Taipei Assassins ( TPA ) was a Taiwanese professional League of Legends team. It competed in the Garena Premier League (GPL) and later the League of Legends Master Series . It won the Season 2 World Championship in 2012. From 2013 to 2014, the team was known as "Azubu Taipei Assassins" due to its sponsorship by streaming website Azubu . Taipei Assassins was the sister team of Taipei Snipers, another GPL team.
109-466: Support player "MiSTakE" met top laner "Stanley" while playing in the League of Legends ranked solo queue ladder. Shortly after connecting, their mutual friend "colalin" introduced them to "NeXAbc" and former Counter Logic Gaming player "Lilballz". Together with mid laner "A8000", they formed their team, For The Win (FTW), with MiSTakE as team captain. FTW's first event was Garena's G1 esports competition. At
218-439: A Riot Games Season 4 World Championship seed . Following a second loss to Team Dignitas, CLG dropped into the following split's promotion tournament, where they defeated Curse Academy in an extremely close series. Shortly afterwards, on October 13, 2014, dexter announced that he would not renew his contract for the following split. On October 31, 2014, the organization announced that William " Scarra " Li would be joining as
327-591: A round-robin tournament . The first of these was Star Ladder Star Series Season 1, running from March 12 to April 29, 2012. Counter Logic Gaming placed third in the group stage , beating Darer at playoffs before losing to both Natus Vincere and Moscow Five in the Winners Bracket and Losers Bracket Finals, finishing third. The second and third of the tournaments were ProDOTA World League Season 1 and The Premier League Season 2, taking place from April 13 to August 5, and April 17 to July 8, 2012, respectively. In
436-605: A disappointing 2–0 loss against Chinese powerhouse Team WE, and a surprising loss to amateur team Positive Energy, especially after their 2–0 victory against them in the group stage. This unfortunate outcome was directly linked by many people to Lilballz's inability to adapt to the Season 3 jungle meta. TPA eventually finished the Spring Split of the GPL 27–1, losing only 1 game to SGS, which people again linked directly to Lilballz. On 18 May, TPA
545-404: A fair number of offline qualifiers. During Season 5, qualifiers were held for North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia regions. Those who qualify for the finals are placed into two groups of six, of which the top two advance. The first place member of each group goes directly to the semifinals, and the second and third place members go into the quarterfinals. The Intel Extreme Masters are run by
654-537: A fifth/sixth-place finish. After only six days of rest, the team flew out to Jönköping, Sweden to participate in DreamHack Summer 2012 . In the group stage, CLG.EU placed first, defeating Moscow Five , Absolute Legends, and Mebdi's Minions, and then defeated FnaticRC to advance to the Grand Final . There, CLG.EU defeated Moscow Five once again in dominating fashion, securing their first major offline title. After
763-483: A formal five-man roster, made up of "HotshotGG", Michael "bigfatjiji" Tang, Steve "Chauster" Chau, Sam "Kobe24" Hartman-Kenzler, and Cody "Elementz" Sigfusson. The team's first offline accomplishment was a win at World Cyber Games 2010 , taking the final series against European powerhouse SK Gaming . Shortly afterwards in April 2011, Kobe24 retired from professional gaming, and Brandon "Saintvicious" DiMarco took his place on
872-566: A free pass out of the group stage based on a random drawing. In the quarterfinals, TPA faced off against the Korean team NaJin Sword. Despite being underdogs after NaJin Sword's strong group stage showing, the Assassins were able to come out with a victory, winning both games dominantly. They advanced to the semifinals against heavy tournament favorites Moscow Five. Alex Ich's Evelynn play caught TPA off guard in
981-555: A large advantage early game. However, Toyz turned the tide of the game with a spot-on Orianna ultimate during a close Dragon fight, which decimated SGS and their chances at the title. In the end, Taipei Assassins secured 1st place at the event, going 3–1 and taking home the championship ring. On 29 November and 2 December, the Assassins competed in IPL 5 in Las Vegas. During the group stages, TPA defeated Thai hopefuls Blackbean, giving "BeBe" one of
1090-605: A major shareholder in NRG. On November 8, 2011, Counter Logic Gaming was disqualified from the MLG Providence 2011 Qualifiers. Having won their qualification match against RFLXGaming, it transpired that the team had fielded Luis "Lapaka" Perez in place of Ho-jin "Lilac" Jeon. Lapaka was registered as the team leader for AbsoluteLegends, another team in the tournament, and had played in a match between AbsoluteLegends and Team SoloMid . MLG ruled that CLG's decision to illegally use Lapaka as
