Counter Logic Gaming went the distance to secure a 2-1 series victory against Team EnVyUs on Sunday during Week 9, Day 3 of the North American League of Legends Championship Series Spring Split in Los Angeles.
Team EnVyUs (3-15, 14-30 match record) dominated skirmishes to begin Game 1, thanks to roams from mid laner Noh "Ninja" Geon-Woo's Talon, as it slowly built a 5,000-gold lead in the first 20 minutes. Counter Logic Gaming (10-8, 22-22 match record) started to turn things around in the mid game as it put together some well-coordinated teamfights of its own. That helped to even out the kill deficit, but CLG was unable to cut into EnVyUs' gold lead. EnVy's Ninja started to apply split pressure late while his teammates won skirmishes on the opposite side of the Rift. Counter Logic Gaming was helpless as its defense was torn apart in the final 10 minutes to give EnVyUs the Game 1 win.
EnVy got off to another early lead in Game 2 as its rotations produced first blood and first turret gold. Counter Logic Gaming was better prepared for the early game moves however and managed to stop its deficit from going over 3,200 gold. Kills were fairly even approaching the 30-minute mark, but things quickly swung in Counter Logic Gaming's favor. The next six minutes were disastrous for Team EnVyUs as CLG dominated teamfights and ran around the map taking objectives. Counter Logic Gaming's Baron kill around the 33-minute mark was all it needed to push through the enemy Nexus and secure the Game 2 win.
In the deciding contest, Counter Logic Gaming put together better early roams as it scored the first three kills, even knocking down the first turret. Facing constant pressure, EnVy failed to deal with a debilitating split push, losing key 5 vs. 4 fights while CLG mid laner Choi "Huhi" Jae-hyun's Ekko knocked down top lane all the way to the inhibitor. The split push started to break apart as EnVy would nearly even up the gold and cut into the turret deficit, but the moment wouldn't last for long. Momentum swung back to CLG as it won the next fight over Baron and went back to split pushing. Struggling to close out Game 3, CLG finally secured the 67-minute win after a final split push destroyed EnVy's Nexus.
The win locked up fourth place for Counter Logic Gaming in the NA LCS standings, meaning it will face FlyQuest in the first round of the playoffs on April 9th. EnVyUs will have to survive relegation in order to requalify for the 2017 Summer Split, beginning first with its match against Gold Coin United on Friday.