Moving forward, Counter Logic Gaming has a positive outlook to work with following their recent international placing.  A sigh of relief surely  passed through the backroom, given that they lost a star player and exchanged their starting mid laner for their former substitute, yet still came out of their first international event as a grand-finalist.  Though the team didn't take down the strongest of opposition on their way to meeting Origen, most would suggest they performed better than initial expectations.  However, we must keep in mind that the pre-season patch wil change the game drastically, especially for the once heavily AD Carry focused team.

A spartan may change his name, but never his profession

Photo: Riot Games

The shift in focus for CLG was immediately noticeable at IEM San Jose.  Darshan was given much more of the team's resources and looked at home in the split-pushing style.  In fact, the last time we've seen this much emphasis on top lane split push from Counter Logic Gaming with the degree of success that they found, HotshotGG was the mastermind of Nidalee and one of the top players and front runners of the North American scene. At the event, CLG picked a carry top laner in all seven of their games, totaling three Fiora picks, two Riven picks, a Jax pick and a Fizz pick.

Unsurprisingly, CLG's most devastating games  correlated with the amount of freedom Darshan had to dominate, particularly by drawing attention away from other areas of the map where CLG would apply pressure or Darshan simply outdueling his opponent. 

Stixxay fulfilled the role of a reliable carry and, uncharacteristically for a rookie on the team, he did his job well under pressure at his first major offline event.  This was especially noteworthy assuming we can place all of CLG opponents ahead of their North American competition, save a few teams. When confronted by tempting greed-fueled opportunities, Stixxay decided to play conservatively, in direct contrast with his former ADC counterpart.  

With the team operating as it does, Stixxay's responsibilities don't extend far beyond staying alive and getting as many autos as possible as for damage contribution; nothing flashy is required for the team from him to meet their win conditions.  Luckily, Stixxay seemed most comfortable with engaging, utility style AD champions like Ashe and Kalista. This bodes well for CLG right now, but one concern could be the drastic shift in the meta that comes with the pre-season patches.  Undoubtedly the outcome of a match relies much more heavily on the performance of the AD Carry in current versions of the game, at least in part due to the impact of the role and the new items.  It'd be optimistic in the extreme to expect the shoes of Doublelift to be filled so shortly after the changes, but with the change of environment and atmospheric health within the team, it'll hopefully make up for the loss of their former star player's mechanical prowess.

In terms of top lane changes, the outcome could push the team either way.  Teleport and Ignite will both be viable (although teleport has been selected in basically every professional game thus far since the change) and CLG's strategic grasp seemed a lot more firm than many of the teams in attendance at IEM San Jose.  In a lot of ways, CLG's performance is analogous to Zz1tai's talents in iG, but for the team as a whole; they are incredibly quick to pick up new strategies and champions, but plateau with them shortly thereafter. CLG has always been a team capable of innovating, only to falter when things begin to standardize and innovation stops packing a punch on the creative merits alone.  

We can expect CLG to put Darshan on champions that both may not yet be introduced to the meta (as well as those that are perfectly viable as is) and that are capable of solo carrying the game after winning lane.  With teleport in its current state, his competition will be less likely to use it as a rewind button for mistakes as the spell is largely favoured for it's utility in team assistance and map pressure now. As a result, his influence should be greater than it was even before. In the interest of CLG's success, hopefully the ability remains throughout the patches at the start of the LCS for top lane to be a place for legitimate threats to put the team on their backs and no longer forces them to play giant damage-soaking meat walls. At they very least, it'll take the pressure off Stixxay until he has more time to develop, bringing back the comfortable-but-never-overly-successful protect-the-AD-Carry compositions that the team knows and loves.

Sir, what of the others?

Photo: IEM | Facebook

There's no doubt that these two positions are the most instrumental in deciding CLG's fate in major games, but the surrounding pieces also do, and will have to, play large roles.  HuHi is a particularly worrying example, as his performance across all games we've seen him in didn't look very promising.  Outside of PowerofEvil, the competition he faced wasn't more threatening than domestic talent he'll have to look to challenge later such as Bjergsen, so it wasn't the best debut for the replacement of Pobelter.  CLG has had a lot of issues playing with a mid laner that falls behind; from the once legendary but then slumping Bigfatlp into the disappointing-under-pressure Link -- riddled with erroneous mid pieces, the team has given their weakest performances historically. 

Having junglers that weren't actually jungle mains in the past certainly didn't help remedy this issue, but Xmithie isn't without flaws. Outside of a few select champions (such as Gragas), Xmithie has issues keeping up in pressure with opposing powerful junglers in the early game.  In the pre-season, games end a lot faster, are a lot more snowbally, and therefore impact on the early game is the quintessential key to success of one's team. If HuHi cannot develop himself enough to be as threatening as Pobelter was in the season before him, will this complicate things further for the aging organization?  All signs point to 'yes' -- it'll be even more important to solidify a top lane advantage into a snowball for Darshan than what we saw at the tournament.  If Darshan finds himself heavily focused and denied his opportunity to carry as he was in the Origen set, it won't be as simple as teleporting back to the top or bottom tower as a reset switch.  He'll be punished heavily for doing so, and to make matters worse, HuHi struggling pulls attention away from getting him ahead and whatever insurance is mandatory for Stixxay to hold his own bottom.  

Assuming roaming is still viable and based on the characteristics of the player, he'll have enough weight to pull on his own, left to solo frequently while Aphromoo helps keep HuHi in the game. If CLG can work on a formula that allows a proper distribution of map attention as well as HuHi keeping his skills sharp while still realizing that he's not in a sandbox and other North American midlaners are improving along with him, the team will be in a good spot.  At the very least, if he can learn how to play several area-of-effect control mages like Orianna, he can synergize with Aphromoo's excellent skillset of engaging to start fights for the team, setting up chain CC's for Darshan to clean up and creating a safe zone for Stixxay to pelt away at his opponents. 

Good or Bad?

Photo: CLG | Facebook

It's going to be hard to top their 2015 summer performance of winning the league without dropping a game in playoffs; the only thing they can do is make the display more convincing. For the spring split, this is looking doubtful, but CLG should still finish top 4 as they are not in the the worst position for a team to be in, as many other squads are reformulating both staff and rosters.

It'll be interesting to see how Zikz guides the team.  While he may not have the credentials to control it in such a way as Chris did prior, what with keeping Doubelift playing professionally and demonstrating exercises to the team to bond cohesion, it should be a theoretically simpler task without having a player as stubborn and, supposedly, negatively influential as Doublelift there for disruption. 

CLG will have to concern themselves with the fact that Origen "exposed" them and were able to handle their new style accordingly. The team wasn't able to heavily invest into Darshan, and looked lost without their top laner ahead. Fortunately, domestic teams are much more accustomed to focusing on CLG's bottom lane, but this gives them an easy window to transition upon studying these games, along with finding new and effective ways to make sure Darshan doesn't get out of control. 

All-in-all, the squad should perform similarly if we account for the potential boost to morale and attitude, but subtract the undeniable star force that is no longer with them.

The author is the Editor-in-Chief and never does content anymore. What is this even doing here? Connect with him at @ESHDrexxin.