This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.
On December 10th 2013 it became official that famed League of Legends line-up of Froggen, Wickd, yellowpete, Snoopeh and Krepo would no longer continue on as a quintet. From their genesis in December of 2011, becoming Counter Logic Gaming Europe shortly afterwards, the five man line-up had remained together for two entire years, establishing themselves as one of the great competitive LoL teams of all time.
Winners of more than $289,000 in prize money, this team, made up of members from four different European countries, were able to accomplish numerous memorable feats together. They were the first team to ever defeat the previously thought to be unbeatable Moscow Five in an offline series, slaying the Russians in the Dreamhack Summer final. When Korea was establishing itself as the top region in the game, with other Western teams falling before even reaching the final four teams in OGN (the biggest Korean LoL tournament), the CLG.EU men were able to not only reach the final, but push Korea's best team to the brink of elimination.
At the Season 2 World Championship they again proved their calibre as one of the world's elite sides, reaching the semi-finals before falling. 2012 was a year that has CLG.EU's fingerprints all over it, spanning three continents and numerous tournaments and opponents. They may have only one major title, but their consistency, their unique approach and their unforgetable synergy will live on in the memories of LoL fans the world over. This is the story of Krepo, yellowpete, Snoopeh, Wickd and Froggen, their time together and the journey they traveled as a five man unit.
Counter Logic Gaming Europe/Evil Geniuses (December 2011 - December 2013)
Mike 'Wickd' Petersen (Top)Stephen 'Snoopeh' Ellis (Jungler)Henrik 'Froggen' Hansen (Mid)Peter 'yellowpete' Wüppen (AD Carry)Mitch 'Krepo' Voorspoels (Support)
Snoopeh had remained back in SK, while Wickd decided to make a team with fellow Dane Froggen, a rising talent at mid lane. Froggen had been quietly honing his skills throughout the year, playing for LoLLeague and Team Infused, reaching a number of top eight finishes in ESL's online Go4LoL weekly cups. With Wickd he had an opportunity to put together a real team, a star and a potential star the initial building blocks in place already.
"Around that time, Wickd and I had been swapping a lot of players. We qualified for IEM Kiev and we swapped out three players, because they did'nt really work together. So in the end it came down to we wanted good players, but also players that could keep their mind together, not rage all the time. You know players like Snoopeh, Krepo and yellowpete, they can all keep their calm, and they're not getting mad over things they shouldn't get mad over."
-Froggen on the formation of CLG.EU (Team Acer, 2013)
The botlane combination of German AD Carry yellowpete and Belgian Support Krepo had been playing together in a team called La GG, where Snoopeh had also played, at one point in time. Their team had competed in the online qualified for IEM VI Kiev, the first event of 2012, but fallen to Team Empire, the team who would be renamed Moscow Five later, in the Cross-Realm qualifier.
"I actually didn't think [yellowpete and Krepo] would make it [as pros], because I thought they were way too passive as players. You can kind of see it in their transition through to here, they're still pretty passive. I think the strength that I kind of underrated in them is that they can keep a team together. They don't fight, they admit when they make mistakes, that's a huge part of being in a LoL team"
-fredy122, ex-team-mate of Krepo and yellowpete from LaGG (Team Acer, 2013)
Froggen and Wickd's Absolute Legends team was able to finish top three in the very same IEM Kiev qualifier, going undefeated. This qualified them for the main event in Ukraine the following year. The Danes decided their botlane combo wasn't the right one, picking up the LaGG players yellowpete and Krepo. On the 20th of December it was announced that Snoopeh was leaving SK Gaming, to join Froggen and Wickd's team, which would now be called Counter Logic Gaming Europe, due to a merge with the famed North American LoL organisation.
"I think one of the biggest issues we had [in SK] was that the atmosphere in the team wasn't the best and a few things had to change that couldn't change fast enough, and we had a really good opportunity with the team that we picked up, in Counter Logic Gaming Europe, and we wanted to jump at that opportunity and we saw a lot of potential in it. Further, going into 2012, it was the best plan for us and it's paid off tremendously"
-Snoopeh on leaving SK and forming CLG.EU (Team Acer, 2012)
Losses to sOAZ and YellOwStaR's aAa team, also known for being monsters online, CLG.EU were unable to qualify for the American event IPL4. The team's first chance to compete offline would come at the French Gamers Assembly event, as they eventually qualified after two attempts. It would be more than a month before that event, with Snoopeh and company winning the second qualifier on the first of March.
Over the next 30 or so days they went on a rampage in online competition, winning three cups. Victims along the way were the new Absolute Legends team (later to become Curse.EU's line-up), aAa and fnatic. Their online series loss in this time-frame came against that very same Absolute Legends team, early on. The two would prove to be serious rivals in online tournaments.
"At first you come on online and basically you play with no pressure. You're all mechanically gifted, you just made a new team and the intial phase of a team, like the first two months, everyone forgives all the mistakes you make, because you're still learning. So we played with no pressure against Moscow Five. They came out of IEM Kiev with a W/L loss of like 14-0, I don't remember, they won everything, so we could easily breeze those matches and they were close and then we won and we got really good confidence online.
But then we came to offline and we weren't prepared, like our picks and bans we picked some stuff that didn't fit together, like our communication was poor, people got nervous."
-Krepo on Gamers Assembly (Team Acer, 2013)
Towards the end of the month a key loss to Na`Vi in the Dreamhack Summer European qualifier meant the team would not be able to the attend the main tournament. Early June began with two online tournament titles, beating Na`vi in the final of the In2LOL Kickoff EU Tournament to start out with. In the Esports Heaven Medion Challenge, the team again 2:0'd fnatic, then defeated M5 3:1 in the final.
Offline M5 had won not only the IEM VI Kiev title, but gone undefeated to crush the IEM VI World Championship. They were considered by many to be the world's best team, but online CLG.EU had beaten them in every meeting. Fans eagerly awaited the first offline opportunity for the two teams to meet. Before that could happen, though, CLG had another offline event to attempt, heading out to the USA for the MLG Spring Championship in Anaheim, California.
