LCS 2021: Why Fans Should Be Excited About CLG

Let’s look at why CLG fans should be excited for the coming LCS season.

CLG, one of the longest-standing LCS organizations in the league’s history, has fallen on hard times recently. After making some interesting acquisitions in the offseason and replacing three of their five starters, here is why CLG fans should be excited for their team in 2021.

Last Year

3-15 in the Spring Split, 5-13 in the Summer Split

I mean…there’s nowhere to go from here but up, right? CLG had, by aggregate record, the worst year of any LCS team, winning 8 out of their 36 games. For all you math nerds, that’s 25% of their games won.

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And it was arguably more painful in the Summer Split than the Spring Split, even though they had a better record. CLG was 5-5 at Week 5 and missed out on the final playoff spot to Dignitas due to a tiebreaker. Had they won just a single game in the last four weeks of the season, CLG would have made the Summer Playoffs.

The Offseason

CLG’s roster rebuild this offseason focused on bringing in proven veterans, rather than a younger rebuild like Dignitas did. They imported Finn “Finn” Wiestål from Rogue in the LEC as their top laner and brought in Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen to take over jungle duties.

They then made the surprising decision to drop their long-time starting ADC Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes and replaced him with former FlyQuest bot laner Jason “WildTurtle” Tran. Mid laner Eugene “Pobelter” Park and support Andy “Smoothie” Ta return to the lineup from last year.

The Coach

They moved on from Weldon Green and brought up Galen “Galen” Holgate from their Academy team. Galen (formerly a professional jungler known as Moon) only coached their Academy team for one split. During that time, the team went 9-9 in the regular season (finishing fifth) and then were swept out of the playoffs in the semifinals by Cloud9 Academy.

Players to Be Excited About

CLG’s entire roster is made up of veteran players, so there aren’t really any surprises to look forward to. These players are all known quantities with a (seeming) limited ceiling.

I suppose the most exciting player to watch on this team is top laner Finn. Not only is he coming to NA from a much better region, his playstyle is aggressive and unpredictable, which makes him someone to watch.

Season Prediction

CLG is your classic “medium floor, low ceiling” team. I don’t think they should be a team that’s in danger of missing the playoffs, but I would be shocked if they manage to win more than one playoff round.

This team’s best hope for 2021 is to develop some incredible synergy and find ways to “out-scheme” their opponents with creative drafts and strategies. On talent, they cannot stand up to some of the better teams at the top of the LCS standings.

What are the Fans Excited About?

From the CLG subreddit:

"Honestly excited to see how our top jng duo turns out– Ultimatum07"

"I am excited to see the redemption arcs of finn and broxah– Aquib_Arko"

The top/jungle synergy and talent is going to be the key to CLG’s season. Broxah and Finn aren’t the most talented duo in the LCS, but if they can figure out how to play together that would give them an advantage.

"Excited to have such a likable team (i don’t expect to win anymore)– Norasack"

"We got a charisma buff– Oricula"

"Excited for this squad of wholesome, talented guys to prove CLG can’t be written off. Also super excited to see our Canadian Bot lane!– KyMurr"

It’s definitely true, this roster is full of players that are impossible to not like. From the infectious attitudes of WildTurtle and Pobelter to the wholesome levity of Broxah, CLG is an easy team to root for.

Next. Ranking the 50 greatest LCS players of all time. dark

"I’m excited because it can’t be worse than last season pls– shkyturnip"

Well, you say that…

I’m kidding, yeah this team should be better than the 2020 squad unless Finn pulls a Crown and just completely checks out.

"Yeah, I think we have a lot of players that want to prove themselves which is exciting because I think we could surprise people with our quality– Teh1Person0"

Definitely an underrated aspect of this CLG roster. These are all players who have been cast off and written off (myself included). The motivation and drive for redemption, to prove others wrong can’t be discounted. If CLG can pull off a winning record, they’ll force a lot of people to eat crow. And I’ll be more than happy to dig into my share.

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