No loss of synergy for Origen

CLG are a solid outfit

Promising signs for TSM

UOL and LGD are in shambles

New plane, still sad plane

images courtesy of ESL

In one of the quietest yet most brilliant acquisitions of the off season so far, former Unicorns of Love mid lane star,Tristan "PowerOfEvil" Schrage, joined xPeke’s Origen as a replacement for the great man himself. The Spaniard announced he would play at intervals, when he felt he was playing particularly well, but it is hard to separate the duties of owner and player and we may see PoE play the vast majority of Origen’s games.Coming into San Jose, Origen were one of the pre-tournament favourites, due to a combination of their worlds performance and the roster shuffles most other participants had gone through. A dominating performance, excellent plays fromPaul "sOAZ" Boyer andAlfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez and a cohesive overall macro game, gave Origen their first title as an organisation. Their synergy was as strong as ever, PoE meshing nicely with the rest of the team and feeling confident enough to unleash his strong control mage playstyle upon his opponents.No team looked capable of challenging Origen, TSM being swiftly defeated 2-0 and CLG following suit in a comfortable 3-0 final. A worthy winner, Origen now look ahead to LCS Spring 2016, and a possible chance of defeating their rivals Fnatic, and claiming their first domestic title.After the departure of their legacy player,Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng, many fans thought CLG would struggle to fill the void. With former CLG Black ADCTrevor ‘’Stixxay’’ Hayes being the replacement, and a swap in the mid lane, CLG again had to face major upheaval within their roster. Most people expected a weak performance, maybe a victory over UoL but certainly not a top 2 finish.Displaying a strong and confident macro performance, and team comps enabling their top lanerDarshan "Darshan" Upadhyaha to carry, CLG proved the doubters wrong. Day 1 began with a very easy 2-0 over UoL and they continued by fighting off a new Jin Air to face Origen in the final.Things came unstuck against the Europeans however, Huhi showing some inexperience and being repeatedly punished by Origen, while Darshan was effectively nullified all series long. Despite not winning IEM, CLG can look forward to a strong season of LCS, having already proven themselves in international competition.With 4 new players, including our former junglerDennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen, TSM were using this event as a proving ground for their individual talent. Despite playing awfully against LGD they still managed to win, and a loss to Origen in the semi final was unsurprising. TSM performed as well as could be expected and with only 4 days to practice issues were always going to be there.With a new ADC focused style based around Doublelift, pressure has been lifted off Bjergsen as TSM's only carry. New supportRaymond "kaSing" Tsang should be able to control the sometimes headstrong ADC, and ushers in a new era of a bot lane centric strategy.Despite an obvious lack of coordination, each player had some stand out moments, and the future looks bright. More time to gel will prove invaluable, and the spring split TSM could indeed be a very dangerous beast.With a new roster, Unicorns of Love had potential to make a repeat of last year’s shocking upset. However, a very disjointed performance, coupled with a rare loss in form of support Zdravets "Hylissang" Galabov, meant UoL fell easily to CLG 0-2. Things look grim for next split and I believe UoL will certainly struggle during the spring.Chinese Summer Split champions LGD were coming off terrible worlds showing, but had a chance to redeem themselves with an event victory here. With legendary top lanerLee "Flame" Ho-Jong in the starting role, LGD looked to defeat home town favourites TSM in Day 1. In what proved to be a terrible series, LGD crumbled once again.Looking weak and lacking a clear strategy, LGD surely must be attempting to rebuild for the future. New players, or perhaps a big change in coaching staff is clearly needed for this once great team, else they go on a downwards trajectory for next season.The team I was most excited to see, and in their first international competition, the Jin Air Green Wings did not live up to expectations. Replacing their mid, top, and jungle, synergy issues were expected but after a decent Kespa Cup performance, fans wanted to see more than Jin Air ended up giving.The days of passivity are gone, as Jin Air played a hyper aggressive and ruthless playstyle, resulting in some beautiful teleport engages. But against the strong macro style of CLG, their naivety was exposed, and their sometimes poor execution was a clear weakness.Overall, this event proved to be extremely informative. Despite a terrible Day 1 of games, I found every Day 2 match to be very rewarding. Both Asian teams underperformed and for once it was the West that stole the show. EU have an elite world class team in Origen, and NA have laid the groundwork for a very successful 2016.The next event is All Stars 2015, beginning on 10th December so watch out for upcoming content based around the most action packed event of the year!