A curse was finally lifted on Sunday as Counter Logic Gaming defeated fierce rivals Team SoloMid in the LCS for the first time since the 2016 Spring playoffs. TSM’s three-year undefeated run ended as a result of an incredible CLG performance, centered around a surprise Sylas pick in the jungle from Wiggily.

1,176 days. Prior to Sunday’s huge result CLG had gone 1,176 days without a victory against their long-standing LCS rivals TSM. During that time the two teams have faced off on 14 occasions in regular season and playoff matches, with CLG losing every game. In fact, former LCS competitors Team Dignitas and Phoenix1 had defeated Team SoloMid more recently than CLG, despite their last appearances in the league being in 2017.

So what changed for Counter Logic Gaming in Week 5’s crucial grudge match? How did they get the edge over TSM for the first time since they lifted their second LCS title in 2016? Well, giving Sylas his jungle debut in North America certainly played its part.

The Origin of Sylas Jungle

Similar to every new champion release and rework Riot blesses the playerbase with, Sylas has maintained a massive presence in both competitive play and solo queue since he was unleashed onto the Rift on Patch 9.2. In the LCS Summer Split alone he boasts a 68% presence and 62.5% win rate making him one of the highest priority solo laners in the current meta. Although the likes of Clid, Ning, and Tarzan adopted Sylas throughout last week’s Asia Rift Rivals, we had yet to see the Unshackled in the LCS jungle until CLG Wiggily picked it up on W5D2 in a battle for (joint) 1st place against TSM.

Recently, Sylas saw nerfs headed his way in the form of minion damage reduction on both his Passive – Petricite Burst and Q – Chain Lash, which prompted several pros to test him out in an untouched area of the map – the jungle. The thinking behind this unique pick is to utilise Sylas’ excellent jungle clear, high damage at all stages of the game, and wealth of utility on his E – Abscond/Abduct to gap close and CC enemies to facilitate ganks. Furthermore, several game-changing teamfight ultimates reside in the current jungle champion pool which gives Sylas the perfect opportunity to counter specific match-ups purely through the use of his R – Hijack.

The Synergy with CLG’s Draft

CLG followed this logic after confirming that TSM were most likely going to put Akaadian on Jarvan IV meaning Wiggily could make full use of his Cataclysm in teamfights and early skirmishes. On top of that Team SoloMid had already locked in three more champions with very powerful ultimate abilities – Yasuo, Gragas, and Kennen – that CLG’s jungler could potentially use to turn the tide of a fight.

In terms of meshing with the composition, Wiggily’s team had already locked in scaling options in the form of a Sivir-Yuumi bot lane and wanted to add to that with a mid-game spiking Corki for PowerOfEvil. Combining these two factors with Sylas’ high damage and presence in the early game created a clear sequence of power for CLG to play around. Also, the team lacked a definitive engage option heading into the final round of picks, and with the likes of Sejuani and Skarner already removed by TSM, Sylas made the most sense from the remaining jungle choices.