1199-493: A month later, the ex-AbsoluteLegends roster chose to stay with CLG, as Counter Logic Gaming Europe. On February 2, 2012, the organization announced that it had acquired the Dota 2 roster of Swedish team eXperience Gaming. In May of that year, Georgallidis created a CLG League of Legends B team , known as Counter Logic Gaming Black. On July 2, 2012, HotshotGG stepped down from the position of active CEO of Counter Logic Gaming, citing
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#17328590081251308-399: A permanent roster spot to Aphromoo. In the 2014 NA LCS Spring Split, CLG ended the regular season with the record of 18–10, placing third below rivals Cloud9 and Team SoloMid . CLG finished third at playoffs after losing to Team SoloMid and defeating Team Curse . Following this performance, Nientonsoh decided to step down from the starting line up, stating that he was unable to handle
1417-584: A ringer for their match against RFLXGaming warranted disqualification and confiscation of all prize money. On August 12, 2014, Riot Games ' Nick Allen announced that four members of Counter Logic Gaming's League of Legends team were to be fined US$ 1,250 for violating the League of Legends Championship Series rule associated with account sharing during their stay in Korea. These same players were also banned from Ongamenet (OGN) and Korean e-Sports Association -owned tournaments for two years. On December 10, 2014, CLG
1526-424: A string of domestic victories, CLG participated in their second international LAN tournament , IEM Season VI Cologne . The team defeated Team SoloMid in the Grand Final , and claimed victory. In November 2011, after a disappointing domestic run, including disqualification from MLG Providence 2011 , CLG benched Elementz, adding Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng to their active roster. However, in order to participate in
1635-421: A sub for the entirely of the previous split, while Pobelter left the team shortly afterwards. On October 28, it was announced that Blurred Limes had been released from the organization, with "a breach of trust" cited as the mean reason behind the decision. On October 31, it was announced that Doublelift had been released after four years of being involved with the organization. Attitude problems and conflict within
1744-510: A sub position. On November 7 it was announced that Aphromoo and Brian "TrickZ" Ahn would temporarily fill CLG's vacancies for the upcoming Intel Extreme Masters Season VIII Cologne . CLG took fourth at the event, falling in the semifinals to Fnatic . The organization announced that TrickZ would not remain with the team coming into 2014. Before the start of the 2014 Spring Split, CLG solidified their roster by picking up Marcel "dexter" Feldkamp, formerly of European team Lemondogs, and also offered
1853-410: A substitute, and so failed to qualify for the following North American Challenger Series Summer Split. On November 5, 2015, it was announced that CLG Black was once again recruiting, with Thinkcard as the only returning player. On December 10, Tony "ZIkz" Gray confirmed a final roster of I KeNNy U, Thinkcard, Tyson "Innox" Kapler, Yuri "KEITHMCBRIEF" Jew and Petar "Unlimited" Georgiev in a comment on
1962-652: A successful year in the European Challenger Circuit, accruing a large number of circuit points, Counter Logic Gaming Europe was one of eight European teams to qualify for the Riot Season 2 European Regionals in August 2012, and flew out to Germany to compete for a spot at the Riot Games Season 2 World Championship . Despite being the heavy favorites coming into the event, CLG.EU fell to SK Gaming, dropping down in
2071-428: A wish to focus more on his game-play, and was replaced by his mother, Helen Georgallidis. In October 2012, CLG's Dota 2 team officially disbanded, with most of the players having left weeks before. Less than three months later, in late December, CLG.EU elected not to re-sign their contracts, instead signing with Evil Geniuses . The organization also disbanded CLG Black, leaving the original League of Legends team as
2180-636: A worldwide tournament, billing it as the Intel Extreme Masters. In 2007, when established, the IEM established a format of many smaller qualifying events, leading up to a large final event that is held at CeBIT . All of the Grand Finals have been held at CeBIT. Starting in 2008, the Tournament was billed as being worldwide, boasting participants from Europe, North America, and Asia. Although Counterstrike 1.6