The anticipated series was mired with technical difficulties, as scheduling conflicts for MLG meant that admins forced CLG to start the game immediately, with some of their headsets not working and none of them having their in-game settings in place. Despite these problems, the series did prove thrilling, as it went three maps and saw TSM coming out on top. In the lower bracket there were again issues with headphones, but CLG.EU beat Curse.EU (the team formerly known as Absolute Legends) and oRb en route to the lower bracket final.
Facing their sister team, CLG Prime, another three map series again went against them. The final placing for CLG.EU in their second offline tournament was 5th-6th, though their two losses had come at the hands of the eventual top two finishers, and both in three map series. There was clearly promise of more in CLG.EU's play, but their offline success had yet to match up to the online form they had established.
"It's a different world than online. [...] As long as we get enough circuit points to get to the Regional finals at Gamescom, that's what my goal is. This is just practice for us. We're slowly getting better offline, like we're learning all about this, we're learning how to fix our problems, what to expect, what not to expect. As long as we're learning, we've already had some really nice matches, and at least if we come home from this tournament nobody can say we played bad, and that's the main thing."
-Krepo on MLG Spring (State of the League, 2012)
Both CLG.EU and M5 won their opening two games, ensuring they would progress to the playoffs, so their final group stage game, against each other, had no bearing on their tournament lives, but many had their eyes on the first offline meeting between the two. CLG.EU had started off well, with Froggen taking first blood, but the game had soon become a one-sided beat-down, as M5 again and again racked up kills and took dragons and barons. It appeared that CLG.EU were just another good online team, who could beat the Russian side online but paled in the face of fierce offline competition with them.
At the 55 minute mark of the game Moscow Five were up by 26,000 gold, an entirely insurmountable mark, especially when facing the world's best. There were two catches though, firstly CLG.EU had managed to heavily farm up Froggen and yellow, and secondly Moscow Five were unusually hesitant to engage and force a fight in the CLG base. The Russians again and again had postured with all five members, while CLG.EU sat under their towers and waited for an attack. At that 55 minute mark M5 mid laner Alex Ich was caught in a fight, eventually allowing CLG.EU to kill four of M5's players.
Three minutes or so later Alex was caught again, in his own jungle. At the one hour mark CLG.EU took a baron fight and after a full ace had done the impossible, finishing the game. It would seem that Froggen and his friends had struck first blood, backing up their online record against the reigning world champions of IEM. The nature of the victory suggested that M5 knew this opponent was not just another contender to be easily dispatched en route to the crown.
"They played their composition really badly and I've never seen them [fail to] finish such easy work as it was. We defended really well but it was poorly played by genja/alex, they didn't manage to communicate with wall/poke tower. However, we managed to get a kill on alex and get out of base after that and regain a bit of control, didn't feel like we were 28k gold behind (pete and I got all farm and we had a sick comp to protect carries! We always think we can win a game when we have anivia - endless turtle!"
-Froggen on the comeback group stage game vs. M5 at Dreamhack Summer (2012)
In the first game of the final CLG.EU immediately established that they would not only play the late-game stall-out style that they were quickly making famous. A five man tower dive onto Darien at the very beginning scoring them first blood. The next 23 or 24 minutes were back-and-forth, with even trades at dragon fights and dives in different lanes. CLG.EU were leading by a few kills, but it wasn't until their four kill unanswered sequence at 33 minutes that they truly secured a significant lead. Taking the baron right after, they were able to fight around the M5 base three minutes later, going 4:2 in kills and winning the opening game.
The game not only put M5 on the back foot, needing to win two straight to still claim the crown, but also established in spectator's minds the effectiveness and impact of Froggen's Anivia and yellowpete's Kog'Maw, those two carrying the game on those champions. M5 certainly took note, banning out Anivia for game two. This time both teams were playing a little more cautiously, M5 not wanting to get behind again and CLG.EU facing the pressure of being a game from the title.
It wasn't until after 10 minuts that the first blood arrived, with Wickd's Renekton killing Darien, thanks to a Snoopeh gank. M5 struck back with a kill, but CLG's team-fighting was proving a match for the key strength of the Russian side, seeing them getting a key kill out of seemingly every fight between the teams. M5 were used to being able to come out on the top of all the team-fights, left only to choose how and when they happened. CLG.EU could not only dictate the location and time of the fights, they would try to ensure the engagement came in a manner they could direct to their carries.
Froggen's Karthus was fearsome this day, killing again and again. Darien died a number of times and M5 were unable to find any way back into the game, the game ending around 43 minutes. Counter Logic Gaming Europe had come back from an impossible deficit in the group stage and now they had become the first team to ever defeat Moscow Five in an offline Best-of-3 series. The $15,000 cheque and Dreamhack Summer title meant they not not only established themselves as a legitimate offline power, but in the wake of beating M5 three times, some could wonder if they were to become the best team in the world.
"Usually we'll stall the game early and wait for the late game, drag it out a long time. But this time we were aggressive early, got a bunch of kills early and it just worked out"
-Snoopeh after Dreamhack Summer final (2012)
"If we got behind in lanes we were like 'Fine, it happens, shit happens!', but once it gets to the team-fight, we were so in-synch and coordinated together. Back in that meta-game everything revolved around team-fights, no game was finished by split-pushing or backdooring or whatever. It was always the build-up to the 20 minute mark, when you will contest the dragon and you know inevitably there will be a 5v5 fight. Even if you're prone to lose it you have to take it."
-Krepo on CLG.EU's stall-out style (Team Acer, 2013)
It's simple enough to propose playing cautiously from behind to get back into a game, but few teams could hope to pull off this approach. When behind teams would often attempt to force a fight, hoping to win in out-right combat, often at a dragon or baron, and get back into the game that way, turning things around with a moment of skill and a tally of kills. Playing from behind required CLG.EU to farm safely, something that Froggen proved to be a monster at. In the botlane yellowpete and Krepo understood that they didn't need to force trades and fight, they would just farm and wait for a Snoopeh gank.
