The 2015 LoL San Jose Intel Extreme Masters’ quarter-finals are over. Team SoloMid along with Counter Logic Gaming reached the semi-finals after beating LGD Gaming and Unicorns Of Love respectively.
Let’s see how the semi-finals are shaping up.
Origen vs Team SoloMid
Origen is the most powerful team of the tournament after the withdrawal of Fnatic due to health issues of one of their players. However, they could be rusty as they have not yet played at San Jose as they received a bye through the quarter-final.
In the 2015 World Championship, Origen became the first Western team to win a best-of-five match in the competition with their victory over the Flash Wolves, but were then knocked out at the semi-final stage by SK Telecom T1, the current World Champions.
Origen’s strength is that they always have a plan to try and control the game. Amazing, the Jungle of the team, is a key player and the Spaniards are in need of a good performance from him if they want to reach the final. His favorite LoL character is Gragas and with him, he has a win rate of 58.3%, claiming seven victories out of 12. Furthermore, he has 2.42 kills and 2.8 deaths per game overall.
It should also be mentioned that Origen has a very powerful Mid Lane due to the addition of PowerOfEvil to substitute the main Mid Laner, xPeke. PowerOfEvil used to be the best player of the Unicorns Of Love and much is expected of him now.
The opponents of Origen are Team SoloMid. The Americans’ line-up is largely new as many former members have left the team. They placed second in the 2015 NA LCS Summer Playoffs as they lost 0-3 to Counter Logic Gaming in the final and failed to meet expectations at the World Championship by finishing last.
However, their performances in the quarter-finals at San Jose against LGD Gaming were pretty strong and saw them easily progress to the next round. With the addition of Doublelift, the former player of Counter Logic Gaming, their Bottom Lane became stronger and was key for the two wins against LGD Gaming. He had 10 kills and 3.5 deaths per game.
Consequently, Origen need to be really careful and concentrated if they want to beat the fresh team of the Americans as their opponents should not be underestimated.
Jin Air Green Wings vs Counter Logic Gaming
The Jin Air Green Wings were invited directly to the event and will represent the Koreans at the Intel Extreme Masters in San Jose. They also received a bye and so passed to the semi-final stage without playing.
They placed fourth in the regular season of this year’s LCK Spring Split after their 3-0 defeat in the first round of the playoffs to CJ Entus Blaze. During the LCK Summer Split, Jin Air missed the playoffs while in the Korea Regional Finals they reached the final, but lost 3-1 to KT Rolster.
Their one huge advantage is Cpt Jack, who has significant experience with a number of teams including CJ Entus Blaze. His favourite LoL character is Sivir and with him, he has 3.3 kills and 1.6 deaths per game.
They have strong players, but lack strategy, so Counter Logic Gaming are justifiable favourites, particularly as they performed strongly against Unicorns Of Love during the second quarter-final in San Jose.
CLG came to San Jose to cause trouble and win the trophy. Their performances during the second quarter-final of the IEM San Jose were unexpectedly strong – unexpected because they failed to meet expectations at the 2015 World Championship by failing to get through the Group Stage. This failure led them to take radical actions as Pobelter was replaced by HuHi at Mid Lane.
The departure of Doublelift was supposed to be a blow as he had been a key member of the team for four years. However, the fresh HuHi led them to victory against Unicorns Of Love with 4.5 kills and 2 deaths per game.
If Counter Logic Gaming show the concentration and the confidence of their two matches in San Jose, they are a good bet to reach the final comfortably.
