CLG tops TSM in 3-2 nail-biter, wins NA LCS Spring

Riot·Apr 18, 2016·2 votes·22,809 views

Who is he? Oh, he's Jae-hyun "Huhi" Choi, rookie mid laner for Counter Logic Gaming and now the 2016 North American LCS Spring Split champion.

He and the rest of CLG took TSM to a nail-biting 3-2 series at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas to secure the North American title, earn 90 Championship Points for their Worlds aspirations, and punch their ticket to Shanghai at the Mid-Season Invitational next month.

With the win, CLG defend their title as the reigning North American champs, having previously downed TSM at Madison Square Garden in the 2015 Summer Split, claiming their first-ever NA LCS title. For Huhi, though, this time is much different.

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He spent his first split as a sub for Eugene "Pobelter" Park, and although he was often called a pivotal member of the team, being a sub is a whole other story than being a starting mid laner. Especially when you're hoisting a trophy on the main stage.

"Watching them win [the 2015 Summer NA LCS Finals], I was kind of sad and happy at the same time," says Huhi. "Even though I wasn't playing in the game, I was pretty close with my teammates, so I was really happy for them. But at one point, I was like 'If only I was Pobelter, I'd be really happy…' I wanted to experience the crowd screaming CLG! CLG! CLG!"

As the 2016 Spring Split reared its head, Huhi finally got his chance to prove himself as CLG’s starting mid laner. In the 2016 offseason, the team lost two of their star players in uniquely dramatic fashion. Pobelter moved to Immortals, while one of their most iconic players, Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng, joined rivals TSM. The very same team they met here in the Finals.

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We couldn’t have scripted it any better ourselves.

Replacing two players who had been instrumental in taking CLG to their first NA LCS Championship was going to be no small task, but Huhi and fellow rookie Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes were up to the challenge. After CLG’s victory in 2015, people wondered ‘who he’ was when Huhi stepped on stage. That has definitively been cleared up now.

From the onset, Huhi made his mark on the series, pulling out a surprise mid lane Ekko and, bucking the current meta, building him full AP. Yet it was a pick that almost didn’t happen.

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"Actually, I was so happy to play mid Ekko finally! Because one of my favorite champions is Ekko. In scrims, I was going off on Ekko so people were really confident with my Ekko," Huhi explains. "But one day, Darshan said 'tank Ekko is OP. There is no reason to play him mid, I'm sorry Huhi, but I get to play tank Ekko top.' And it's like alright, that's all yours then."

"And then [today] we randomly came to this series and Darshan was like 'If you pick mid Ekko, I'll play Poppy,' and I was like really?! It made me really happy," says Huhi with a laugh.

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As blows were traded and the series wore on, the Best of 5 boiled down to one match. It was here that Huhi picked Lulu, a champion who, as he told us, he hadn’t played in weeks. Though, for Huhi, it was a pick that was all about trust. CLG needed to take the Lulu away from Bjergsen -- Huhi needed to trust his teammates to carry him to the title.

"I didn't play Lulu for like three weeks! My team, they only play good around Lulu...So, basically Game 5 I felt pretty useless. Because I was just screaming 'Stixxay you can go in, I'm shielding you! Stixxay, back up, I don't have my ulti!' I was doing no damage and praying we were going to win."

"I was confident with Stixxay even before," Huhi continued. "But now I'm even more confident, because that game it was all about trusting. I was putting every resource into him."

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With the 2016 Spring Split under their belt, CLG will now be heading to Shanghai, where they'll take on the best teams from around the world at the Mid-Season Invitational. They’re steaming forward with their “win everything” mentality championed by their coach Zikz, and Huhi is more than happy to jump on board for the ride.

"I just hope that we can beat every team. [But if I were to pick one], LCK teams are always on top of communication, meta, and rotations. I know that we're going to win," he said while laughing, "There's a 0.0001% chance we're going to lose, but it doesn't matter, because we know we're going to learn something."

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As to whether he’s daunted by the prospect of foreign competition? Not in the slightest.

"I think we all signed up for travel visas to go to China," he said with a smirk.

28 Comments

Count BuffonApr 18, 20165 votes

I'm kind of glad TSM came up short after waiting so long to go full tryhard. It would've been a little upsetting to see them ace the final after skipping class half the time all semester...

Sycksh1tApr 18, 20164 votes

Thank you CLG!!!! After c9 went down my only hope for any satisfaction in this final was for Doubledouche to lose too his old team!!! "I didn't think CLG was that good" ...They wasn't while you was on the team...lol =p

RG VeleanApr 20, 20162 votes

They were far better with him on the team. Stixxay and Huhi are terrible players. Stixxay gets carried every game and Huhi is a mediocre midlaner

PoltergeistZApr 18, 20163 votes

A hard fought battle, i cheered for Team Solo Mid but CLG deserved that title after ending victorious in many dead-even matches. The only thing i found kind of sad is that it seems that blue side has way too much of an advantage either because of the first pick/ counter to top or mid and you can clearly see that every match the blue team ended up winning despite the advantage that either team had gotten over the game. still cheering for TSM next summer split though. _ laughs like zed_ * Zed

69469238DEL1Apr 18, 20163 votes

Is no one going to talk about that Rageblade Tristana like whaaaaat

Count BuffonApr 18, 20161 votes

I missed the games. That sounds crazy, must see.