"We were really good and I think one of the first teams that would walk back in team-fights. Everyone would clash into each other, but we would go in, take a step back, especially playing against Karthus, go in, kill Karthus and move out. Then champions like Anivia or Maokai become really good, because they have to walk through Maokai's ulti and they have to fight in Maokai's ulti. Or the base cc off his gets really strong, or Cho'Gath as well, if you walk into a silence. Walking through an Anivia ulti will definitely slow you down so much that we can decide when to turn on you again.
So when they're chasing us into the fight we just turn on them in the front and we were so synchronised that that guy drops and they lose their, like if they're not all in synch moving back and forth then they easily get baited into positions where they don't want to be. In S2 that was our biggest strength, even if we were down in gold I remember saying so many times: 'We're better than them, we've got this'".
-Krepo on the CLG.EU style (Team Acer, 2012)
Playing from behind was one thing, but CLG.EU also had a different approach when playing with a lead. Most teams would again try to force team-fights, hoping to use their lead to snowball harder and run over their enemies. CLG.EU instead were willing to play patiently from the lead, looking for safer opportunities, with less potential for turnarounds, to close out a game with more certainty. This would become a characteristic seen later on, and thus we will return to this point later in the story.
In the previous season a number of Western teams had tried their luck competing, only to find the level of Korean LoL had rised up and overtaken them, with none moving beyond the quarter-final. Members of those Western teams would later tell stories of finding the Korean solo queue incredibly difficult, often unable to reach respectable ELO scores for a top pro, and suffering loss after loss in scrimmages against the Korean teams.
"When we first got to Korea we got pretty much smashed down in the first week, lost every single scrim, and we then we improved, tried to counter all of their aggressive plays. So basically it came down to us not playing aggressive at all, just trying to counter their aggression."
-Froggen on CLG.EU's 2012 style (Team Acer, 2013)
With the ECC Poland event scheduled for late July, CLG.EU were allowed to play all of their group stage games on the same day, rather than spread out over more than a week. The European side were able to go undefeated, winning against MVP Blue, Incredible Miracle and sister team CLG Prime. Days later they flew out to Poland to reunite with the best European teams.
"Anything less than victory will be disappointing. After Dreamhack and going 3-0 here [in Korea] and having so much practice, compared to the European teams, which are generally really stagnant, since can only practice mediocre teams, the top teams can't practice each other, we should have an edge we can exploit."
-Krepo pre-ECC Poland (State of the League, 2012)
M5 fought back, scoring crucial kills from 13 minutes to 18 minutes, including a 4:2 trade at dragon, and were close to evening the kill count around 22 minutes. Less than a minute later Froggen scored four kills as part of a CLG.EU ace and the game quickly spiraled out of control again for the Russians. When it came to a close, at 39 minutes, the kill count was 32:19 for CLG.EU.
In the semi-final CLG.EU encountered more resistance from a new look SK Gaming team, going three maps before winning a dominating decider and moving on to the final. The opponent for the second offline final of CLG.EU's time together would, of course, be Moscow Five. Despite having an offline record of two IEM wins and a second at Dreamhack, M5 would come into the final as the underdog. CLG.EU were 4:0 in offline games against them, seemingly able to control the Russians whenever they played and get the better of team-fights, leaving M5 wondering what it would take to score a victory over them.
The final got under way with Wickd giving up the first two kills. At 14 minutes a 3v5 fight saw CLG.EU, the team with less numbers, giving up two big kills. They scored back the same minutes later, but then a disastrous fight around dragon led to four kills for M5 for one to CLG.EU. Ganks from Diamondprox, master Jungler of Moscow Five, had the Russians pushing their lead. The rest of the team fights were all Moscow Five, forcing a surrender by 32 minutes from CLG.EU.
The second game had M5 leave up Anivia, which Froggen of course took. It would be the other mid laner in the game making all the plays though, as Alex Ich on Gragas took over as the best player in the server. It took more than 27 minutes before CLG.EU were able to get on the board with a kill, by which time M56 had eight to their name. An M5 ace at 31 minutes and CLG.EU would be fighting a losing battle the rest of the way. The game finished with a 25:5 score.
With a combined two game score of 48:10, M5 had more than gained revenge, they'd stamped out a clear statement that they were entirely capable of beating CLG.EU. Gone was the M5 who had hesitated in their Dreamhack group stage lead, gone was the M5 who had failed to find favourable team-fights again and again in the final. Now M5 had found a way to do to CLG.EU what they did to everyone else, overwhelming them with team-fighting and ganks. Darien's group stage feeding aside, M5 had regained ground in the psychological battle against their European rivals.
"In Poland they had our number, they let us pick what we wanted, but they had some counters ready, and we made some individual mistakes and they snowballed that. They're a good enough of a team that, I said this once at the [analysis] desk: if you give them a finger, they'll take an arm!"
-Krepo on losing to M5 in the ECC Poland final (Team Acer, 2013)
After beating ALTERNATE in the quarter-final at Gamescom, where the Regional Finals were being hosted, the CLG.EU players met a familiar semi-final opponent: SK Gaming. Having beaten SK in the semi-final in Poland they had tasted the danger of this new line-up, but a big win in the third map had allowed them to escape a potential upset. SK Top laner Kev1n had been a beast in the series in Poland, carrying the opening game win for SK and doing his best to put his team in position to win a second game they narrowly lost late. Over those two games, Kev1n had a combined score along the lines of 17/4/11 playing Irelia Jax and Irelia.
The semi-final in Germany began with SK jungler Araneae smite stealing CLG.EU's blue buff from them. This would prove to be the approach SK had determined would give them the best chance to win against their stall-out opponents, taking CLG.EU's red buff and the next two blues as well. Nobody had died yet, but without blue buffs Froggen, CLG.EU's star mid laner, was placed in the unusual position of being unable to directly 1v1 SK's ocelote. SK continued to steal buffs throughout the game, Kev1n again carrying, this time on Gangplank. At 43m SK had the opening game won, with Kev1n's score at 6/0/4.
