Maybe the Mid-Season Invitational wasn't a fluke. North America's Counter Logic Gaming picked up its third win in a row against European champion G2 Esports on the international stage after blanking them twice earlier this year at MSI. CLG would go on to make of the finals of that tournament before ultimately falling to South Korean champion SK Telecom T1.
After 2016 Worlds' opening contest, CLG believes it can go far at an international competition once more. ESPN spoke to Counter Logic's AD carry Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes immediately following his team's blowout victory of the European samurai.
"For me personally, I expected it to happen," said Stixxay. "But obviously, to outside people, it was kind of an upset. People expected G2 to be really good, but just from my experience at our Korean boot camp, I felt like European teams weren't as strong as people thought they were, and the NA teams were a lot stronger compared relatively to the other regions."
"I think the team that impressed me the most [during the boot camp] was Samsung," he continued on, giving a nod to the third-place South Korean squad. "We practiced with them a lot, and I thought they were really good, most notably their bottom laner [Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk], and it didn't matter what support they used. [Jo "Core JJ" Yong-in] and [Kwon "Wraith" Ji-min] are both really good, as well."
CLG's next match will be on Saturday against wild-card combatant Albus Nox Luna from the CIS region.
"Obviously, the best-case scenario is getting first out of groups, but I would be fine just as long as we get in the top two [to advance]," said Stixxay.
After primarily taking a back seat in a cleanup role for the summer split, Stixxay was put into the more comfortable role of his hard carry champion Caitlyn in today's opener. He certainly didn't disappoint, finishing the game off with a nearly spotless scoreline of 4/1/8.
"The meta has definitely changed," he said. "Literally every team has a different priority in pick and bans. It's kinda hard to tell what is best right now, but Caitlyn is really strong right now, so strong bottom lanes in general are really good because of the [bottom lane] changes. No more lane swaps so strong lanes will be really dominant."
As a team that has always succeeded in the face of disbelief from others -- the spring NA League Championship Series of this year, the Mid-Season Invitational -- being counted out behind G2 Esports and South Korea's ROX Tigers might be right where they want themselves in the competition.
"Thank you, guys, for the support," he told the CLG and North American faithful to end the interview. "I hope you guys never give up hope again, because [CLG] always pulls through."