Team Liquid vs CLG

What a fascinating match-up, if for all the wrong reasons. This, at heart, is a tremendous mismatch; a fact if ever there was one. This Team Liquid line-up is disgustingly powerful when compared to the vast majority of their peers -- Counter Logic Gaming included. In fact, they have some of the very best players who've ever taken flesh, so it should really come as no surprises that the oddsmakers have them pegged as a 1.34 favorite. Heck, that might even be a bit generous! The gap in talent and experience is *that* stupendous. It's not even a gap but rather a canyon, and there's really no way for CLG to narrow it any time soon (if ever).

Still, we have to take their most recent showings into consideration. Both teams had fought tooth and nail against their respective opponents and *both* had made numerous mistakes of varying levels of egregiousness. That, in CLG's case, can be at least somewhat forgiven -- they're a surging gatekeeper, after all, one with many debilitating flaws and weaknesses.

Team Liquid, on the other hand, will long remember their most recent loss to 100 Thieves -- one of many, in fact. They were outplayed and outmuscled for the vast majority of the series and only on the most infrequent of occassions were they good and cohesive enough to fight back. Their drafts were subpar, their individual play lacking, their cohesion non-existent. It was, in short, the kind of Team Liquid we expected: exceptional on an individual level but yet somehow weaker than the sum of its parts. A strange blend of top-tier players (nay, legends) who, for one reason or another, have yet to truly synergize and start playing as a five-man unit.

Now, to be fair, they did go up against one of the very best teams in North America, but they, too, are well-equipped to carry such a title -- we all have lofty expectations for this version of Team Liquid, and rightfully so. Anything other than winning the LCS should be deemed a scandal for a line-up this powerful and, by the looks of it, they might not even make it to Worlds.

What a preposterous series of events. A boggling situation, no doubt, but also one that, in hindsight, *does* make a bit of sense. There are simply too many "cooks in the kitchen." It's less about individual strength or talent and more about the way in which a team clicks, the way it functions and executes commands and strategies in game; that is precisely TL's Achilles' heel and, much like the original myth, it *will* lead to their downfall.

Be that as it may, going up against a severely flawed Counter Logic Gaming is by no means as big a challenge as facing 100 Thieves. That goes without saying.

We're near the very end of the postseason and we *still* can't fully and objectively evaluate and asses CLG's strength (or lack thereof). They're such an enigmatic team, one that, by all metrics, has performed way above expectations.

But, as always, what goes up must, eventually, come down. In other words: we're witnessing CLG's "descent," and it's quite a dramatic one, too. This was inevitable, no matter their regular season record and many momentous triumphs. They're not a top-tier team at heart, nor are they powerful enough to compete with Team Liquids and Cloud9s of the world -- not even on a good day.

And their most recent win over the Golden Guardians? Absolutely pitiful. They *did* find a way to win, so credit where credit is due, but their stock still took quite a big hit. Dhokla was heavily outperformed by Licorice (of Cloud9 fame), and much of the same can be said for CLG's bottom lane duo as well -- they had no answer for Stixxay and Olleh, two seasoned LCS veterans who are still good enough to compete on the highest of levels.

Team Liquid are not performing at their best but they're still head and shoulders better than Counter Logic Gaming. Of that you can be certain. CLG can, in all fairness, overperform (at the most random of moments, no less), but if their Best of 5 against the Golden Guardians is anything to go by, they don't have anything left in the proverbial tank and are probably going to get steamrolled by a very motivated TL.

They're not a bad team by any stretch of the imagination but they *are* flawed and they *do* have numerous weaknesses that their more experienced peers can easily exploit. And, well, Team Liquid are more than ready to do said exploting. They're probably going to start swinging for the fences from the very moment they step foot on stage. There's too much on the line, after all, and they're in dire need of a statement win. So, if they play their cards right, they should definitely be able to outclass CLG and set up a clash with the winner of TSM vs. EG.