Today the two teams at the top of the League Championship Series (LCS) clashed in a battle for dominance of the league—and in the longest running rivalry in League of Legends.
At the start of the day the all-time series between Team SoloMid and Counter Logic Gaming sat at 21-21. But now Team SoloMid, the team that’s more recently controlled the battle, sits with a one-game lead and a hold on the top spot in the LCS standings with just one week before the playoffs.
The match itself was one of the closest of the season. Neither team managed to build a lead through 30 minutes, with both teams expertly trading towers, kills, and dragons as they jockeyed around the map for positions.
At the 26 minute mark, Counter Logic Gaming nearly took a lead after forcing a team fight at Dragon. But Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg managed to avoid four skill shots in a row, dodging the Zap, Super Mega Death Rocket, Charm, and Orb of Deception to escape with a sliver of health.
Bjergsen was dominant on Zed. While he didn’t score any early kills, he posted a huge farm lead over his counterpart, Austin “Link” Shin on Ahri. Yesterday, the SoloMid jungler said the team never loses with Bjergsen on Zed—at least without a pocket Urgot pick, which Counter Logic hovered over before the match. It seemed like that may have worked better for Counter Logic, as while they kept Bjerg from scoring early kills, he was still an unstoppable force in the mid game, while Shin struggled.
At the 30 minute mark, SoloMid pulled off the play that turned the match—sneaking a Baron.
Jason “Wildturtle” Tran called that Peter “Doublelift” Peng needed to back, as the Counter Logic player had accumulated a lot of gold. That would leave open an objective for SoloMid, so they went for Baron, as they had just cleared the pink wards surrounding the pit. Counter Logic couldn’t counter.
With Baron in hand, SoloMid scored an uncontested tower and dragon. Counter Logic tried to answer with the mid lane inner turret, cutting off SoloMid in their own red jungle. But when Darshan “ZionSpartan” Upadhyaya engaged on Kennen, SoloMid was ready. Wildturtle’s area damage on Corki was too much for Counter Logic to handle, especially after Doublelift opted to buy a Quicksilver Sash over a Phantom Dancer, limiting his damage in the fight.
From that point, SoloMid squarely controlled the match, methodically closing out the game.
Over 400,000 watched the regular season match, nearly matching the half a million that watched the two teams clash in week four of the season, a bout that Team SoloMid also won.
The win makes the now 12-4 Team SoloMid the favorite to take the top seed into the playoffs, but their spot isn’t safe. Next week they face Cloud9, who will match their record should they beat Team 8 today, in a battle that could likely decide the top seed. But Counter Logic also still isn’t out of the race, with games against Team 8 and Team Impulse next week.
