxay/Aphromoo - Were non factors in lane or in game honestly.
X. Dardoch/Darshan - Camp is becoming predictable, this whole split Dardoch is giving Darshan the " Ssumday treatment"/Baby sitting his lane - Dardoch. So it's interesting for Dardoch to do the same when he himself "bashed" DIG of doing the same thing. Camping lanes isn't going to make a team better, we've seen that strategy fall on it's face multiple times in the LCS ( TSM 2013 Camp Bjergsen, made it to the Finals because of the talent on the team but didn't win the Finals, Immortals camp Huni- eliminated 2 splits in a row in the second row - CLG are looking like IMT at the moment. X. Dardoch is really struggling, he engages 24/7 or counter jungles and dies constantly so while he is helping CLG he's also crippling them, they subbed him out because of that issue. X. Huhi fell off some but he's still a large reason why CLG are where they are at the moment.

For DIG they actually did stuff outside from TOP, Spring Split it felt like if Ssumday didn't get ahead they would just lose and while DIG are still "same" at times, the rest of the team are still doing something instead of nothing, so it's a + in the right direction.

  • Constant Subs in games is really ? for me, Why are teams subbing in players for no reason at times and more times than not it's actually hurting the team. DIG sub out Chaser, Lod for Altec, CLG sub out Dardoch, C9 Impact/Ray, EF Akaadian ? Echo Fox Akaadian 2-0 well, better sub him out and go 2-7 since, DIG Lod 5-2 better sub him out for Altec and go 5-5 - Like no reason for such subbing out especially from teams that are already having a hard time winning games with such rosters.