There is a lot more synergy than with old Tristana, though - the charges on E should synergize nicely with Rageblade's mechanic. I remember old Tristana being AP or AD only, with no room to split the build effectively. The new E is a game-changer for hybrid building.

The Lewd OneApr 20, 20161 votes

It covers her mid game weak point and it's crazy gold efficient. Only gets better with levels.

AlexanderMagnusIApr 18, 20163 votes

At least TSM didn't win, then we would have the worst team in the playoffs representing NA. At least with CLG there is a slight hope for them to make NA look good, but had TSM won then we would look worse then we did last year. item 3124 Tristana FTW!

Big Shaq RusoApr 18, 20162 votes

worst team in the playoffs? ahaahhahahaahahah TSM was the best team in the playoffs. You can't say that someone who beat C9 3-1 and then 3-0ed IMT is the worst team in the playoffs.Yes, in regular season they were bad but in playoffs they dominated.Let's see how CLG performs internationally. I predict they take 2 games from wildcard and maybe one from EU but that's all they will do with the 1 strategy they have.

EleshakaiApr 18, 20165 votes

To be fair, both C9 and Immortals dramatically misread the Meta and were playing the wrong game. I love C9, but in this tournament I think NRG would've given them a run for their money... and Lucian top?

Not to say TSM didn't play well, they did... but using who they beat as an example only matters if the teams they beat played the game well, and in this tournament, both C9 and Immortals seemed to be playing the completely wrong game when they played TSM.

If you look at the way Immortals crushed Liquid and then put an Immortals with that type of draft and team strategy against TSM, the matches would've probably gone to 5 games and certainly not been a one-sided stomp.

idkidc123Apr 18, 20163 votes

You shouldn't take away the fact that TSM beat these teams just because their meta game was better than the others.

TSM beat C9, who were a scrappy teamfighting team, has a legendary shot caller in Hai, MVP Rush (and Jensen, I think), and 3rd place seed. TSM beat IMT, a 17-1 team, 3-0, which almost NO ONE expected to happen at all. Yes they may have been weak with the meta, but if TSM weren't good either, they would have lost at C9. Watch C9 vs TSM game 1. That's what would of happened the whole playoffs.

Besides, I don't know if you watched the whole thing, but one of the analysts or shoutcasters (I think it was Jatt, he likes researching this stuff) said that those strats IMT was running was doing good in scrims. Heck, they almost won the game with Lucian top. That was their best game.

Oh and after all that, they almost beat CLG. They didn't, but they gave them a run for their money.

The #6 team faced vs. the #3, then #1, then #2 seed. They went 3-1, 3-0, 2-3 respectively. They were only one game from winning another championship. I'm sure 99.99999% of the people doubted (at the start of playoffs at least) that TSM would go that far.

EleshakaiApr 19, 20162 votes

I even said 'that's not to say TSM didn't play well, they did'... but you can't deny that TSM just had a better strategic read on the meta than either C9 or IMT during their matches and it made a HUGE difference.

Like IMT kept running comps that were stopped by Maokai. Alone. Once they hit 25 minutes, Maokai would literally be able to 1v5 against most of IMT's team comps. That's a problem. Especially since TSM is generally good at stalling thanks to a few really good playmakers.

That being said... TSM did play well. REally well, in fact. They shaped up a LOT. And I'm especially proud of their mentality, doublelifts comments at the end of 'they deserved it, they were the better team' showed a really new side of his personality.

I'm just not going to give them 'best team in the competition' well, since their opponents player REALLY bad team comps against them which skewed the competition a bit.

RG VeleanApr 20, 20161 votes

Why not just ban out the maokai then? They had 9 chance's to ban it and refused to.

EleshakaiApr 20, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=RG Velean,realm=NA,application-id=9hBQwnEU,discussion-id=Lhr4yMHn,comment-id=000500000000000000000000,timestamp=2016-04-20T19:19:39.073+0000)

Why not just ban out the maokai then? They had 9 chance's to ban it and refused to.

Because Immortals, and especially Huni, assumed it wouldn't be a problem and that the problem was on them. They even said it at the end 'maybe we misread the meta'... and then came back the next week with a completely revitalized pick/ban and strategic thought process.

It took more than just one or two losses to open their eyes to the mistake they were making. I hope this isn't a long-term problem for them as a team, but it's a reality. I think next season's best of 3(I think it's BO3 for NA) format will help them to get a bit better at adapting.

