After three years, six seasons, and hundreds of games, the NA LCS finals will play host to the biggest and longest lasting rivalry in the region's history. Team SoloMid and Counter Logic Gaming will face off against each other at the famed Madison Square Garden in New York City, a venue that is sure to be packed with fans waiting to see the historic clash.

Team SoloMid are no strangers to playing in the NA LCS finals, as Sunday will mark their sixth straight trip to North America's premiere match — not to mention that their semifinal win last week also locked up a trip to the World Championships for the fifth year in a row. Their rivals, Counter Logic Gaming, have finally broken through mediocrity and late season collapses to make their debut under the bright lights of a final, getting here by way of a commanding 3-0 semifinals sweep over Team Impulse.

Before their inaugural LCS final matchup, one has to look back at how these two teams began their North American LCS journey. With these two teams about to face off in one of the world's most renowned sports arenas, it's easy to forget that they once played in a half-empty studio. At that time, Riot's LCS was a new experiment they were rolling out to consolidate the NA and European regions into a formal league instead of a circuit of tournaments around the world. It was the start of a new beginning for League of Legends, as they to make things more professional and similar to traditional sport league across the world.

2013

When CLG and TSM kicked off the LCS, they were North America's two flagship franchises. Both teams were coming off of their second appearance at the World Championships, but neither was able to make it out of the group stages. Still, the two teams entered the NA LCS on nearly equal footing and were the region's two leaders when it came to fan support and popularity.

Although the series would eventually see TSM as the dominant side, the NA LCS actually started with CLG taking the first game against their rivals. HotshotGG was able to get the first laugh against his in-game and ownership rival, Reginald, as Counter Logic blazed out of the LCS gates with a fairly decisive victory in their first game of the season. Link and Doublelift starred in the match, as the carry duo went a combined 12/2/16 in the opening victory.

Sadly for CLG fans, their first night in the LCS would be the last time they got a victory against TSM throughout the entire season. TSM was the first of the two teams to make a roster change in their LCS rivalry, as long-time AD Carry Chaox was replaced by WildTurtle who, at the time, was a highly ranked solo queue player that failed to qualify for the premiere league with Cloud9. The transfer turned out to be the wisest decision TSM could have made, as the team cited Chaox's lack of focus for wanting to be a pro-gamer as the reason for why he was removed from the roster.

As the switch in AD Carries vaulted them into first, TSM finished the Spring with a 21-7 record. CLG didn't have nearly the same success, as they secured the fourth spot going into the playoffs with a sub-average record of 13-15 to go along with their inconsistent play. That up-and-down play didn't change when the playoffs came along, as CLG first showed their weakness in the best-of format by losing to Vulcun 2-1 in the quarterfinals.

As CLG fell apart in the playoffs, TSM began their dominance in the knockout format by first getting through the same Vulcun squad that tripped up their rivals and then bringing home the first ever LCS title in a 3-2 win over the tournament's Cinderella story, Good Game University.

The start of the summer season brought on CLG's first (of many) LCS roster changes. Hotshot retired from professional play to take up a full-time role as the team's owner, and Aprhomoo left the team after a shaky rookie season to go back to streaming and possibly his old position as an AD Carry. Chauster, the jungler in the spring season, moved to the support role in the summer, leaving former Team MRN AD Carry Nientonsoh to become their new top laner with bigfatlp transitioning into the jungle role that was left vacant by Chauster's departure.

While criticized as a mashup of weird parts in new roles, the Frankenstein CLG team actually had the franchise's best split against Team SoloMid. They went 4-0 in the regular season, marking the only time that CLG would have a winning record against TSM in the NA LCS. But, even with all their unexpected success against SoloMid, their record against the rest of the league was dire as they went 9-15 against the rest of the field and ending the season in sixth place out of eight teams.

TSM did a tiny bit better, but by not much. The entire summer season was controlled by Turtle's former team, Cloud9, who qualified for the LCS and went on to have the greatest single season in the league's history. With C9 beating up on everyone, TSM's lackluster performance against CLG, and Vulcun keeping up the pressure as a rising team, the reigning champions finished with a 14-14 record going into the postseason.