The second game began with CLG.EU aggressive early, killing Araneae at his own blue buff, and getting up 3:1 in kills after 13 minutes. A key fight at 30 minutes had SK's ocelote, playing on Orianna, killing three CLG.EU players, while his team suffered only a single death. A minute later the teams fought at the baron and ocelote contributed one of the two kills for his team, reaching a 5/1/1 score. The rest of the game would be all about SK winning team-fights and ocelote and Kev1n leading the way as the carries. When the series ended at the one hour mark, ocelote's Orianna had 10//2/6 and Kev1n was around 4/0/9 on Gangplank.
"the loss against SK was mostly us playing like shit. We gave SK the chance to get 3 buffs lvl 1, 3!. If we smited the blue lvl 1 (which we should have because we had vision) game 1 Alistar would have had 0 buffs left in his jungle and he would've been rendered void. Even though they had buffs on top/bot lane we were still tied in farm. The entire game basically revolved around that blue steal.
Then second game the baron-phase threw the game. Yes SK played better, yes they deserved the win. I'm not making excuses here, just analyzing what went wrong. We were out of shape, they were in shape. I, however, did learn a thing or two about preparing for important LAN matches, and that knowledge I will carry with me whilst forgetting these 2 matches. Shit happens, one has to learn how to deal with it. I'm glad we are top 3 and that was my goal."
-Krepo on CLG.EU's semi-final loss to SK at the S2 Regional for Europe (2012)
SK Gaming had shocked CLG.EU and would go on to the final, where they'd face M5. This semi-final had been more important than other semi-finals, with a win ensuring the team would be one of the three representing the European region at the World finals. CLG.EU's loss to M5 in Poland had been one thing, M5's performance in the final had been above and beyond what one could have expected, but losing to SK here put doubts out there about CLG.EU's level. They would battle fnatic in the third place decider, the loser going home and the winner earning a spot in Los Angeles. Snoopeh and the gang won 2:0 and secured that Worlds spot.
On the eight of September the OGN finals arrived and a packed house was ready to see their beloved home favourites battle the foreigners with strange accents and an even stranger style of play. It is customary in Korean esports finals for there to be some trash talk in the pre-match interview, often doing jokingly and with permission to be what, at other times, might be perceived as a little rude or harsh.
The casting team asked Snoopeh why he had said he thought Frost were weaker than sister team Blaze and the Scot explained that while he had not played Blaze directly, he still considered this to be the case. The broadcasters then asked Froggen if he knew that RapidStar, mid laner of Frost, was considered the best mid player in the world. CLG.EU's Danish mid star explained that he didn't know that, since he was the best mid player in the world, promising to crush him in the final.
The first game of the final got under way with Frost invading and stealing CLG.EU's red buff. Wickd would strike first, killing Frost top laner Shy twice in the first seven minutes. The next four minutes saw kills back and forth, but CLG.EU were coming out better overall, leading 4:2. Snoopeh's ganks proved key, including a countergank after Frost's CloudTemplar went top lane to try and help Shy.
The game was then broken wide open by CLG.EU, with Froggen leading the way putting kill after kill up with his Diana play. Frost would surrender without CLG.EU even being in their base, knowing it was futile to continue. Most amazingly, Froggen would later reveal that he had not even been practicing Diana, having not played her for more than a month. Playing her in a solo queue game before the final had convinced him to try her in the final, now CLG.EU led the Bo5 after the first game.
Frost again began with an invade, getting a kill at the top tri-bush on CLG.EU's side. Kills were traded over the first 15 minutes, but a three kill sequence at 17 minutes established a lead for CLG.EU. A huge team-fight at 23 minutes had Frost seeming to be in position to get back into the game, killing four CLG.EU players and losing three of their own. The most important moment of the game was around 30 minutes, as a baron fight went in CLG.EU's favour and they took an inhibitor. Leading 20:10 they took game two. Frost were facing elimination and Counter Logic Gaming Europe were one win from the trophy.
In the fourth game CLG.EU were battling in a close game with little between the teams. From 11 minutes to 18 there were runs from both sides, but the game was still close in kills. MadLife's blitzcrank was making plays for the Korean side and a crucial one for the fate of the series came around 33 minutes, as Froggen attempted to use his Ahri ultimate to dodge a potential Blitzcrank hook, only to see MadLife, seemingly randomly, hook him and prevent that. The look on Froggen's face said it all, CLG.EU would lose the fight and the fourth game.
The fifth game in OGN tournaments has an unusual and yet delicious quirk in its settings, played as a blind pick game. This opens the door for mind-games, as a player can pick any champion he wants, but knows that his opponent might expect him to pick his strongest. Froggen had the opening to select his beloved Anivia, his signature champion, but instead chose to go with Diana. As it turned out, getting this champion would be facing off against Karthus, a good match-up.
The game began with an epic red snipe by Frost's AD Carry Woong. A trade in the bottom lane had the two teams tied at 1:1, but two minutes later Wickd was ganked in top lane. CLG.EU managed to trade their blue buff for a dragon at nine minutes, pulling close in gold. Their botlane was caught out less than a minute later, both dying. In the 10th minute it was kills from Frost's mid laner and top laner on their respective counterparts that put the Korean team firmly ahead.
Bad fights in the next six minutes saw CLG.EU down 3:9 in kills, battling but behind. A monster Karthus ultimate from RapidStar in the 21st minute saw him killing three CLG.EU players, all spurred from a great Shen flash taunt from Frost top laner Shy. Another bad fight for Froggen and his friends at baron had him pulling out insane jukes, avoiding almost certain death, but ultimately the team giving up more kills. Frost were at 17:9 and before the 30 minute mark managed to secure three kills unanswered and take the baron. Shy was having one of the games of his life, his Jax unable to be killed by CLG.EU even 1v3 at top lane, helping turn that into an eventual four kill sequence for Frost. When another attempt to kill Shy failed, it seemed today not to be CLG.EU's day.
