The Counter Logic victories keep coming

Well, that was truly counter logic.

One day you drop a game to SuperMassive of Turkey. The next day you’re taking a game off Korea’s SKTelecom T1. Such has been the story of the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational here at Shanghai. We could talk about how this is such an incredible shock and how no one could have predicted that something like this might happen.

But what’s the point?

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If MSI has taught us anything thus far, it’s to expect the unexpected and that nothing is set in stone. Fates can change in the blink of an eye as Counter Logic Gaming have now experienced firsthand.

Losing to a Wildcard team is a tough thing to bounce back from. As Dumbledoge of SuperMassive told us yesterday, Turkey has nothing to lose. No one expects them to win. For Counter Logic Gaming it’s the complete opposite, and they’ve got the weight of North America on their shoulders.

“The most frustrating thing about the loss against SuperMassive is we knew exactly what they were going to do and we set up a plan to counter that. Then we just didn’t execute the plan," explains CLG's top laner Darshan. "We also messed up our picks and bans, so both of those things combined were a pretty hard thing to deal with. So we reset, went into the next day with a calm mindset, and didn’t let the loss from yesterday affect us.”

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The calm mindset clearly paid off. Though, for a brief moment, it looked like their matchup against SKT was going to play out exactly how everyone would have predicted. Darshan gave away consecutive kills in top lane on Poppy and SKT were using their superior mechanical skills to squeeze advantages all across the map.

Yes, things looked like they were all going according to plan for SKT -- but that was when the counter logic kicked in. A team fight at Baron looked like CLG’s downfall, when Stixxay dove in like the hero North America needed. But he ended up nabbing a triple kill and stuffing any opportunity that SKT had to complete the Baron.

“I was pretty happy about that. After Xmithie got caught out and died, that fight happened, and then [Stixxay] got the triple kill which stopped them from doing Baron. If they would have got that Baron they would have won the game," says Darshan. 

"So basically, Stixxay saved the game," he continued. 

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The game devolved into a battle between Stixxay and Faker. One, the "Unkillable Demon King" and two-time World Champion -- on one of his favorite champions, LeBlanc. The other, a rookie from Gilbert, Arizona who just finished his first competitive Split. Who would you put your money on?

That’s probably a matter of faith.

CLG were doing everything in their power to peel and keep Stixxay alive, even if it meant sacrificing themselves -- something indicative of CLG’s overall mentality.

In the end it was a poorly timed Baron from SKT that gave CLG the game winning team fight that they needed. Xmithie’s Nidalee chased down and cleaned up the fleeing members of SKT and CLG stormed the base for the win.

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“It is something that we’ve started growing -- understanding what your role is in the game. We need to sacrifice ourselves so our carries can do damage, but sometimes you can sacrifice too much," says Darshan.

He continues, "It’s about finding that balance -- where you’re actually working together as a team, sacrificing at the rights times for the common goal of winning.”

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Excited to see if the counter logic continues here at MSI? Stay tuned to Lolesports and hit us up on Twitter with #MSI2016.