Counter Logic Gaming continued their comeback season with another win to kick Week 6 off the 2022 League of Legends Championship Series summer season against Golden Guardians.
The team entered the match coming off one of their most impressive wins of the season in Week 5 against Team Liquid Honda. With momentum on their side against a much weaker opponent, the team managed to win another decisive game that included every member of the team stepping up. It was also their support player’s Philippe “Poome” Lavoie-Giguere 23rd birthday. His present was a game of Yuumi, a champion that has little to no outplay ability. According to Poome’s bot lane partner, Fatih “Luger” Güven, the pick wasn’t just for comedic effect, the pick is part of the team’s trust in each other to maximize their win potential but also have a little fun along the way.
“We blind picked Sivir, Yuumi as a sacrifice,” Luger said. “But they are actually good comfort pick champions.”
In the spring split, CLG’s highlight was their bot lane. However, throughout the summer split, all of the other members of the team have stepped up immensely. In their match against TL last week, mid-laner Cristian “Palafox” Palafox picked up player of the game honors for his Azir play. In their latest win, the top and jungle duo of Niship “Dhokla” Doshi and Juan “Contractz” Garcia went a combined 11/2/13 to lead their team to victory.
CLG’s bot lane might’ve been on weakside duty this time, but Luger thinks he is still playing at a top level. “I’m playing like a 10 or nine, I’m confident in my gameplay,” Luger said. “Of course, I have my weaknesses, but I believe in myself, I think I’m playing good.”
Luger-isms
On the official broadcast a couple of weeks back, CLG produced a video introducing “Luger-isms” which was defined as Luger’s “way to communicate with people.” Luger-isms seemed to be infectious as the video painted CLG as a laid-back team having fun. Luger said the vibe is correct but they also have a serious side.
“At the beginning of games, I think we are serious because we need to win,” Luger said. “But when we get a lead, we kinda have fun in the mid-game.”
Having fun definitely helps with team morale, but Luger said his team knows how to balance it; they don’t get carried away when they’re having fun in their mid-game leads. The team has been pretty solid at closing out games in the summer split, especially this one against GG.
Clearly, it’s not all about individual performances for CLG; with a 7-5 record, they find themselves in a real position to compete for Worlds for the first time in years. Despite the team having quality wins over Evil Geniuses and TL, Luger said the team hasn’t hit their peak. Despite each piece of the puzzle being strong on their own, CLG needs to figure out how those pieces fit together.
“We are probably like around a seven out of 10,” Luger said. “I think we still need to figure out some things.”