At around 34 minutes Frost aced the European side, the fifth game went to the Korean side, along with the championship. Frost's players showed the emotions expected of a team who had come back from elimination to win three straight games. The usually stoic and unshakable MadLife even wept, later saying that he just gone with the flow of his feelings. RapidStar spoke in English on the microphone, telling the crowd and viewing audience "Hi guys, I'm rapidstar, best AP [mid] in the universe".
CLG.EU's players sat at their computers staring into their monitors, gazes burning deep into the distance. So many opportunities to claim the title and so many moments to be agonised over. Consistency meant they had never failed to place top three at an offline tournament, but they had also only tasted victory once.
"I think we should have won and it's something that comes to my mind like maybe once a week, like 'Ok, it would have been so easy to win that game, but we actually threw it ourselves pretty much'. Like I would say only that last game, in the blind pick, they actually outplayed us. Else it was us messing up plays, us failing to do easy stuff, so we ended up throwing.
It's something that actually really annoys me, because [...] it was only one win and we would have won that OGN tournament, and that's something really really huge, because everyone excepted Korea to be way better than everyone else. And all the US and European teams got knocked out of the tournament almost instantly, so it would have been something really huge to win that tournament."
-Froggen on CLG.EU's OGN finals loss to Frost (Team Acer, 2013)
"The key point, I would say, was when we went to Korea, cos up until that point some of us had not quit school. Everyone quit school at that point and we went to Korea for two months for the OGN Summer tournament and we lived in these small rooms, small apartment rooms, and we played 10 hours a day with each other and we grew really close as friends. I think if you can do that it, in such an intense environment, it shows a testament to the strength of your team, in terms of communication, in terms of the team bond. I think that's why we've stayed together for the last 12 months, because we went to Korea.
[...]
If you look at CLG NA, as a prime example, they have a lot of big egos and personalities in their team. Whereas in our team there's no egotistical maniacs, there's no conflicts, well no big conflicts at least. So when they went into that really small environment, and played again day in and day out, they just clashed. Whereas we don't have those egos, so it's less common for us to clash, so we benefitted from the practice"
-Snoopeh on CLG.EU's time in Korea (Team Acer, 2012)
On October 4th the World Championship got underway, with CLG.EU placed in Group B with NaJin Sword, Saigon Jokers and Team Dignitas. They won the opener over North Americans Team Dignitas, but were defeated by NaJin Sword, the Korean side they'd beaten narrowly in the semi-final of the OGN tournaments. Winning the last group stage game, against Saigon Jokers, the European team had qualified for the playoff bracket of the final eight teams.
"I can't lie, I'd rather get World Elite and TPA, than TSM and Moscow Five"
-Krepo, looking to potential playoff opponents at the S2 World Championship (State of the League, 2012)
The remake went more to CLG.EU's favour, a key play being a Sona Crescendo from Krepo that caught the WE side and let his team take the fight 4:3 in kills. Catching out World Elite's Jungler, playing on Nocturne, on two separate occasions was enough to let CLG.EU convert the game into a win adn tie up the series. The third game began with CLG.EU going up early, taking turrets. The two teams were hungry throughout to take turrets. After a baron at almost 50 minutes allowed CLG to take the first inhibitor, they pushed bottom towards the inhibitor turrent.
The internet went out, again, and another remake was decided upon, nullifying all that had transpired in that third game. After looking for solutions, Riot announced that the series would not play out that day, canceling the game until the next week. When the teams returned to the studio to play the deciding game it was World Elite who got out to the early lead. Dives had them up two kills before CLG.EU struck back. When World Elite dove bottom at around 14 minutes, the three kills they secured looked to have them in the driving seat to reach the semi-final.
CLG.EU traded well in fights and finally had one go their way at around 29 minutes, turning a battle near blue into an ace with only two deaths, allowing them to take the baron. Another baron went CLG.EU's way, as they were hesitant to push in and directly start a fight. When the two teams did fight it was Froggen and yellowpete doing most of the damage, the right combination for CLG.EU success historically. The final battle came at 42 minutes, as a 4:1 fight allowed the Europeans to close out the game and series, booking a semi-final spot.
The game had seen emotion from the CLG.EU players, showing and cheering as they finally managed to pull through to win, but some fans had cited it as an example of boring play. Added to the frustration of the long delays, with the internet problems, the series had seen some fans bored enough that they began cheering the killing of wards, sarcastically.
"Everybody's referencing the game [vs. World Elite] where people got so bored of it that they started cheering for wards [being killed], but why would you take the [Baron] with a slight bit of risk, if you know that eventually they're going to run out of wards, you're cleaning them and you'll find a gap where the [Baron] is 100% a guaranteed kill and then you push for an inhibitor. Why would you push an inhibitor and then go for a nexus tower with a slight risk, when you can just base, get the next inhibitor, base and get the next inhibitor, push in all the waves and finish the game.
[...]
I wouldn't say we played passive, I'd like to call it more like methodical. Deliberate, taking step by step and not allowing anyone the room to comeback. That's what we abused in other teams, we got some comebacks because they made mistakes and we just waited for it, because everyone eventually makes mistakes and if you play really solid, you want to minimise that risk. Yes, it's boring, but for me, if I can consistently bait out wards at baron and then clean them, then force an uncontested Baron, that's good gameplay, that's solid. Same as when you push in the nexus and nobody's alive, that means you don't give them any room to counterplay what you're doing and you're in full control"
-Krepo on the long WE S2WC game (Team Acer, 2013)
Spectators who are hungry for pure action and team-fighting may have suffered a little in the series, but CLG.EU had stuck to their philosophical approach on how to play and close out games. This philosophy had, in particular, allowed them to compete in the bottom lane of the map. World Elite's best player was the AD Carry WeiXiao, who was known both for his impeccable mechanics and his decision-making on when to join his team in team-fights.
Facing off against such a dangerous opponent, Krepo and yellowpete applied their standard approach of playing safe and steady, ensuring they didn't open up moments of risk into which WeiXiao could make magic happen.
