For those who can't get in.

This is probably one of the most genuine and relevant write up about CLG I've read since I followed the team in season 1. For anyone who's a hardcore fan or who's complaining that we don't enough about the behind the scene action, this is the absolute MUST READ. More than his time on CLG, there’s also old esports history and general NA scene discussion. There's so much information I don't even know where to start. People are going to focus on specific details but I think we should almost dedicate a super thread for this. Anyways, here are my thoughts about it: Link as a person

Holy shit I almost forgot how much of a CLG fanboy Link was. I only remembered Link was this solo Q superstar who played cheesy stuff like nidalee with 3 gp5. He was this hyped up kid who would be the next mid superstar in NA. Link basically lived the CLG fanboy dream. He climbed the ladder, followed the CLG streams and tried to snipe them to prove he was good at this game. And he did. No wonder that he was such a Chauster fanboy, they were very much alike; highly analytical with a very systematic approach to the game. This is very transparent in how he’s describing his view on the game and why he disliked his time on CLG. Link seems to be very focused on viewing the larger picture, truly understanding the meta game and finding the optimal way of playing this game as a team, a unit, whereas his teammates failed to do so for different reasons from his point of view. He’s also similar to Chauster when he says that the perfect player would be able to play in every position and every champion. This explains why he recommended Nien as a top lane player in season 3, 2nd split. “Anyone with mechanics would be able to learn the champions necessary in the meta.” Link and CLG as a whole have valued for most of their history mechanical skills. This is THE reason why CLG has never hesitated to do role swaps and make super “weird” roster changes with people not maining a particular role. This is why Nien was put top, Chauster support/jungle, Aphro support, etc. While it is theoretically true that any player should be able to learn a role if they have mechanics, a lot of people will argue that would be inefficient, require too much time. Personally, I’d argue it isn’t necessary bad (e.g. Aphro became good after a split, Chauster became the best support in the West S2, Nien started to become good after first split). But the problem is, no matter how much mechanics you have, players will always have an affinity for a role because of their personality, psychology, gut feeling or whatever bullshit you want. Even though I think CLG’s philosophy was flawed at its core, I still think it’s interesting to understand what their thought process was. CLG identity

