The Many Top Laners of CLG
Riot·11/19/2014, 12:05:02 AM·0 votes·26,730 views
Counter Logic Gaming has been around since the beginning. While newer fans may associate CLG with Doublelift, Link, and Aphromoo, those who have been watching since Season One still remember the likes of Chauster, Elementz, and Kobe24. The original roster was considered the very best in the world.
Ever since Kobe first retired the team has been making move after move to try and recapture its original glory. While CLG’s past is full of complex roster changes, nearly every move stems from a problem in the top lane. As ZionSpartan takes on this volatile role, let’s take a look back at the history of the CLG top lane.
Owner and top laner since inception, HotshotGG will always be remembered by those who saw him play as one of the best. With a champion pool consisting of roughly three champions -- Udyr, Cho’Gath, and Nidalee -- Hotshot could take over any game by himself if teams did not keep him contained in the mid game. Hotshot was revered by North American fans as the best in the world, until they met the world’s best players at Dreamhack. On the biggest stage in the game’s short history, CLG finished in fifth place, the lowest position among North American teams.
After a disappointing showing at the Season One World Championships, CLG needed to make a change. Saintvicious, who was brought in when Kobe24 retired, seemed constantly at odds with Hotshot. Around the same time, two other big names in North America were experiencing roster woes. Dignitas’ top laner, Voyboy, was dissatisfied with his team’s lack of success and Curse was in need of a stronger voice to lead their squad.
The trade that followed marked one of the major turning points in the history of League of Legends -- this was the first major player movement that had ever been completed between multiple organizations. By rotating three of the biggest names in the sport to completely new teams, League of Legends took a huge step forward as a team sport.
CLG sent Saintvicious to lead Curse from the jungle, and acquired Voyboy. Curse then gave jungler Crumbzz to Dignitas to fill in for the vacant top lane spot. With a new young star in the top lane, Hotshot took over the empty jungler position for CLG. Later in Season 2, CLG would also part ways with Elementz and move Chauster to the support role to make room for their newest star, Doublelift.
As a top laner, Voyboy was always aggressive. Where Hotshot prefered to sit and farm passively for most of the game, Voyboy wanted to fight early and often. Unfortunately, Hotshot’s poor champion pool and lack of jungle experience allowed opponents to control the early game and punish Voyboy for his risky play. The team made it to the Season 2 World Championships, but failed in the group stages with only a single victory.
Returning home in defeat, CLG was forced to reevaluate their roster. While many critics targeted Hotshot’s poor champion pool as the root of the team’s struggles, Voyboy was the one to bear the blame on the team. He was never able to adapt to CLG’s passive play style, and as a result his risky early engagements would often end up giving the enemy team early advantage.
Hotshot returned to the top lane, and Chauster moved into the jungle. At the same time, BigfatLP decided to take a break from the competitive scene. CLG looked to their sister team, CLG Black for his replacement, a rising star known as Link. The team also needed to find a new support to fill Chauster’s vacant position. After a lengthy audition process, the team made a bold move by signing Aphromoo. Long considered a top level AD carry on a weak team, many fans were shocked that the former TSM Evo star would move to a supporting position next to a long time rival. This team performed well in the regular season, but lost to XDG in the first round of the playoffs.
In the long offseason, CLG once again made several roster moves, but this time their top laner remained safe. Across the pond in the EU LCS, the Lemondogs roster disbanded, leaving their star jungler, Dexter, free for CLG to add. CLG parted ways with BigfatLP, and around the same time Chauster decided to retire from competitive play. Hotshot chose to go with what had worked in the past, and called Aphromoo back up to the support position.
Despite a slow start, this roster hit their stride going into the playoffs and looked like a serious contender. Unfortunately, the team fell short against Team SoloMid. Nien suffered the worst of the internet backlash for the team’s loss, and decided to take a break from the game because of it.
Ultimately, CLG ended up leaving Seraph alone in the top lane on simple, beefy champions like Shyvana. Teams would focus Seraph early and the rest of CLG never put any emphasis on protecting their top laner, opting instead to hope for Doublelift to carry them. Amidst infighting, a trip to Korea, and a desperate battle in the promotion tournament, Seraph only lasted one split with CLG.
This is perhaps an unintuitive acquisition, as Zionspartan is exactly the kind of carry top laner with which CLG has always struggled. Like Seraph, he is most known for his impressive Jax, and has had many strong games on Nidalee this past season.
Signing Zionspartan could be CLG’s way of admitting their past mistakes. By letting Zion play his style of top lane, Dignitas had a very strong summer split. If CLG can evolve and learn to play a triple carry style, this could be a turning point for the long-suffering squad. Will history repeat itself, or will Counter Logic Gaming finally start to turn things around?
This CLG looks nothing like the last roster to stand on the Worlds stage, but will Zionspartan be the one that finally fixes their top lane woes, and returns Counter Logic Gaming to its former glory?
HotshotGG
Owner and top laner since inception, HotshotGG will always be remembered by those who saw him play as one of the best. With a champion pool consisting of roughly three champions -- Udyr, Cho’Gath, and Nidalee -- Hotshot could take over any game by himself if teams did not keep him contained in the mid game. Hotshot was revered by North American fans as the best in the world, until they met the world’s best players at Dreamhack. On the biggest stage in the game’s short history, CLG finished in fifth place, the lowest position among North American teams.