"yellowpete is very methodical in his approach, some call it like 'German efficiency'. Basically our play-style revolved around, if I can kill this guy and there's a 50% chance I will get ganked, I won't take it. That's how we used to play our botlane, we would just mechanically outplay people and then kill them when we were 100% sure the jungler wouldn't be there."
-Krepo on his S2 botlane with yellowpete (Team Acer, 2013)
The decider began well for Wickd and the gang, they killed CloudTemplar as a group at his red at level one. The next 22 minutes was Top laner Shy proving unkillable, playing on Shy and at times 1v2ing the CLG.EU players. He had hit 4-0 on his personal score as his team was up 6:4 and took the dragon. While CLG.EU would keep pace from there on, killing to match Frost kills, the tide finally turned on them for good at 36 minutes.
A straight 4:0 team-fight win was turned into a few more a minute later and the baron. Shy on 5/1/3 was not to be denied. Frost aced CLG.EU at 39 minutes to take the game and the series. A top four finish at the World Championship, and more money than all their previous placings combined, was more than respectable, but CLG.EU were left to again wonder what could have been. The chance for revenge had passed them by and they would attend the World Championship final only in a spectating capacity.
"If you watch the OGN games, it's not like they outplayed us, because we went ahead 2-0, ahead in the third game and threw it, ahead in the fourth game and threw it, and then, yeah, in the fifth game they wrecked us. It was a consistent level of play with a few mistakes. If you look at the World finals, yes we had some maybe luck or maybe close games getting to where we were, last game we were ahead and the skarner flash... that's the way the game ended, pretty much. The Skarner flash grabbed yellowpete after a black shield, like on the timing that was CloudTemplar pulling an insane move, he literally counted '1..2..3..4..5', flashed when the black shield was still up, grabbed pete right after."
-Krepo on their two key series vs. Frost (Team Acer, 2013)
Losing their opening round match against Team Dignitas, who they had defeated in the World Championship group stage, they were told to arrive the next day for 10am for the lower bracket. As some of their players did not arrive on time they found the first game of the series forfeited, meaning they would have to win two in a row to proceed. They did just that, beating Team Dynamic (featuring members now in Coast) to move on to the next round. The next two series had CLG.EU making a Cinderella run through the bracket, defeating TSM and CLG Prime, the two best North American teams.
In the lower bracket final CLG.EU faced Azubu Blaze, sister team of Frost. Blaze were using a stand-in of their own, taking Frost Top laner Shy to Dallas with them. The player who had helped Frost win out in the decisive game three at the World Championship, was again on the winning side, as Blaze won 2:0 and went on to win the tournament from the lower bracket.
"When we lost to Dignitas it was like 3am, or something like that really late, and we had to be at the event the next day at like 10am to play against Team Dynamic. I think some people came late and we got [a game forfeited], but we said that 'We can still win this, we're still a good team!' and I think from that we got a good morale boost and rampaged through the lower bracket."
-Jree on standing in for CLG.EU at MLG Fall (Team Acer, 2013)
"That was actually quite a bizarre tournament, because Jree, at that time, had quite a different play style from Krepo. He was taking way more risks and playing way more aggressively, and we weren't used to that as a team, but it's kind of a snowbally state of mind. Where if you make a move and you get an early lead, people are going to be very insecure sort of if they have been losing out, due to the enemy being very aggressive and like outplaying them, then people get very insecure and just play worse overall, I think.
[...]
Our performance was better than I would have expected it to be, at that point, because we were on a break and what not. That was definitely interesting."
-yellowpete on using Jree as a stand-in for MLG Fall and placing third (Team Acer, 2013)
While still in the USA, the team competed in the online qualifier for IEM Cologne, reaching the final qualifier but later having it announced that they would play in the European Cross-Realm qualifier later, instead. Days later they headed to the Lone Star Clash event. With only the American Curse team as real competition, CLG.EU won the event, though not without giving up two games in the final to the aforementioned side.
Back in Europe they were upset in the IEM Cologne qualifier, losing to MYM and Eclypsia. In the latter part of November it was off to Sweden again, to defend their Dreamhack crown. After blitzing the group stage and beating BYOC team Copenhagen Wolves in the semi-final, they had reached the final. Their opponent would be fnatic, who had just taken in young AD Carry Rekkles. In one of the great finals upsets, fnatic came out on top in a three map series to hand CLG.EU another silver medal.
The first game had WE stars Misaya and WeiXiao styling on CLG.EU, as the game ended with a 20:1 scoreline of kills for World Elite. The second game is considered by many to be the finest single game of competitive League of Legends ever witnessed, and is better watched than spoken about.
"That was just absolutely fucking off the wall batshit insane. Best game ever!"
-Joe Miller, commentator for the game, on game 2 of CLG.EU vs. WE (2012)
Hitting the lower bracket, CLG.EU met Taipei Assassins, the team they would have played in the S2 World Championship final, had they beaten Frost. TPA had upset Frost, taking home the World Championship title. The series would go to the team from Taiwan, three maps but still a win for the reigning World Champions. CLG.EU had finished IPL5 with a top six finish, losing only to elite calibre teams, but their time as a top team was numbered.
The latter result was key in that it saw CJ's carry Jungling star inSec dominate Snoopeh, the Korean hitting 406 CS to Snoopeh's 209, going 5/1/8 on his signature Zed. Snoopeh's Malphite had once been one of his signature champions, now it had been tossed around and handled with relative ease. Failing to even make the playoffs for the first time in their careers, 2012 had ended on a sour note, results-wise. Neither of the teams from their group would even go on to make the final.
On the 28th of December it was announced that the line-up of CLG.EU would not re-sign for 2013 with the North American organisation. As the year came to a close an era had truly ended, in many respects. They could not have fully known it yet, but their stall-out late-game style had become outmoded and would not again yield major success.
"We played a low risk-medium reward [style]. That's exactly what it is, it's consistent in both ways. If we get a lead we won't get a huge lead, but if we get a small lead the thing is won't give that lead away. We would transition that small lead into a point where we would use that small lead and get a good team-fight off and that would snowball us. That's exactly what it was, even if we lost we'd hold our ground, we played very passively and we didn't let them catch us again.