TSM and CLG's first round quarterfinal match that season would give us a glimpse to the rivalry's future. It didn't matter that CLG dominated TSM in the regular season as the latter came back in the quarterfinals and took the sweep over CLG. TSM then went on to beat Vulcun in the semifinals to make their second straight finals appearance before losing to the unstoppable C9.

As TSM went on to qualify for their third World Championship, CLG could do nothing but watch as they fell in the first round of the playoffs twice in a row. Changes and promises were made to improve the next season, and it would be the first of a long list of times that CLG fans started to believe that the next time would see their team as one of America's best.

TSM 2013 NA LCS Record: 44-27 (62%)

CLG 2013 NA LCS Record: 29-34 (46%)

2014

2014 would bring a slew of changes to both teams, but no transaction was bigger than TSM's move to acquire EU LCS standout Bjergsen from the Copenhagen Wolves. A Danish product that played for the Ninjas in Pyjamas and Copenhagen Wolves, the young European took over the ace carry role from the mid lane starter and owner of the team, Reginald, who went the route of Hotshot by getting into the management side of eSports.

The second roster change in TSM history turned out to be another good gamble for the two-time finalists, as Bjergsen blossomed into one of North America's top players. He would win the weekly MVP three times during the regular season while helping TSM achieve a 22-6 record that almost beat out the rampaging C9 for the high mark in the league.

CLG also brought in a European for the spring season by signing highly touted jungler Dexter from the Lemondogs. With his former team combusting after their group stage exit at Worlds, Dexter joined CLG along with Aphromoo, who decided to return to CLG's bottom lane to support Doublelift.

Dexter was a good pick-up for CLG and it showed in the standings as they had by far their best regular season with an 18-10 record and a third place spot in the playoffs. C9, TSM, and CLG ruled the season as the three teams battled for first place while the other teams languished in the bottom half of the standings. No other team in the competition had a .500 record as the fourth best team in the spring split of 2014 was Team Dignitas at 12-16.

This would turn out to be CLG's best season before their current run, as they blew past Team Coast in the first round before getting another crack at TSM in the semifinals. CLG even got off on the right food in that playoff series, grabbing a 1-0 lead and only needing a single victory in two games to make it to their first grand final against Cloud9. They couldn't keep up the momentum, though, first losing a game where Bjergsen played Karma in the mid lane, and then losing a relatively quick 25 minute game where they could only muster up a single tower kill.

By now, the narrative was clear: TSM were playoff juggernauts and CLG broke down when tensions were at their highest. It didn't matter how well either played in the regular season, Team SoloMid would do well in a best-of-five series against any team not named C9, and CLG couldn't do well in the playoffs when they needed to play their absolute best.

After getting picked apart by C9 in the finals for a second straight year, TSM and CLG both underwent more roster changes. This time it was TSM who went out and got a European jungler, picking up Amazing from the Copenhagen Wolves like they did with Bjergsen. Also due to problems with Xpecial in the bottom lane, they traded him over to the Curse organization and signed amateur player Gleeb.

CLG countered TSM by picking up their first Korean player in Seraph from NaJin White Shield. They then tried to strengthen their map movement and strategical decision making by acquiring MonteCristo as their coach from South Korea. The move was supposed to give CLG an edge to become the region's top team, and it looked like that might be the case as they got off to another hot regular season start.

But this was CLG, and they weren't allowed to be happy for longer than a few weeks. Their communication and teamwork started to falter as the split went on and the team started to free fall down the standings as the playoffs approached. TSM held firm among the Top 3 spots alongside Cloud9 and newly promoted Chinese-powered LMQ, having another one of their seasons where they didn't destroy everyone in the regular season but knew how to stick around.

Needing a final push that would hopefully help them beat C9 in the playoffs, TSM signed Lustboy two weeks before the end of the season. Lustboy took over for Gleeb, who while not lighting the world on fire was still a respectable support and held his own against the league's other top pairings. Wanting to stop their rut, CLG decided to jet off to South Korea for a boot camp session on the final week of the season, needing to get Seraph's visa renewed for the playoffs and deciding to take the whole team along for the trip.

