Counter Logic Gaming dismantled Cloud9 on Saturday en route to a 2-1 series victory during Week 5, Day 2 of the North American League of Legends Championship Series in Los Angeles.
The series started off with a rather standard draft aside from Cloud9 (6-4, 15-10 match record) opting to give Counter Logic Gaming's (7-2, 15-10 match record) mid laner Choi "Huhi" Jae-hyun his signature Aurelion Sol. The early game went heavily in favor of CLG as C9's top laner Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong struggled on Rumble, giving up three quick kills. With Huhi roaming early and CLG's AD carry Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes picking up a pair of early kills for himself to start scaling early, CLG quickly gained control of the map. A skirmish at 17 minutes saw Huhi picking up an unofficial quadra to gain complete control over the game. With a series of teamfights breaking out over the next 10 minutes, CLG quickly dominated their opponents, taking a Baron and closing out the game for a 35-minute victory.
C9 didn't take the defeat lightly, bouncing back quickly in Game 2 of the series. With another standard draft, both teams fought hard in the early game, leading to an action-packed back and forth that saw both teams neck-and-neck for nearly 20 minutes. Cloud9 pulled ahead with two early kills onto AD carry Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi's Caitlyn that allowed him to complete two early damage items. With accelerated builds, Cloud9 took early towers and dragons, finding a small gold lead that began to snowball. With CLG dedicating several members to the bottom side of the map, Cloud9 quickly started a 20-minute Baron that went uncontested. With the buff, C9 was able to take three more towers and an inhibitor, taking control of the game fully. C9 was able to use its pressure to take a second Baron and close out the game in just 30 minutes.
Both teams had their eyes set on the prize in Game 3 but only one would prove victorious. The early game was largely uneventful, with both teams playing cool and calculated, unwilling to overextend and throw away their chance at a series victory. As the game progressed and kills went back and forth, CLG found themselves pulling ahead due to Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett picking up several kills for his team on Rek'Sai as well as the first two dragons of the game. With two mountain dragons, CLG was able to posture around Baron and bait a fight, picking up a pair of kills and taking an early Baron. With the buff, the team didn't slow down, moving forward quickly with engages from Stixxay's Ashe and Huhi's Orianna. Although Cloud9 was able to defend its Nexus while a tower fell at 26-minutes, it could not defend the onslaught, allowing CLG to take the 31-minute victory and close out the series.
Counter Logic Gaming will look to continue its upward swing as it takes on Team Liquid Sunday at 6:00 p.m. ET while Cloud9 will attempt to shake off the defeat Saturday, July 14th, taking on EnVyUs at 6:00 p.m. ET.