Counter Logic Gaming are good again.

We don't know how long this honeymoon period will last — they were #1 for some time last season as well — but CLG have gotten off to their best NA LCS start in history with a 5-1 record.

The Golden Power of Friendship

When interviewed about why CLG are doing better this season, the players have credited their success due to the friendship all five players share. After playing with Seraph — mechanically proficient but not a first language English speaker — CLG now finally have a team with a group of like-minded individuals who get along.

Their play, while not as clean as it was last year in terms of rotations and strategy, has become more exuberant and fun. This has led to mistakes, even in their blowout victory against Gravity, but they've been able to cover it up with an extremely strong laning phase and knowing how to pull it together when their weaknesses start to show.

Link was one of the most piled-on players during the off-season, even having to go as far as winning back his starting job through tryouts. CLG stuck with their maligned mid laner, and Link has paid back their confidence by playing some of the best League of his career. On Ezreal, Link was a menace on the map, roaming around with Xmithie's Lee Sin. He would end up with a 10/1/4 score, tops in the game and helping his team secure a fourth-straight victory.

The other key to CLG's new found success is ZionSpartan in the top lane. Yes, he's been spoken highly of by his teammates for having a great attitude and being an all-around good guy, but his dominating play can't be ignored. One of the last remaining true carry top laners in the Western scene, Zion is able to turn it on when called upon.

Playing with Dignitas, Zion had more on his plate; now, he can play more relaxed with having an aggression magnet like Doublelift in the bottom lane. Against Gravity, Zion played more of the utility zoning game, using his Lissandra to get in Gravity's face and help Aphromoo set up kills for their double AD comp centered around Link (Ezreal) and Doublelift (Sivir).

CLG haven't lost with ZionSpartan in the lineup. Everyone is having fun and not getting on each other if someone makes a mistake. Their coaching staff is giving them some of the best team compositions heading out of the pick/ban phase, and they'll have their head coach Scarra returning from suspension next week.

Everything on the wall tells us that CLG are a legit contender for the NA LCS championship, but will this "golden age" really come to fruition? The team is there, the coaching staff is there, and the friendship is there. The only question now that CLG has to answer is if they can withstand a losing streak. While it's easy to celebrate when you're on a long winning streak, a true golden age or era can only be decided in full when a team shows what they have through adversity.

The Swagger of a Champion

In stark contrast to CLG's happy-go-lucky way of getting to the top of the standings, Team SoloMid are doing the same things that have given them success for years.

Against Team Impulse, Dyrus played a tank with Sion. Santorin, Bjergsen's combat butler from Denmark sworn to protect him, chose Vi to protect, lock down and set up kills for his carries. Bjergsen, the ace, went with a high damage dealer in Ahri and crushed everyone. WildTurtle picked Jinx to bring the heavy attack damage alongside Bjergsen's AP. Then you have Lustboy, who can play whatever champion is currently in meta and make it work with the team around him.

TSM are playing with a confidence that can only come with years of success behind an organization. While the players have changed through time, the archetypes have stayed the same for most part . Yeah, you might know what TSM is going to do 95% of the time, but are you good enough to stop them? Thus far, the answer is an emphatic no for everyone except Team 8, who upset TSM in week one.

Impulse put up a fight against TSM, but the game was over early and closed out in the quickest time of the day. XWX went on his signature Yasuo to take on Bjergsen's Ahri in a match-up of the past two NA LCS MVPs, but TSM's familiarity with one another gave them the added advantage.

In terms of pure skill, Impulse and TSM aren't that different. With the junglers, Rush is a former #1 ranked player on the Korean server, but his synergy with XWX can't be compared to how Bjergsen and Santorin are setting up plays across the map. With their win, TSM moves into a tied-for-first spot with rivals CLG at a record of 5-1. Impulse, who are still trying to figure out how to play together, sit at 3-3 alongside four other teams.

Around the Horn

Dignitas picked up the biggest win of their season against Team Liquid. Liquid put Piglet on Vayne for the second straight game, hoping he would be the hyper carry to take them to a 4-2 record, but the plan didn't come to fruition. CoreJJ, Dignitas' AD carry — who was, funnily enough, passed over for Piglet during the creation of the Season 3 world champions SK Telecom T1 K — had the best game of his season. Core went 9/0/7 on Sivir and gave Dignitas fans hope they can still do something this season. Now 2-4, Dignitas is only one game behind the 3-3 Team Liquid in the standings.

Cloud 9 played with the same swagger TSM has had all season this weekend, but will it extend over to next week? They finished their perfect round of games with a strong 30 minute over the spiraling Coast to get their record back to .500, but have they shown enough to put them along with CLG and TSM as the best three in NA? When C9 have been good, they've been really good. But when they've been bad and lost to teams they normally would beat, you have to wonder if their two years on top with the same roster is sustainable. Coast, who had another week without a win, sit at the bottom of the table with a 1-5 record.

Outside of CLG, Team 8 have been the best surprise of the first third of the NA LCS season. They were seen as a team that would be battling it out to not be instantly relegated in the 10th spot, but they sit after six games with an even 3-3 score. Team 8 took down Winterfox, who are still without their Korean import support Imagine after three weeks. Gleeb has stepped in and performed admirably, but Winterfox now are 2-4 and looking for answers. WFX, when Imagine is playing, have four fluent Korean speakers and a Korean head coach, so having Gleeb sitting in makes the communication that much harder between the parties involved.

Heading into week four, the match that is on everyone's mind is the battle between the two 5-1 teams CLG and TSM. To make the age-old rivalry even more exciting for the viewers, team owners HotshotGG (CLG) and Reginald (TSM) made a bet that the losing team's owner must dye their head pink.

.@TSMReginald agreed that if we tie this week, loser of next week will dye their hair pink. Shook on it, witnesses present. — HotshotGG (@CLG_HotshotGG) February 8, 2015

Fine bet is on @CLG_HotshotGG clg has always been free anyways . — Andy Dinh (@TSMReginald) February 8, 2015

The question is, who do you think will win? Let us know at @theScoreeSports.

Tyler "Fionn" Erzberger is a staff writer for theScore eSports. You can follow him on Twitter.