In a way, this is CLG 3 vs CLG EU, so it's a special match for Curse to prove themselves. Showing a strong performance in the tournament they end up aginst the European powerhouse to see if they can defeat them and reign over the Lone Star Clash.
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Game 2: With Game 1 being a weighted bye for CLG.EU for climbing up through the winner's bracket, we jump straight into Game 2.
Curse put their tryhard pants on and showed absolute dominance entering into the series against the allegedly stronger Counter Logic Gaming EU. Saint really pulled out his core jungle talents, subduing his farming habits in favor of helping the team.
Right off the bat he begins snowballing bottom early for Cop and Elementz, getting
an ultra early oracle in the process. Though the game wasn't 1-sided in either way.
Voyboy pulled out a shocking and crowd-pleasing pick by bringing out the Nasus and showed utter dominance on it. He started the game 2-0 and got a ton of farm. He proceeded to single-handedly split push bottom lane and bring the entire attention of CLG's team to him.
He grabbed the inhibitor on his own and caused a mass distraction in a 1v3 nexus dive as the rest of Crs pressured from top. After executing better than CLG and Wickd singled out in an engagement, he just melts and Crs just crushed their base to take the victory.
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Game 3: The pressure is on for CLG and the battle starts in champion select with Voyboy taking Irelia straight away from Wickd, knowing that is Wickd's trademark champ and that Voyboy can play him well too.
After an overly ambitious counter jungle, Curse starts off with a 2-0 lead with a kill on Cop and a kill on Elementz, resulting in a very potent bottom lane right off the bat for Curse. Saint did work again, managing to forego farming a bit and apply pressure to each of the lane.
Saint wasn't alone in the team assistance as Voyboy, who was bottom, ended up roaming mid for a very properly executed flash kill, Despite being down, CLG holds out strong and even manages to pull out ahead in some trades due to their inherent ability to pick off Saint with oracles.
Even down 0-2, CLG was rarely below a 2,000 gold deficit in the mid game and managed dragons and successful fights, but Voy was able to 1v1 Froggen and take baron with his team which completely turned everything around. The adversaries of Kog and Nunu for Curse was proven too strong for CLG, bringing the score to 2-1.
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Game 4: Things have really flip-flopped this time around as CLG would end up being the one starting with the 2-0 advantage. Unfortunately, as opposed to the prior game, all the gold would be ending up on the double AD carries of Yellowpete and Froggen. This game showcases some Korean blood running through the veins of CLG as they play hyper-aggressively on the turrets this time around after grabbing a dragon around the 10 minute mark.
Just grouping up and taking turret after turret, CLG seizes a very large and convincing advantage. As you would know, this puts CLG miraculously ahead of Curse to the point where Voyboy on Irelia even gets 1v1'd by Yellowpete. To add to the torture, Saint tries to follow up and clean up, though through expert kiting by Yellowpete, he takes him out too, relieving Curse from an oracle.
CLG continue to press their lead, applying pressure all across the map and leaving Curse scurrying for protection and huddling at their base desperately trying to defend, but CLG showing they aren't out of this best of 5 yet takes the game decisively, bringing us to the final match of the tournament.
Click on image for draft breakdown
Game 5: It's the final map of the series; a lot is on the line and nerves are being wrecked as Curse slowly loses momentum. They want to go with what's comfortable for them so they pick some of their strongest of rosters.
It is noteworthy that there were fancy picks from both sides, and we got to see Voyboy with yet another Nasus game starting off with blue. CLG.EU plays out their trademark early on and very strategically invades on Curse's blue just before the 5 minute mark.
NyJacky keeps up the pressure and forces Froggen out of lane, outfarming him quite handily (which is a rare feat indeed) and allowing Curse to roam and pick up the second enemy blue for themselves. Meanwhile, Voyboy rather than NyJacky ends up taking the blues to assist in the difficult lane against Wickd's Irelia.
Things start looking grim, unfortunately, for our American team as the snowball gets a-rollin' and Snoopeh nets a key ultimate onto Voyboy (albeit missing his bandage toss) that would spell out difficulties to Curse for the remainder of the series.
As grim as the turnout looks from a glance at the top lane, Saint encourages the team effort by clearing the wards early which alleviates a lot of lane pressure for Curse. Jacky also manages to pick up the killing spree gold acquired by Snoopeh on Amumu, though CLG takes dragon.
As the game progresses, Voyboy becomes very weak and is promptly bulled because of it. A mistake to let Wickd take Irelia is displayed heavily in this game as him influence was phenominal and he doubled Voyboy's farm.
Though TF was behind initially, he splits off and passes Morgana in farm, with bottom inhibitor turret dropping and leaving the inhibitor exposed and vulnerable, though Curse does seize the advantage of an overly anxious Wickd initiation by taking a 3-0 kill advantage.
The pressure is high and the atmosphere is tense. CLG.EU knows they have to capitalize on their advantages, and they do exactly that by narrowly taking a baron uncontested, with a Krepo grab following it up on Saint for the insta-gib.
Despite a hard-fought battle, CLG.EU manages to take it home and show that NA still has some work to do. They take two inhibitors and then drive the victory home with the Nexus explosion.
Though CLG EU ended up taking it home, they were not walkover, easy games by any means. Only through proper teamwork and functionality could CLG.EU seize the frightening close victory away from Curse, who still goes home second showing a very strong performance in only their first week with their new top laner, Voyboy.
At the end of the day, it would seem that both Curse EU and Curse NA cannot prevail as victors this weekend, but both showed damn strong performances and you have to give it to Curse NA for standing up to the European powerhouse and giving them a run for their money.