To the surprise of only the most die hard CLG fans, TSM succeeded in the playoffs with their late season decision and CLG bombed out in the first round by getting swept by Curse. Their boot camp turned out to be fruitless as the squad did not come together when they needed to grow closer. They returned to NA to meet another quick end in the playoffs. Finally learning how to beat C9, TSM took their first playoff victory over the two-time champions, grabbing their second championship as well as qualifying for their fourth straight world championship.

CLG did not qualify for the world championship, as promises of change were made and another year of potential wasted.

TSM 2014 NA LCS Record: 49-27 (64%)

CLG 2014 NA LCS Record: 37-33 (53%)

2015

Now that we've made it to the year that we're currently in, let's talk about how CLG finally got over their hump as a constant playoff choker and turned into the finalist team they could have been splits before.

Coming into the 2015 circuit, there was little hype around Counter Logic Gaming's roster. Seraph left after his troubles with the team's communication and Dexter also exited the team following a postseason where they couldn't get anything working. The coaching staff changed, the organization brought in ZionSpartan from Dignitas and Xmithie to take over the top and jungle roles respectively. It was a low key off-season for the team as a lot of the other North American squads were signing former Korean world champions, big name players, and trying to be the best team through blockbuster moves.

CLG's problem in 2014 centered around communication. Seraph didn't fit well with the team, they couldn't handle the pressure in the playoffs and they crumbled after an unsuccessful boot camp in Korea that put them even more at odds. Their 2015 method to success was to keep things simpler.

Not everything came together in the beginning. The spring split was another case of the squad getting off to a great start before taking a huge dive at the end to miss a first round bye before getting knocked out of the playoffs in a sweep by Team Liquid (formerly Curse) in the quarterfinals. TSM, who brought in Santorin from Coast to take over Amazing's spot as their jungler, kept on rolling in the regular season and playoffs, keeping up their narrative of postseason monsters and only dropping two games in the post-season.

Link, the team's longest tenured player along with Doublelift, left in the offseason that gave little hope going into the summer. CLG continued to be surrounded by drama as their coach, Scarra, also left the team. Shortly after, they decided to change things up by bringing in Pobelter from the relegated Winterfox team. CLG got off to a quick start, but fell on their faces after being a top team in the first few weeks and were on the verge of going on another long losing streak.

But CLG kept their cool. They didn't panic after two weeks of losing all their games, and the team rebounded to get themselves out of their slump and make a nice run at the end of the season to steal a Top 2 spot away from Gravity, a team who like CLG in the past, was a virtual lock for a bye in the first round before falling apart at the end of the split. The team endured their shaky middle half of the season, laughed off the criticism, and went into the playoffs with the goal of finally breaking into the finals.

TSM, as they've always been, are now awaiting CLG in the finals. They've won the last two titles, have three championships to their name, and haven't missed an NA LCS grand final since the first. What CLG have only discovered recently, the ability to keep calm, adapt when losing, and persevere when things aren't going well, TSM have had since the first spring season three years ago.

On Sunday, Counter Logic Gaming will hope to do what they accomplished 928 days ago — celebrate a milestone victory over Reginald, and imagining a future where CLG, not TSM, are the class of North America.

TSM 2013 NA LCS Record: 36-16 (69%)

CLG 2013 NA LCS Record: 28-14 (66%)

The All-Time TSM vs. CLG Player Records in LCS

Team SoloMid

Lustboy: 5-0 (100%) Santorin: 4-0 (100%) Bjergsen: 10-4 (71%) WildTurtle: 16-8 (66%) Dyrus: 16-9 (64%) TheOddone & Xpecial: 10-7 (59%) Reginald: 6-5 (54%) Amazing: 2-2 (50%) Gleeb: 1-2 (33%) Chaox: 0-1 (0%)

Counter Logic Gaming

Bigfatlp: 4-2 (66%) Chauster: 5-5 (50%) Seraph: 2-2 (50%) Nientonsoh: 6-7 (46%) Dexter: 4-6 (40%) Link: 9-14 (39%) Doublelift: 9-16 (36%) Aphromoo: 5-14 (26%) HotshotGG: 1-4 (20%) Pobelter: 0-2 (0%) ZionSpartan & Xmithie: 0-4 (0%)

Tyler "Fionn" Erzberger is a staff writer for theScore eSports who covers the North American LCS and Korea's Champions. You can follow him on Twitter.