RG VeleanApr 20, 20161 votes

The only reason that CLG won that final game was because you had two people with GA. Yes it's an item and I applaud them for building it, but TSM won that final fight, they even killed darshawn twice. They had a Tristana with lulu ult on him and still almost lost that fight. If not for the double GA's on their tanks, TSM would be the winners. And I would've much rather had them representing us than CLG.

Doublelift is by far a better ADC than Stixxay ever will be. Stix is horrible and unless he's playing Cait, he mispositions and dies.

CLG went out in Group Stage at worlds (didn't even win a game) where as TSM made it to the next round.

AlexanderMagnusIMay 29, 20161 votes

item 3026 And I'm so glad that TSM lost to CLG building an item that they too could've built but decided not to. Had TSM made it out of playoffs and gone to MSI we would've looked worse then EU. TSM is by far the worst of the best teams in North America when it comes to international events. Call it hate speech, but I just cannot stand TSM as a team. I like Immortals, CLG, Echo Fox, and any one that isn't tested internationally because the teams that have been tested either flopped big time or are CLG and made it to the Finals at MSI. item 3026

RG VeleanMay 29, 20161 votes

TSM have done better internationally than most NA teams. The only team other than TSM to do decent oustide of NA was CLG, and they lost. TSM almost beat CLG to go to MSI. Honestly, I think TSM would've gone to the same spot as CLG. I hate CLG win a passion, but I'm glad they showed that NA is no longer a joke of a region.

AlexanderMagnusIMay 29, 20161 votes

I wasn't trying to say TSM did bad in NA. I'm saying TSM and any other NA team has never done good internationally. "but what about IEM Katowice 2015 where TSM won the tournament?" That wasn't hosted by riot. TSM has never done good at worlds, and last year's MSI was...sad. To say that they've had their chances and failed is a major understatement. Also, I'm happy CLG went to finals after only taking one game off the wild card and both games from EU. :3

TheHawkeyeMihawkApr 18, 20163 votes

Honestly, Darshan is so cocky and arrogant it hurts. Yes he is the best top laner in NA but as you saw at worlds his smugness gets crushed in the international competition. I hope at MSI he gets absolutely destroyed. I love every member of CLG now except him.. He ruins the team for me. Congratulations CLG but Darshan please learn to be more humble...

iniquitasApr 20, 20161 votes

ah, i see. it must be annoying to see a person with brown skin exude so much confidence

The Lewd OneApr 20, 20161 votes

Back off, he said nothing of the sort.

And let him be smug, as long as he's not being vulgar it's fine.

20MinNoNameApr 18, 20162 votes

Amazing series! Sad the way it ended though. Hauntzer tried too hard to start a fight and threw imo. After you don't get Stixxay into the team you can't win but they kept pressing and lost. Better luck next split TSM!

Smart KittyApr 18, 20162 votes

CLG baby! Everyone said they wouldn't be good without Doublelift, but what now haters!

Magnum MackApr 18, 20161 votes

TSM threw that last team fight so hard. Coulda just walked away and came back into it with the Cait traps like they'd been using.

I gotta say that the post-game interview with the team on stage was painful to watch. You could see it in Aphro's expression that he wanted to throttle them for how they presented on stage. I'm all for being awkward and such for your first time but god damn, get it together. Words and syllables guys lol.

LeBlanc JameśApr 18, 20161 votes

Thank you captain spolier.... WTF

andrewd00Apr 19, 20161 votes

CLG never won

Clairvoyance [zombie-brand-mindblown]

WHAT EVER HAPPENDS IN VEGAS STAYS IN VEGAS!!

SecondComingApr 24, 20161 votes

Didn't watch the games myself but I bet they were pretty cringe. Still can't believe Immortals got swept like that by TSM, given both teams look all split; IMT absolutely dominating and TSM, despite that all-star like roster having ups and downs. Didn't watch these games either, but I can't stop thinking they were set; IMT sold the series. I heard that Huni didn't play good at all (and when Huni tilts, everyone knows what happens). Guess I should watch the games myself to have a viewpoint.

Kudos to CLG; defending the title despite losing their adc and mid laner, both pretty good players- they're looking strong and solid. Maybe we're start seeing #Gold(en)Age instead of #TiltAge again?

Capt3nApr 18, 2016

Rito Please @ the awesomely awkward player parade before the start of the match. It was enjoyable to see at least some of the players could, at a minimum, self-consciously smile at hearing their names announced while the crushing scrutiny of the beady eyed die-hards from the darkened bleachers bore down upon their sweaty foreheads and each and every one of them fumbled hopelessly about with their hands, having nothing to do with them, and, most likely, feeling very naked on stage.

In all seriousness though, wouldn't it sound better, not to mention legitimately more professional, IF when announcing players we followed the format [ First Name "Moniker//Summoner name" Last Name ] as opposed to the current summoner name only, which feels awkward, jarring, and incomplete. Just a thought.

Finish with something positive: definitely enjoyed all of the spring split and especially the finals. Thanks for the broadcast, and thanks G2-OG for the exciting games.