I think the only team that really destroyed us was World Elite at IPL5. They were such a good team that if kept fighting them, like on equal ground, they would have the same skill level as us and if they were ahead on gold they would just tear us apart. So we needed to take some more risks to get on balance."
-Krepo on being consistent (Team Acer, 2013)
"Back when we lived in the CLG house, after October, when we had like four tournaments that month [...] we had a conversation where we were like 'Ok, if everyone steps up their game everything should be fine, like no more traveling around so much.' Because at the time we were talking like a lot at that time about 'Ok, just right now we're not doing as well', because at IPL5 we finished like 5th and we had problems against some of the teams we should definitely beat. So we just thought 'Ok, it's because we've traveled too much.'"
-Froggen on the latter period of 2012 (OnGamers, 2013)
Riot's changes for Season 3 meant the League Championship Series (LCS) would have eight teams, including EG, playing weekly in a studio in Cologne, Germany. The first week began with a win over Gambit and EG going 2:1 overall, losing to SK. When they 3:0'd the next week, they were sat at 6:1 and looked set to be one of the big bosses of the league. The fourth week was an utter disaster, losing four games and only beating Wolves, who were missing star player Bjergsen, due to age restrictions. With their record tied up at 6:6, EG headed into the IEM VII World Championship in Hanover days later.
In a stacked group they lost to MYM, Frost and Reapered's IEM Cologne champions SKT. Beating SK and Anexis did not prove enough to progress from the group stage, due to Anexis having beaten SKT. Wickd and his team had failed to progress from a second consecutive offline group stage. Coupled with their LCS form of the previous weeks, something was clearly wrong. Froggen was open in admitting their style of play no longer fit the meta.
"I think we've done terribly at [mixing up early game aggression with the classic CLG.EU style]. The early kills we're getting is not because we have a better strategy than them, it's just because our ganks are working, and a gank is a gank. It's like you watch their lane and if it's warded it's warded and you can't get a gank off
[...]
I think our style of playing is over, it doesn't work anymore. I think especially with all the season 3 changes it's so easy to dive tower now, people are rushing locket instead of other stuff now, so they're getting a shield and getting armour and cooldown reduction whenever they want to dive, so basically all the team-fights are behind the enemy towers now. It doesn't suit us at all, because we usually only want to fight when we have an advantage, which makes it even harder for us to team-fight now, because we rarely have that advantage"
-Froggen on the team's style no longer working in S3 (Team Acer, 2013)
One of the primary players of EG coming under fire was Snoopeh, the man who had made Support jungling sexy in 2012 now found all eyes on him in EG losses. His Support champions in S2 no longer worked for him and the new champion pool of that meta meant picking up and learning a different kind of champion.
"It wasn't like I had a limited champion pool, my champion pool was fine back then, but coming into when S3 came out I had to learn new champions and that was the kind of pain or my 'struggle' that I was going through, and it was evident in my play. I wasn't comfortable in some of the champions I was playing, because I was almost forced to play them, because I couldn't give them to the enemy team or they didn't fit with the early game style we were playing at the time."
-Snoopeh on the problems of going into S3 (Team Acer, 2013)
In the semi-final EG faced the top placed regular season team: fnatic. fnatic won the first map, EG took the second and then the best team in LCS won the decider to move on to the final. While fnatic battled a five map series vs. Gambit in the final, EG could only beat SK in the third place decider to lock up $15,000. The team had improved across the season and peaked towards the playoffs, but they still looked a cut below Europe's two best, at least in the key games. Tying Gambit in the season series was impressive, but their losing record against fnatic showed there was some way to go still before they could contend to be Europe's best.
Along with Snoopeh, another name drawing the ire of fans and critics was Top laner Wickd. Just as Snoopeh's champion pool had been forcibly changed, so Wickd no longer found himself battling on his beloved Irelia.
"I always used to say I played with four defensive players and I'm aggressive, and I think that's kinda good, because I used to play the tanky champions that had to engage. So whenever we were playing fairly defensive but we got a small advantage, I'd just go in."
-Wickd on his role in S2 (Team Acer, 2013)
The game in Europe, where mids had already reigned supreme, was no longer allowing for late-game play in the way it had before. Now mids roamed frequently, applying pressure and helping with ganks. No longer could Froggen sit and farm himself up into a monster safely. Teams understand and viciously applied split-pushing, gone was the age of EG's botlane freezing a lane and finding an opponent unsure how to proceed. The rest of the teams in Europe, even those previously considered weaker, had seemingly caught up to EG.
"I think the only thing that was really a nerf to our playtyle overall in S3 was that the Support junglers weren't as strong anymore, since Snoopeh tended to play those in all our games, and it was all about bruiser and carry junglers. I think that's actually the only change that really affected it a lot and the rest is just teams getting better around us, while we were just stagnating a bit and not really innovating, just playing our game.
[...]
Generally [other teams] have gotten better understanding of mid and late-game team-fights and how to really close out a game. If people don't know how to properly close out a game, it's pretty easy to turtle against them and just get into the late game. But if they have the guts to tower dive and do risky plays, that will just finish the game really quick, when they have an advantage, then that's hard to pull off."
-yellowpete on the effects of S3 on EG (Team Acer, 2013)
"Initially, I saw many limitations. When they first entered a game their mindset was really poor. They didn’t believe that they could make plays in the early game, they wanted to risk too little early and would just wait until endgame where they knew they could shine. The other was of course the champion pool of most of their members.
[...]
When I meant that they didn’t believe they had the early game, It ment they believed that their power relies within teamplay and teamfighting, so they just tried to stall and make the game about that. But this method was not effective at that time as early game dictated the pace of how the game would turn out and if you didn’t have a strong early game the enemy team would snowball you and choke out your resources and you’d eventually lose the game by then."
