Counter Logic Gaming destroys Echo Fox to start Week 4

Counter Logic Gaming 1 - Echo Fox 0

Counter Logic Gaming obliterated Echo Fox to open Week 4 of the North American League of Legends Championship Series on Saturday in Los Angeles.

With CLG (4-3) drafting an early-game focused team composition in this game, it was up to Echo Fox (4-3) to prevent CLG from getting too far ahead early on. Despite the road to victory for Echo Fox being plain and clear, it was powerless to do anything to stop CLG.

CLG jungler Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin's Trundle got the party started a few minutes in with a first blood and it was off to the races from there. Even though Echo Fox knocked down the first turret, CLG focused on teamfighting whenever it could, and that paid off in spades before long. CLG essentially had free reign of the entire map as it racked up kills with relative ease without Echo Fox putting up any sort of fight. A pair of dominating teamfight wins at the 20- and 30-minute marks allowed CLG to pick up two Barons that allowed it to take absolute control over the game. With plenty of buffs and a fed Darshan "Darshan" Upadhyaya, who finished with an 11/2/5 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) as Darius, it was no problem for CLG to close out the game at the 36-minute mark.

For as great as Darshan and company looked throughout this game, Echo looked completely dead in the water. The biggest culprits for this team were top laner Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon and mid laner Tanner "Damonte" Damonte who finished with a combined 2/12/2 KDA on Dr. Mundo and Yasuo, respectively. From the drafting phase to the in-game execution, Echo Fox just couldn't seem to get anything going and were handed a commanding loss because it.

Echo Fox will try and bounce back when it faces Team SoloMid at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, while CLG will go toe-to-toe with Cloud9 in the next game at 7 p.m. ET.

-- Wyatt Donigan

100 Thieves 1 - Team SoloMid 0

100 Thieves extended its winstreak to five games with a victory against Team SoloMid on Saturday, keeping itself tied atop the standings in the NA LCS.

Team SoloMid (4-3) opened the game by controlling the tempo in the early game thanks to its bottom lane duo of AD carry Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen's Heimerdinger and support Alfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez's Fiddlesticks keeping constant pressure on 100 Thieves (5-2). The lane dominance earned TSM some early turrets and freed its bottom lane to roam, but the duo wasn't able to accomplish much as the game drew on. Team SoloMid picked up a few neutral objectives in the roams but struggled any time it tried to teamfight.

100 Thieves began to scrape and claw its way into control in the mid game on the back of teamfight victories all across the map. Nearly every skirmish was successful thanks to flanks by 100 Thieves top laner Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho's Dr. Mundo. With Ssumday wreaking havoc in the back line and forcing TSM to scatter and flee, 100 Thieves AD carry Cody "Cody Sun" Sun capitalized on the chaos. Cody Sun's Xayah cleaned up the kills as TSM fled on his way to leading the game in kills with an impressive 8/2/6 KDA (kills/deaths/assists).

The final fight of the game was a slaughter as Team SoloMid desperately flung itself into the Baron pit. 100 Thieves wasn't shaken at all as Cody Sun secured the buff before picking up a triple kill during an ace of TSM. The long death timers gave 100 Thieves plenty of time to knock down the Nexus and add another win to its growing streak.

100 Thieves now has its sights set on the Golden Guardians at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, while Team SoloMid face off against Echo Fox later that day at 5 p.m. ET.

-- Ben Wong

Golden Guardians 1 - Clutch Gaming 0

The Golden Guardians overcame some sloppy mid game plays to take down Clutch Gaming on Saturday in the North American League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split in Los Angeles.

The Golden Guardians (3-4) played around its bottom lane early with repeated ganks from jungler Juan "Contractz" Arturo Garcia's Kindred. The ganks yielded kills for nearly everyone on Golden Guardians and handed over an especially large lead in the bottom lane for AD carry Matthew "Deftly" Chen's Jhin. The two marksman champions made quick work of the bottom lane turret before rotating to the top side of the Rift to wreak havoc, winning skirmishes and taking objectives without much opposition from Clutch Gaming.

The early run from Golden Guardians started to slow in the mid game as its overextensions got punished by Clutch Gaming (3-4). The mistakes piled up quickly as Clutch Gaming nearly tied up the kill count in the mid game thanks to Golden Guardians' miscues. However, not all of the Golden Guardians were slipping in the mid game, as mid laner Son "Mickey" Young-min's Talon continued controlling the side lanes and popping anyone unlucky enough to cross his path in the fog of war.