From what Link is saying, CLG is Doublelift. Doublelift is CLG. Whether this means CLG is condemned to never win or that everything must be changed according to DL mindset, Doublelift is the center of this team. “We’d always be in our honeymoon stage then something stupid would happen like a loss then I think the biggest problem was that double always tried to take action. He’d get desperate or the the blame deflect would come up” Link criticizes Doublelift for wanting to the team to be bottom-lane focused but that’s probably because he’s been for the longest time the only lane who would win his lane. Yes, I agree that DL is probably in the wrong for leaving top lane in an island but the fact is his carry mentality got ingrained because the other lanes would fail most of the time. Just picture yourself from Double POV: you’ve consistently been one of the best ADs and relevant internationally since season 2 but the rest of the team is at best average or below the others. Of course you’re going to develop an ego. Yes, Doublelift, as the current oldest player, has the most powerful voice and drags down his whole team whenever he loses confidence but that’s the result of his consistent dominance in the scene. Imo, DL is not acting as a good teammate by relying on himself, the “carry my team” philosophy but at the same time, he developed it because he was the best player in an average team. This is a vicious circle that made Yiliang Peng the person that he is today imo. “Dexter used to make calls but his confidence got crushed by double. In the end he just became like this tool. Nien became a tool.” “At some point double lost respect for him and once he loses respect for ANYONE your’e fucking donezo” I going to trust Link when he says DL had a negative impact on his coworkers but again, I think this is the result of his history in CLG and because of improper coaching (Monte was never present physically to assert his authority). CLG has never had a proper leader. Even Doublelift isn’t a true leader even though he’s the most powerful figure in the team. CLG was in this awkward situation where Link and Aphro made the calls while secretly, the team was giving too much respect to Doublelift whenever they started to lose. This particular dynamic is the reason why they always seem to do well early in the season and fall off during the playoffs. The team structure isn’t bad, but it’s…how to say it differently…wrong. Link says it himself in page 7 when he talks about his time in C9. Every C9 members knows their role, what to do during all parts of the game and they have a clear shotcaller. I don’t even think C9 is superior to CLG individually, but they just have a CLEAR identity. In the season 4 2nd split section, Link complains that Dexter doesn’t know what to do like Meteos. That’s one of the most overlooked thing that reddit never talks about when team rosters are discussed: team synergy. You can have the best mechanics of this world, the best individual players in the world, but if you don’t think in sync if your teammates, you are going to fail. Link and Dexter didn’t click together. Dexter was used to have Nukeduck tell him how to gank, Link, from his time in C9, wanted a jungler who told him what to do. And that’s the REASON why I think Link was bad in CLG. NOT because he always choked during playoffs, NOT because he was average or below average other mid laners, because he was never paired with a jungler who fitted him. Yes, Link has made mistakes and wasn’t perfect as a player but I think he failed mostly because of not being on the same page as Dexter or Xmithie (he also mentions how Xmithie is extremely passive). Still, Link deserves criticism. While I’m confident Link had an integral part in the team’s shotcalling and picks and bans, I still think his laning was subpar and definitely not top 3. Also, I heavily disliked how he disrespected the team for trying out new talent during season 5 1st split. “I was at this point thinking about quitting because I don’t really want to play with a team that doesn’t trust me.” While I understand that he thought that he was still top 3 material, I don’t understand why he didn’t appreciate the tryouts. He talked about Montecristo failed attempt to coach the term and to get to people but at the same time he laughed at Scarra’s attempt to find new talents. If he did indeed think he wasn’t the only one to choke during playoffs, all he had to do was to prove himself again to be the best mid available instead of complaining of not being trusted. Also, when Link says he wasn’t respected as in game leader and for picks and bans, I think this is partially his fault. He failed to become a strong voice and overcome Double’s influence in the team. Yes, everyone follows Doublelift’s mentality but at the same time, a leader should be able to change a team dynamic and convince/persuade everyone he should be listened to. "I was the one that told the team that urgot/nautilus/sejuani/vlad/cho/lulu were going to be the “in” because I watched so much korean soloq/lpl/ogn". But yet nobody listened to him because he wasn’t convincing enough. This can be blamed on management too, but Link has always been too much of a cerebral player to ever be respected as a leader. Conclusion

Even though Doublelift has always been my favorite player and the best player in CLG’s history, I think CLG will never be successful as long as Doublelift stays in this team. Or at least, as long as Doublelift doesn’t find the perfect players that can complement him. His influence is too big and it seems too late at this point to change his way of thinking. Whether a new player, new management or new coach could change him, I do not know, but it seems like Doublelift is never really going to change who he is as long as he stays in CLG. Double changes how top laner play the game, changed Link’s playstyle and champ pool, changed Aphro from playing support correctly (aka roaming) and potentially becoming #1 support NA according to Link. I think he’s exaggerating the extent of the blame this has to be put on Double but he he’s right overall imo. What CLG needs is not the strongest mid laner in the world, imo, the team needs a shotcaller/leader that everyone respects. CLG needs an identity, players that knows exactly what they are, what they should and how they can improve as a TEAM. CLG needs a strong, authoritative, smart coach who obviously knows about team strategy but also how a team functions. The coach should be respected and followed perfectly. What CLG needs is synergy/trust between his players, but at the same time, trust is gained by having good players in a team...Welp, you know what, I don't truly know what CLG needs. Because I'm just a fucking redditor who knows jackshit about running a professional esports team. However, I think the fact that Link got removed will be interesting. The team dynamic is going to certainly change. Link has always been the shotcaller and this is going to change with Pobelter/Huhi. I don't what POB role was in Winterfox, but the team dynamic is going to be different. I guess I'll keep believing in the potential, the Golden Age, have faith!