-Shacker, sub for EG in LCS Summer, speaking about the team's mindset (Nurion esports, 2014)
The main body of the rest of the season was a living nightmare for Evil Geniuses. They would go 4:8 over the next four weeks, sitting on 6:9 as a their record. Over the next three weeks they began to turn things around again, going 5:3 and reaching 11:12. On the final week they were, with the rest of LCS Europe, sat in position to go out of the league entirely or reach a high playoff seed. Some inspired and resurgent play had them go 4:1 in the final week, losing only to a bootcamped Gambit.
That result earned them a spot in the playoffs and a tiebreaker for second place. In the tiebreaker they lost only to fnatic, even managing to pull off a stylish final win over Gambit to take third place. In the game Froggen had gone with Blitzcrank as his pick and Krepo had played Anivia, since the Belgian Support player had played many hundreds of games on the champion back before settling as a Support player. The team won the game and provided a little light relief for their weary fans. EG seemed to be peaking headed into another playoffs.
"Over the course of LCS Spring I picked up those [S3] junglers up. Into the Summer split I would say I felt more comfortable on those champions, but my mechanics weren't up to scratch. My knowledge of the game I still felt was good, I understood the game really well coming into the second split, but my individual mechanics weren't quite there. So that's something that I had to take the opportunity to step back a bit and refine my mechanics."
-Snoopeh on his jungling in the Summer split (Team Acer, 2013)
In the semi-final they once more faced fnatic and this time fnatic won in two games straight. For a second straight year and second straight LCS season they would battle in the third place decider, again hoping to grab the final spot for LA. Their opponents would be the match-up that had made them famous, as the Russians of Gambit would fight for that last World Championship berth. This Gambit was not quite the fearsome one which had met them in two major finals in 2012, having lost Support Edward, but they had bootcamped and came to the event with their own form peaking.
After a hard-fought three map series, it was Gambit who took the final World Championship spot. EG were forced to realise their 2013 would come to a close with no major international competition in store for them. Froggen and Alex Ich hugged, each knowing that neither team was at the peak they had been at the previous year, each hoping to return there again and contend for world titles.
"When you're a top team and you've been at the top, you wanna just wanna go higher or at least stay there. You wanna at least stay there or go higher, and anything else really hurts. Not only because of the external pressure you get on you, but as an individual, when you're not there and you've been there, not a team level but on an individual level, it really sucks and it can cause you to not want to be together, because they're not getting to where they want to be.
Whether that's their team's fault or like one person on the team's fault or the situation they're in and the scene, it could be EU, it could maybe they need to go to America or maybe they want to go to America cos it's holding them back in EU, various factors. It's definitely [something] I've noticed: when you're at the top you want to stay at the top, going lower is just... it sucks."
-Snoopeh, before the LCS Summer playoffs, on the potential for roster changes if they didn't qualify for Worlds (Team Acer, 2013)
Again the two Danes had put together a new line-up with hopes of becoming Europe's best, and while creating the European division of a North American organisation. On December 14th they won an exhibition series over Team Dignitas 2:0 at Battle of the Atlantic.
"It would be very likely that we would have been the same team if we'd [qualified for and] done well at Worlds, like got out of the group stage and hit the quarter-finals, we could possibly have been the same team. Then again, the big reason for the changes is that people have different goals for what they want to achieve in their careers, so I think it would possibly have been where we would have just swapped out one or two of the players."
-Froggen on whether EG would have stuck together if they'd reached Worlds (OnGamers, 2013)
Snoopeh, yellowpete and Krepo were announced as players for a new Evil Geniuses' team, rebranding the LCS NA Velocity team to EG.NA. Coupled with two young challenger players, InnoX and Poebelter, they qualified for the 2014 LCS Spring by sweeping Determined Gaming in the LCS NA relegation match. The five players who had made up CLG.EU and EG had not only split apart, they would now reside and compete in regions seperated by an entire ocean.
"For me it's more soothing if I come back on the second place, I always ask myself 'Where would I have wanted to [finish] before the tournament?'. Would I have signed a piece of paper, telling me you're going to end second there and lose respectably in the final? I'd sign that. Maybe that's not the [winning] mentality, but that at least shows that I go down in [a respectful manner].
[...]
I'd rather be a consistently high player with maybe not the most tournament victories, since it shows that we're relevant and we're up there and we could have done it and if we failed it's probably us making mistakes.
[...]
Yeah, that [loss vs. Frost in the S2WC semi-final third set] hurt a lot, personally, losing that game, but still, we were third place in the World finals. We went down in [a respectable manner], we gave one of the finalists a run for their money, really close. Too bad it was Frost, who we lost to in Korea, but you could come home with your head up high. I think I prefer that over like winning one tournament and then doing really bad the next and then doing really well the next and then doing really badly."
-Krepo on consistency over more highs and lows (Team Acer, 2013)
It was always the case though that CLG.EU's style, even at their peak, had meant that they produced incredible consistency, winning close games or losing very competitive matches, rarely getting blown out. Yet this had also meant the team won tournaments less often, winning only Dreamhack Summer and Lone Star Clash. A more risky approach might have yielded more victories, but also deeper lows. In the end, the five man unit had found an approach which worked for them and only them, and ridden it to a number of top four finishes and hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money.
The five man line-up that made up Counter Logic Gaming Europe and Evil Geniuses will be remembered as one of the best European League of Legends teams of all time. They were the first to slay Moscow Five, the only Western team to reach the final of an OGN and finished joint highest amongst European teams at the S2 World Championship. They were a cohesive unit in-game, stalling out games they were behind in and grinding out those they led. In the end their wait was rewarded with greatness.
Counter Logic Gaming Europe/Evil Geniuses (December 2011 - December 2013)
Mike 'Wickd' Petersen (Top)Stephen 'Snoopeh' Ellis (Jungler)Henrik 'Froggen' Hansen (Mid)Peter 'yellowpete' Wüppen (AD Carry)Mitch 'Krepo' Voorspoels (Support)Special thanks to Sigrid Aasma for the custom artwork.
Photo credits: Dreamhack, eslphotos, Evil Geniuses, Counter Logic Gaming, Azubu, OGN
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