As the game extended, Mickey expertly bounced between the side lanes and objectives to gain a huge gold lead. Mickey turned into a huge kill threat late, which allowed the Guardians' split pressure to slowly break into Clutch Gaming's base. When Clutch Gaming made a stand around the 42-minute mark, Golden Guardians was happy to meet the challenge as it smashed its way to a 5-for-1 teamfight victory before knocking down the Nexus.

Golden Guardians look to end 100 Thieves' win streak on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET, while Clutch Gaming finish off Week 4 against OpTic Gaming later that day at 7 p.m. ET.

-- Wong

Team Liquid 1 - OpTic Gaming 0

Team Liquid earned a hard-fought victory against OpTic Gaming on Saturday to keep itself tied atop the standings in the NA LCS.

Objectives weren't important to either team as skirmishes spread blood across the Rift early and often in this game. OpTic Gaming (2-5) got the better end of the stick from the bloody teamfights, but the small kill advantage barely made up for Team Liquid's sizeble CS lead. While Team Liquid (5-2) found some teamfight success briefly in the mid game, it was the macro rotations that truly kept it in the game. Any time OpTic picked a fight on one side of the Rift, Team Liquid was already split-pushing down an objective in the side lane.

As the the outer turrets fell and lanes extended, Team Liquid finally started to come alive and found picks across the map. Its team composition, filled with cross-map ultimates like Tahm Kench's Abyssal Voyage, Taliyah's Weaver Wall and Shen's Stand United, allowed Team Liquid to pop up anywhere nearly instantly. Team Liquid found pick after pick in the late game, which built up its confidence to stand tall in the final teamfight over Baron. OpTic Gaming did its best but got completely obliterated in the teamfight as Team Liquid secured the ace before completing the victory in just over 40 minutes.

While putting a win on the board is what matters most, it was nonetheless troubling to see Liquid struggle against a team that's sitting near the bottom of the standings. Team Liquid will need to build on this win and get a streak going to prove that it deserves its spot atop the standings and is worthy of its title of the best team in North America.

Team Liquid will go head-to-head with FlyQuest on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET, while OpTic Gaming close out Week 4 against Clutch Gaming later that day at 7 p.m. ET.

-- Wong

Cloud9 1 - FlyQuest 0

Cloud9 blew past FlyQuest to close out Saturday's action.

While Cloud9 (2-5) has been floundering through the summer split thus far, Saturday's performance, featuring the return of AD carry Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi, showed shades of the former North American powerhouse. Even with the teams trading kills in the early game and the gold lead being a mere 1,400 for Cloud9, the team looked much more in control of its team composition and overall map execution against FlyQuest (3-4). Whereas Cloud9 has looked hesitant to make plays all split, it was decisive from start to finish in this game, and that decisiveness paid off with a win.

Cloud9 got the ball rolling in earnest about 10 minutes in when it picked up a quick 2-for-1 teamfight win that gave it a slight lead. Not content to just sit on that advantage, Cloud9 started to branch out to every single lane, picking up kills and getting every member of the team an edge as it began to put FlyQuest on the back foot.

Sensing that the game was slipping away, FlyQuest tried to engage in an ill-advised teamfight in the mid lane at the 19-minute mark. All that FlyQuest was left with was three dead members and a loss of any chance at a comeback. Sure, FlyQuest was only down about 2,500 gold at that point, but Cloud9 was in its groove and FlyQuest had no solid ground in which to stand on.

From then on, Cloud9 simply did whatever it wanted all across the map, engaging in fights at the drop of a hat with no hesitation whatsoever. This allowed it to eventually pick up an even bigger 3-for-1 teamfight win at the 25-minute mark that led right into the game-clinching Baron. While it didn't rush into the FlyQuest base immediately after picking up the Baron, Cloud9 still managed to end the game mere seconds after the Baron buff ended, securing a massive confidence-boosting win for Cloud9.

Cloud9 will now take this momentum into a match with Counter Logic Gaming at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, while FlyQuest will try to salvage its week against Team Liquid at 4 p.m. ET earlier in the day.

-- Donigan