The motto of this World Championships has become expect the unexpected, and Counter Logic Gaming continued that trend Sunday night with possibly the biggest upset of the tournament, taking down the favorite to win the Summoner's Cup, ROX Tigers. The North Americans bounced back from an upset on the opposite end against CIS' Albus Nox Luna to take an early lead against the Tigers and never look back.
ESPN spoke to Darshan "Darshan" Upadhyaya following the win.
"I really feel like there are a lot of teams that can potentially win Worlds," said Darshan. "Anything can happen any game depending on the draft and the mentality you come into the game with. I feel like we had a better draft and a better mentality than ROX coming into that game, so we kind of just swept them in the early game. Huhi really popped off."
With the unpredictable results from the group stages, Darshan believes that the gap is closing. "I think this is the year you can really see it with every team having been defeated once except for SKT [Editor's Note: SKT lost its game against Flash Wolves during this interview]. I think there is a chance SKT goes out of their group [with a loss], and even if they [don't], they're not a huge step above all the other teams. It's a really interesting Worlds, and I think it'll make the whole esports scene better for the viewers and the players, because not only can the players really believe anything can happen in the games, but the fans can also see that the games aren't one-sided. The wins can't be really that predictable. It's really cool to see what's happening this Worlds so far."
CLG finished the first round-robin of the group stage in a three-way tie for first place alongside the Tigers and ANX with a score of 2-1, while European champion G2 Esports is stuck at the bottom without a single win in three tries.
"I think if any team wants to leave Aurelion Sol up against us, it's a pretty big mistake," he said, talking about the champion which starred in the center of CLG's composition against ROX. "As you can see what happened to ROX Tigers."
"I think people like to make quick judgements. Everyone has to make a quick judgement about players and people," he said, taking about the criticism Huhi has received throughout the year. "What happens is the perception started that Huhi was a bad player -- 'Huhi LOL,' [or] 'Huhi Azir LOL' and things like that -- but I actually believe Huhi is a really good player, and he's got a lot of other champions that he's really good at, not just Aurelion Sol."
Even when Huhi makes great plays, Darshan says, it's regarded as OK by the general public. "But he was able to shine this game, and I think we're going to see more performances from him like this going into the rest of Worlds."
Last year, CLG was also 2-1 after the first week of Worlds, yet, when the second week came, everything came crashing down to send them out of the tournament with a 2-4 record. What does Darshan think the team needs to do to avoid a consecutive week two collapse?
"I just think it's ironing out our draft and ironing our preparation for the game," he said. "We came into the ROX game really prepared, we came into the G2 game really prepared, and I felt like since we hadn't seen much of ANX and we weren't really sure what they were going to play, we were kinda unprepared. We weren't too sure of what strategies they had to pull out, and I felt we were at a lower level as a team against ANX. So I think next time we play them, we'll definitely make sure before the games start we have everything prepared and are in the right mindset. So we don't throw the game or make any huge blunders because it's really important we beat ANX."
Darshan doesn't have much to say to the people overlooking Counter Logic Gaming. Even if other teams -- Team SoloMid, SK Telecom T1 and ROX Tigers -- are hyped, he doesn't mind. "I still feel like we can win Worlds," he said.
At the same time, he understands the criticism that might come with such a lofty statement. "It all depends on that game, that moment, how much we put into it beforehand and if we're ready to win. I feel like as long as we have a good draft and as long as we prepare well, there is no team we can't take down.
With that in mind, Darshan is only looking forward. "Everyone wants to be the best, but there's only going to be one team [standing] in a couple of weeks, and I'm going to do everything in my power to make that us."