League of Legends LCS playoff preview: OpTic vs. CLG – the ultimate underdogs
By Josh Tyler
Today we preview the second LCS quarterfinal match between CLG and OpTic. Which League of Legends team will move closer to a championship?
CLG and OpTic entered the 2019 LCS Summer Split with low expectations. CLG, once among the storied old guard in NA League of Legends, was coming off a disappointing seventh-place finish that saw them miss the playoffs. They were tied for seventh, ironically, with OpTic, who were also struggling to find their identity as a team.
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Surprisingly, neither team made drastic changes to their rosters from spring. CLG, of course, swapped out their long-time and disappointing top laner Darshan for Ruin, while OpTic continued to trust their roster. Now, both teams are entering the playoffs with a chance to make a run towards Worlds after up-and-down Summer Splits. Which team is favored going into the quarterfinal match-up?
In this corner…
CLG, the team that was at times looking like a definite top-three team in the LCS. This team has split their season series with the other top four teams – Liquid, C9, and TSM – and proven that though they might not be formidable as individuals, they are greater as a team than the sum of their parts.
One thing that has become evident is how impressive CLG is in terms of the macro game. Their aggregate vision score per minute as a team is third-best in the LCS and their early game rating (according to Oracle’s Elixir) is behind only Liquid. As a whole, this is a solid team.
Now, that’s not to say CLG is perfect. Their mid/late game rating is second-lowest among playoff teams and they have the second-longest average game time in wins. All of this indicates that while CLG is a team that is great at getting out to an early lead, they often falter when it comes to mid and late game shot-calling.
In the other corner…
OpTic Gaming, making their first-ever appearance in the LCS playoffs. OpTic started the season hot, going 4-0 in the first two weeks of the split before cooling off and fading in the back half of the season.
They have managed to find some success in their season by taking both games off TSM in their season series. They’re also a decently strong early game team (though weaker than CLG) and do have a quicker average game time in victories than CLG, showing they’re quite competent at closing out games.
However, OpTic also have some major issues that are primed to be exposed in the playoffs. First, their mid and late game rating is awful, second-worst among playoff teams (only Clutch is worse). Second, and even more disturbing, they recorded just one win against the three best teams (TL, CLG, and C9) in the regular split. Luckily, that win did come against CLG meaning they’ll at least have some success to rest their hat on entering these games.