The stage is set for an epic showdown between favorites Cloud9 Academy and hopefuls Counter Logic Gaming Academy.
C9A dominated the summer split and beat down a formidable FlyQuest Academy squad in the semifinals. They’ve been the favorites since early on and have a team stacked with LCS players. Of their five starters, only top laner Shiro hasn’t spent time on an NA LCS team this split. Feng, Goldenglue, Svenskeren and Keith all saw considerable time playing for either Cloud9 or Echo Fox earlier in the split.
And as if that weren’t enough, there’s also a pretty good chance that Goldenglue and Svenskeren will be playing at least one game for Cloud9 during the NA LCS semifinals this weekend.
The Cloud9 Hype Train Is Now Boarding
Of course, there is a small downside to that. While CLG Academy has been spending almost all their time training as a single team, Goldenglue and Svenskeren have been splitting their practice time between C9A and C9.
CLGA don’t have the same pedigree as C9A, but they do have a few things going for them. Fallenbandit and Wiggily both got some extra time on the LCS stage in the last week of the regular season. Fallenbandit put up a good show, but Wiggily played out of his mind. He went a combined 11/1/10 over two games and led CLG in just about every category.
C9A are heavy favorites heading into the NA Academy finals, but don’t count out CLGA just yet. With Svenskeren and Goldenglue potentially distracted by the NA semifinals and Wiggily and CLGA coming off a great series against Team Liquid Academy, there might be an upset in the making.