Voyboy
After a disappointing showing at the Season One World Championships, CLG needed to make a change. Saintvicious, who was brought in when Kobe24 retired, seemed constantly at odds with Hotshot. Around the same time, two other big names in North America were experiencing roster woes. Dignitas’ top laner, Voyboy, was dissatisfied with his team’s lack of success and Curse was in need of a stronger voice to lead their squad.
The trade that followed marked one of the major turning points in the history of League of Legends -- this was the first major player movement that had ever been completed between multiple organizations. By rotating three of the biggest names in the sport to completely new teams, League of Legends took a huge step forward as a team sport.
CLG sent Saintvicious to lead Curse from the jungle, and acquired Voyboy. Curse then gave jungler Crumbzz to Dignitas to fill in for the vacant top lane spot. With a new young star in the top lane, Hotshot took over the empty jungler position for CLG. Later in Season 2, CLG would also part ways with Elementz and move Chauster to the support role to make room for their newest star, Doublelift.
As a top laner, Voyboy was always aggressive. Where Hotshot prefered to sit and farm passively for most of the game, Voyboy wanted to fight early and often. Unfortunately, Hotshot’s poor champion pool and lack of jungle experience allowed opponents to control the early game and punish Voyboy for his risky play. The team made it to the Season 2 World Championships, but failed in the group stages with only a single victory.
HotshotGG Again
Returning home in defeat, CLG was forced to reevaluate their roster. While many critics targeted Hotshot’s poor champion pool as the root of the team’s struggles, Voyboy was the one to bear the blame on the team. He was never able to adapt to CLG’s passive play style, and as a result his risky early engagements would often end up giving the enemy team early advantage.
Hotshot returned to the top lane, and Chauster moved into the jungle. At the same time, BigfatLP decided to take a break from the competitive scene. CLG looked to their sister team, CLG Black for his replacement, a rising star known as Link. The team also needed to find a new support to fill Chauster’s vacant position. After a lengthy audition process, the team made a bold move by signing Aphromoo. Long considered a top level AD carry on a weak team, many fans were shocked that the former TSM Evo star would move to a supporting position next to a long time rival. This team performed well in the regular season, but lost to XDG in the first round of the playoffs.
Nien
Hotshot made the decision between splits to retire as a player and focus on running the organization. His first major roster decision was to pick up Nien from Team MRN to replace himself. While Aphromoo had performed well, CLG’s bottom lane no longer put the same fear in other teams as it had in Season Two. Aphromoo was let go in order to return Chauster to his rightful place. With Chauster back at support, Hotshot called on BigfatLP to return to the team, this time as a jungler. Nien performed well in the Summer Split, but the team just could not find their stride with so many changes between splits. CLG missed the World Championship for the first time.
In the long offseason, CLG once again made several roster moves, but this time their top laner remained safe. Across the pond in the EU LCS, the Lemondogs roster disbanded, leaving their star jungler, Dexter, free for CLG to add. CLG parted ways with BigfatLP, and around the same time Chauster decided to retire from competitive play. Hotshot chose to go with what had worked in the past, and called Aphromoo back up to the support position.
Despite a slow start, this roster hit their stride going into the playoffs and looked like a serious contender. Unfortunately, the team fell short against Team SoloMid. Nien suffered the worst of the internet backlash for the team’s loss, and decided to take a break from the game because of it.
Seraph
For the Summer Split, CLG once again looked outside their region and brought in Seraph from Korea. As with Nien and Voyboy before him, the team never seemed to quite know what to do with their new top laner. Seraph was considered a strong player because of his strength on carry style top laners such as Jax and Nidalee, but these champions did not fit well with CLG’s playstyle. The few times CLG did give Seraph a comfort champion early in the season went poorly, as the rest of the team composition suffered from a lack of strong engagement or tankiness.
Ultimately, CLG ended up leaving Seraph alone in the top lane on simple, beefy champions like Shyvana. Teams would focus Seraph early and the rest of CLG never put any emphasis on protecting their top laner, opting instead to hope for Doublelift to carry them. Amidst infighting, a trip to Korea, and a desperate battle in the promotion tournament, Seraph only lasted one split with CLG.
ZionSpartan
CLG returned to the local talent pool this time around when they turned to ZionSpartan. Despite a strong summer split, Team Dignitas has seen a mass exodus of talent, with coach Scarra, AD carry Imaqtpie, and top laner Zionspartan deciding to pursue other options. CLG has recently signed both Scarra and Zionspartan to their 2015 roster as coach and top laner respectively.
This is perhaps an unintuitive acquisition, as Zionspartan is exactly the kind of carry top laner with which CLG has always struggled. Like Seraph, he is most known for his impressive Jax, and has had many strong games on Nidalee this past season.
Signing Zionspartan could be CLG’s way of admitting their past mistakes. By letting Zion play his style of top lane, Dignitas had a very strong summer split. If CLG can evolve and learn to play a triple carry style, this could be a turning point for the long-suffering squad. Will history repeat itself, or will Counter Logic Gaming finally start to turn things around?
This CLG looks nothing like the last roster to stand on the Worlds stage, but will Zionspartan be the one that finally fixes their top lane woes, and returns Counter Logic Gaming to its former glory?
