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CLG Takes Summer LCS Championship, TSM Still Goes to Worlds

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Published: August 24, 2015 4:40 PM

This was an exciting weekend for League of Legends and eSports fans as the final games of the NA LCS Summer Split took place, determining which teams would be representing North America at the World Championship Series this fall. Over the course of Saturday and Sunday four teams faced off to determine the final standings for the season and, equally importantly, who will have the honor of going to Worlds. The third place game on Saturday was between Team Liquid and Team Impulse, but also was a chance for Team Liquid to prove themselves worthy of an international stage. The Sunday game pit the veteran champions Counterlogic Gaming against crowd favorite Team Solomid. Equally newsworthy was the surrealness of seeing the championship match spread across major sports networks like ESPN. 

https://twitter.com/espn/status/635257203591655424

On day one, Team Liquid came away with 3rd place for the season, beating Team Impulse 3-1 over the course of 4 games. This secured 3rd place, allowing the former Team Curse to break out of their usual 4th place slump. On top of the excitement of placing so prominently, this gave Team Liquid a shot to go to worlds, assuming Team Solomid could carry their weight in the 1st place game. Team Liquid's usually style proved them useful, playing cautiously throughout most of the early game into the mid game, waiting for Team Impulse's usually aggressive nature to leave them an opening. The best play of the set was in the final game when, after an incredibly Baron steal by Liquid mid-laner Fenix, the team went on to win a 4 v 5 team fight and, from that, the match and the series. The fights that seemed to please the crowd most though were the 1 v 1 fights between the top-laners Quas and Impact. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP5PaUEKvxY

Unfortunately Team Solomid had a much harder time in the championship spot with Counterlogic Gaming taking the Summer Split Championship trophy and securing their spot at the World Championship. The match was a blowout with CLG winning all three games by incredibly wide margins. Team Solomid couldn't match up against the former champions and because of that, CLG is now number one again in North America for the first time since the League was still young. A large part of CLG's victory was fan favorite Doublelift who come out with the majority of kills in two of the three total games that were played, including the rarely seen Pentakill in the second game. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7XT2nfkDQI

Now despite this setback, Team Solomid is still going to the World Championship, but Team Liquid will have to try their hand at the Gauntlet in order to get their shot again. Also joining them at the World Championship will be the powerful Fnatic from the European region, who won a tough final match against Team Origen, and H2K who had the second highest championship points in the European league after Fnatic. But while they're number one here, the big question remains whether they can hold their own against the top teams from the most competitive regions in the world in China and Korea. The World Championship Series takes place through the month of October as the top international teams tour through Europe, with the World Championship game on October 31st. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFisOZ_k63o
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| Staff Writer

Teacher's aid by day. Gamer by night. And by day, because I play my DS on my lunch break. Ask me about how bad my aim is.