It looked hopeful. After the first week of the group stages for the World Championship, it looked very hopeful that two North American teams would make it out of groups. Hell, the third North American team, Team SoloMid, had performed better than the expected win-less showing, taking a game off Chinese powerhouse LGD Gaming. Counter Logic Gaming sat in a comfortable 2-1 record after the first week. Seeing LMS side Flash Wolves drop a match to the Brazilian paiN Gaming squad gave even more credence to the idea that Counter Logic Gaming would make it past groups. Cloud 9, who stumbled into the World Championship via the North American Regionals, unexpectedly swept through the first three matches of the group stage. The team many expected to sit in the lowly last place instead sat atop the group that contained the unsteady Chinese roster Invictus Gaming, the number one European squad Fnatic, and LMS hopefuls ahq e-Sports Club.

After week two, the hopes of North America were dashed. Win-less. Every North American team failed to win a single match in the second week of groups and they all failed to progress. Counter Logic Gaming were in prime position to secure one of the top two spots in Group A. All they needed was one single win and for Flash Wolves to not go undefeated just to secure a tiebreaker. Anything more than that and they would have clinched a quarterfinals berth. 0-3 was the result on the final day and they would fail to progress to quarterfinals. Cloud 9 sat undefeated coming into the second week. All they needed was a single win. They had a tie breaker clinched and they only had to win one of four matches. 0-4 was the result for Cloud 9 on that final day and like Counter Logic Gaming they would fail to proceed to quarterfinals. Team SoloMid, being in the toughest group, would, as expected, drop all three matches. 0-3 was the result on the final day for Team SoloMid and they would be knocked out of the tournament.

0-10 combined during the second week of group stages for North America. The combined collapse of both CLG and C9 to fail when in prime position to succeed is the League equivalent to Van De Velde collapsing at the British Open. In sports, a “choke” is the failure of an athlete or an athletic team to win a game or tournament when the player or team had been strongly favored to win or had squandered a large lead in the event. Both Counter Logic Gaming and Cloud 9 are by definition chokers. The one-dimensional style of both CLG and C9 led them to losing every match they needed to win. C9’s inability to be successful on any non-fast push composition led to their demise. CLG’s inability to be successful past standard buff the marksman compositions led to their demise.

The demise of these teams based on their one-dimensional play is the standard stamp of North America on the year. Inability to be flexible and flesh their style out allowed every other team to solve the simple puzzle they presented. This is nothing new to the North American region. During the Spring split Team SoloMid rushed through the North American LCS by having the strongest individual player in-region and giving him the ability to carry. Despite the team’s very obvious flaws, they won the Spring split rather easily. Summer split saw the rise of a Gravity team that lacked a coaching staff and spammed the same play style and composition week after week. After over a month of NA LCS domination, the competition finally figured it out and Gravity proceeded to flounder in mediocrity as they had nothing else up their sleeve. Despite Team SoloMid’s obvious flaws and incredibly one-dimensional play, they still found themselves in the NA LCS finals. They would be crushed by a more versatile Counter Logic Gaming side, yet that versatility CLG showed in relation to the North American scene meant nothing when forced onto the World stage.

What took other North American teams a month to figure out, the Worlds participants solved both CLG and C9 in a matter of days. CLG won their first two matches in week one off the back of a protect the marksman composition that was facilitated by Pobelter on Lulu. By the time CLG played the KOO Tigers, the team that exposed SK Gaming at IEM Katowice months ago and who would also exposed CLG at Worlds, banning out the single champ that facilitated the success of the team was all that was needed. The other teams in the group picked up on what KOO led with and CLG lost their head. In Group B, two of C9’s first three wins were championed by the fast push strength that Azir brings from the mid lane. Incarnati0n’s stellar Azir play in combination with Sneaky’s tower pushing marksman strategy allowed Cloud 9 to move around the map and out push the competition. Starting with the first match of the second week, Incarnati0n would never see Azir again and the one strategy Cloud 9 prepped with for Worlds quickly collapsed.

Both teams seemed to have entered Worlds with extremely limited strategies and certain players who looked individually great in the North American region suddenly didn’t look so amazing once they had to square off against international competition. It was a very disappointing end to an exceptionally low quality year for North America. After a success of a Worlds showing in Season 4, where both Team SoloMid and Cloud 9 made it out of the group stage, this Season 5 Worlds showing should have been unacceptable. Hopefully the regression shown on the international level brings about changes in the offseason. Many obvious flaws or black holes of talent existed on numerous teams throughout the year, or in the case of certain players throughout the past two or three years. Poor coaching and preparation led to one-dimensional styles and inflexibility, both in-region and internationally.

Whereas North America had hopes of soaring through groups after that well-played first week, those hopes should now turn to the offseason where multiple legacy players look to retire and multiple imported players may find a new home in another region. With every NA LCS playoff team facing potentially sweeping roster changes, we should hope for progress to be made at the coaching level and for teams to have a more dynamic team style. Too many teams in North America hold onto the same stale style for far too long, Team SoloMid and Counter Logic Gaming being the most heinous offenders. If the North American region is to ever be remotely competitive on the World stage these areas must improve.