League of Legends LCS 2019 Summer Playoffs runner up game preview: Clutch vs. CLG
By Josh Tyler
Prediction
These two teams have pretty unique strengths entering this series. Clutch will want to play more around their side laners (Huni and Cody) while CLG will play much more through mid, jungle, and supports via team fighting.
In terms of quality of competition, Clutch has undoubtedly proven more against the stronger opponents. They demolished a TSM team that – despite imploding on themselves – most teams would take over OpTic and then hung in there during their series with Liquid. While CLG dusted off OpTic in a sweep, they got manhandled by C9.
In terms of expectations, CLG probably feels a lot worse about being in this runner-up game than Clutch. CLG was among the top two or three teams in the LCS for most of the summer, while Clutch was lucky to make the playoffs, let alone punch their ticket to Detroit. After their performances last week, all the momentum should be on Clutch’s side.
However, I will give the advantage for this series to CLG because of two big reasons: their shot-calling and cohesion. While Clutch has some very impressive individual players, CLG has been the best team in the playoffs when it comes to late game macro calls and team fighting.
Clutch, unfortunately, still have too much of that capacity to get picked off and die in the side lanes and throw advantages. Given how volatile Huni and Damonte can be, I’ll take the consistency of CLG instead.
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