Game of the Day: LMQ versus Counter Logic Gaming

By Helmight

            Doublelift went 11/5/5 with two quadrakills in today’s game between Counter Logic Gaming and LMQ. Normally, one would assume that CLG won easily if that was their AD carry’s score. However, it was LMQ taking home the victory thanks to some simply phenomenal play by their toplaner ackerman and a clutch midgame Baron steal.

            Counter Logic Gaming held the advantage for most of the early game, easily racking up kills and towers against an LMQ squad that looked a bit out of sorts. However, as we’ve found out over the course of this season, it only takes one mistake to lose a game. For CLG, it was making the call to go for a 20-minute Baron. LMQ arrived right as Baron fell low and a truly amazing Smite by NoName allowed LMQ to steal the objective. With their health bars already low from Baron, CLG absolutely melted under LMQ’s damage and got aced without a single return kill. With the buff in hand, LMQ proceeded to take three of CLG’s towers before anyone could respawn to defend them. It wasn’t over for CLG yet though – as they tried to resume their aggression, Link and Aphromoo got caught in LMQ’s jungle while Seraph died in a duel against ackerman. These kills set up LMQ to take an inhibitor and jump out to a 12k gold lead – an insurmountable advantage that CLG would never be able to recover from.

            Even after throwing their lead, Counter Logic Gaming did everything in their power to get back into the fight. Link and dexter’s wombo combos allowed CLG to successfully defend their base multiple times, and Doublelift managed to pick up a pair of quadrakills in the process. However, it was simply too little, too late. CLG spent most of the game cleaning minions from the lanes and trying to keep their inhibitors alive and would never manage to seriously threaten LMQ’s base again.

            LMQ meanwhile played a phenomenal game that shows exactly why they’re currently the number one team in North America. Key to their success was ackerman. With a full AP Gragas, ackerman’s amazing barrels and Body Slams let him set up multiple picks for LMQ and turn around fights that could have otherwise gone awry. Vasili also pulled his weight for his team – though his K/D/A isn’t as impressive as ackerman’s, his Tristana’s insane damage let LMQ take down towers and inhibitors before CLG could muster a response.

            It was CLG’s game all the way up to the Baron steal. Though every dragon went LMQ’s way during the laning phase, smart rotations and picks by Counter Logic Gaming let them catch out LMQ and burn down towers with little to no response. With 3 kills on Doublelift and 2 on dexter, it looked as though CLG would easily take down LMQ. Even after the midgame debacle, Counter Logic Gaming had a chance to come back. A smart initiation by dexter let Doublelift pick up his first quadrakill and gave CLG a Baron, but after the buff wore out they were back on defense for the rest of the game. One final teamfight might have turned the tides, but it was ackerman who saved the day for LMQ yet again. His Explosive Cask was perfectly placed and blew CLG’s members all over the place. After Vasili and XiaoWeiXiao mopped up, it was simple for the rest of the team to clean out the Nexus.

LMQ (W)				Counter Logic Gaming (L)
Kills	Turrets	Gold		Kills	Turrets			Gold
25	11	86.0k		21	5			72.0k
Lineup
Position	Player	Champion	K/D/A	Position		Player			Champion	K/D/A
Top	ackerman	Gragas	11/2/8	Top	Seraph				Nidalee	3/7/8
Jungle	NoName	Lee Sin	1/4/9	Jungle	dexter				Rengar	3/4/5
Mid	XiaoWeiXiao	Twisted Fate	7/4/9	Mid	Link				Orianna	4/5/13
ADC	Vasili	Tristana	5/4/12	ADC	Doublelift				Jinx	11/5/5
Support	Mor	Thresh	1/7/17	Support	Aphromoo				Braum	0/4/11
Bans
Kog’Maw	Elise	Lulu		Kassadin			Nunu	Yasuo

Questions? Comments? Leave them below!