At 7-7 and with two weeks remaining before the postseason, the future is what Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) makes of it. The back-to-back reigning and defending champions of the North American League of Legends Championship Series have battled their way back from a sub-optimal start to a respectable middling position in the standings. Editor's Picks PR0LLY on strategy: 'The lazy teams get crushed'

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While the two giants of this split's regular season, Team SoloMid (TSM) and Immortals, have already clinched first-round byes in the playoffs, their shared dominance has allowed CLG to make a run for a possible third-place finish.

"It feels good to finally start winning," said Counter Logic's starting AD carry Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes. "We're actually pretty frustrated because when we played Immortals we felt like we should have 2-0'ed them. [But, taking a game off of Immortals] shows we're a really good team right now." For all of CLG's faults this split, the team's resolve hasn't wavered.

The players were straightforward and open about their main problem: failing to play around the mid lane. At the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), CLG played around the side lanes to make it into the finals, which was arguably NA's greatest international feat in the game's six-year history. Choi "Huhi" Jae-hyun, the team's starting mid laner, was often dangled over the map as a sacrificial lamb for the opposing team to gnaw at; he'd die, allowing his carries to get off the necessary damage, and return to the field looking for where he could next be of use.

"Lately, Immortals, not sure if they've been falling off or what's going on, but they don't feel as strong as they used to be," said Stixxay. "I'd say they're not very proactive and a lot of the plays they make aren't good plays. It only works because they outplay people, so I don't think they're as dominant as they used to be. For TSM, I think they're a really good team. I'll say their problems are overcommitting too much on certain sides -- sometimes they'll run across the map and lose resources on the other side -- and that's maybe an advantage we have on them. But I definitely think TSM is going to be the best team, and probably the team we'll face in the finals."

Immortals has the individual skill to break a majority of the teams in the world. CLG, as we saw in Shanghai at MSI, has the teamplay aspect down and a wealth of strategies to do well on the international stage. This current iteration of TSM, however, is a mix of both the monstrous technical skill of Immortals and the sleek teamplay coordination of Counter Logic Gaming. Even as Finals MVP of last split, Stixxay realizes that fighting through the currently undefeated stronghold of Team SoloMid for a three-peat NA LCS title would be a harrowing run.

"When we went to MSI, we were pretty surprised on how well we did versus all the teams," he said. "Last split we were pretty notorious for doing terrible in scrims and always performing well on stage. So at MSI it kinda turned around; we'd do really well in scrims, which was surprising to me. The only problem with NA right now is it's a top-sided region. There are very weak teams at the bottom, and you have the incredibly strong teams at the top. I think NA is a really, really strong region right now."

"[CLG], TSM, and Immortals," he answered when asked a bit more about which teams he thought comprised the cream of the crop. "I think Team Liquid and Cloud9 are a little bit below us."

Stixxay and CLG will attempt to prove they belong in an NA LCS triumvirate this week as the team looks to go over .500 for one of the first times this split. Counter Logic will have a Saturday matinee set versus fellow third-place hopefuls Team Liquid before taking the Rift on Sunday in a must-win matchup against currently last-place team Echo Fox.