ZionSpartan and CLG spring back in marathon game vs. Flash Wolves

Counter Logic Gaming's top laner Darshan "ZionSpartan" Upadhyaha emerged from his game against the Flash Wolves on the first day of the Worlds 2015 Groups Stage looking less than thrilled with his team's victory.

The longest game of Day 1 was a 41-minute tortuous back-and-forth, with the outcome resting on the knife edge, threatening to topple to either side. ZionSpartan, along with a lot of CLG fans, were expecting it to be an easy first win.

"I expected that we would come out on top, because I thought we were the much better team," he explained. His low mood wasn't because he felt let down by his team's performance though. Instead, he felt it was his fault the game went so long and was so close. "I mis-executed in the early game. Pretty badly."

[[{"fid":"19872","view_mode":"centered","fields":{"format":"centered","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"tagName":"IMG","src":"http%3A//admin.prod.lolesports.com/s3/files/styles/centered/public/clgvsfw_endgamestats_0.png%3Fitok%3DGUyFcJDj","type":"media","attributes":{"class":"media-element file-centered"}}]]

CLG's faith in their skills was bolstered by a great pick and ban phase, which gifted mid laner Eugene "Pobelter" Park the oft-contested Lulu and ZionSpartan the recently reworked juggernaut Darius. "Yeah, we definitely got the better draft going into the game. I was even more confident with the picks that we had. It was just due to mis-execution, especially by me, in the early game that led to us getting behind." He continued. "I just had the wrong mindset."

Even though staying toe-to-toe with your foe isn't technically "falling behind", ZionSpartan felt that failing to defeat the Flash Wolves faster was a show of weakness. But CLG managed to pull it back with some solid teamwork on the Rift. "It wasn't really one person specifically that turned it around in terms of like, 'This is how we're going to win the game.' Everyone was just constantly reassuring me and the team that we're still fine and we can still win the game, and we just waited for our opportunity and found it. And Xmithie did a really good job of landing cocoons [with Elise]."

"When Xmithie cocooned Tristana from max range and then I hooked her and she died for free, I was like, 'Okay, we've probably won this game.'" And it helped that ZionSpartan was playing Darius. "Darius is really strong right now because not only does he have really long basic attack range, but he's also just really strong in all-ins. So he's just a lane bully and snowballs really hard, and has insane pressure."

When asked whether his performance will affect future games, he assured us his -- and CLG's -- will be much improved. "I definitely corrected my mindset. I definitely learned a lot from this game eventually. I still think we have a really good chance of getting out of Groups."

ZionSpartan now knows he can execute the same plan to lead to victory. "Just playing around the strengths of our team that game and, even if I do get behind, knowing I can always rely on my teammates."

To catch all of the games from the 2015 World Championship, head over to the spoiler-free VODs page.

Jem Alexander is a staff writer for Riot Games, based in Brighton, England. You can find him on Twitter @jemalexander.