2289-519: Is a series of international esports tournaments held in countries around the world. These Electronic Sports League (ESL) sanctioned events, sponsored by Intel , as of 2024 currently host events in Counter-Strike 2 and StarCraft II . Other game titles were hosted in the past. The body that owns the league is Savvy Games Group . The League has operated 17 seasons as of 2023 . The highest tier of events, known as Masters Championships, are held in
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#17328590081252398-456: The 2012 OGN Spring Championship . Having qualified for the playoffs, CLG fell in the first round to eventual champions MiG Blaze, and on April 25, 2012, the team moved back to North America. Citing internal tensions between players Saintvicious, HotshotGG, and Chauster, CLG made a roster change in May 2012, removing Saintvicious, and adding Joedat "Voyboy" Esfahani from Team Dignitas . Two days later,
2507-419: The 2012 OGN Summer Championship . The team lost in their first group stage game to Counter Logic Gaming Europe. Despite this early loss, they qualified for the playoffs , and were eliminated by Korean team Azubu Frost. Despite no longer competing in Korea, CLG Prime remained the country to practice for the upcoming North American Regional Finals. There, after falling to Team SoloMid and defeating Team Curse in
2616-506: The 2015 Summer NA LCS and 2016 Spring NA LCS . The team also attended the 2012 , 2015 and 2016 League of Legends World Championships , and was eliminated in the group stage on each occasion. The organization also fielded Smite , Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), Super Smash Bros. , Fortnite , H1Z1 , Valorant , Dota 2 , Overwatch , Hearthstone , Rocket League , Halo , Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege , and Call of Duty teams. The organization
2725-422: The 2016 League of Legends World Championships . On December 20, 2011, Counter Logic Gaming and European organization Absolute Legends announced a merger. The roster of Mike "Wickd" Petersen, Stephen "Snoopeh" Ellis, Henrik "Froggen" Hansen , Peter "Yellowpete" Wüppen, and Mitch "Krepo" Voorspoels became Counter Logic Gaming Europe. A month later, on January 30, 2012, the two organizations decided to separate, but
2834-539: The Losers Bracket . The team fought through the Losers Bracket, and faced Team Dynamic in the finals, losing once again, and finishing second. On August 25, 2012, after a second round loss to Team Dignitas , Counter Logic Gaming Black faced Team Dynamic once more in the quarterfinals of the 2012 MLG Summer Championship, using Jason "WildTurtle" Tran in place of LiNk, who was unable to attend, and were beaten. This
2943-535: The NBA team New York Knicks and the NHL team New York Rangers acquired a controlling stake in CLG. On April 3, 2023, independent League of Legends reporter Travis Gafford reported that CLG would be closing its esports operations, laying off its staff, and laying off all of its teams, including the sale of its LCS slot. On April 6, 2023, NRG Esports acquired CLG, with MSG becoming
3052-563: The Shoot to Kill (now Final Boss) Halo roster, including professional Halo veteran Tom "OGRE 2" Ryan , branded under the name Counter Logic Gaming Halo. In January 2015, the organization also acquired the ex-mouseSpaz Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster as CLG.CS, and reestablished the CLG Black brand that same month. On June 14, 2015, the organization expanded into Super Smash Bros. Melee , picking up Kevin "PewPewU" Toy. On July 7, 2015,
3161-695: The third place match . After a fairly successful domestic run, including victory in Season 2 of the National ESL Premier League , CLG participated in the IEM Season VI World Championship in March 2012. Placing second in the group stage and losing to Russian team Moscow Five in the semifinals, CLG narrowly defeated aAa in the third place match. On March 12, 2012, CLG moved into a temporary gaming house in South Korea to participate in
3270-660: The /r/CLG subreddit . Three days later, the team was knocked out of the 2016 NACS Spring Split Open Qualifier by Team Liquid Academy, once again failing to qualify. The team has since been disbanded. Counter Logic Gaming's potential expansion into Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was first discussed publicly in a December 2014 interview of George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis, who commented, "We're looking at all avenues. Right now we're really interested in CS:GO and Dota 2 , and hopefully we'll be expanding to those areas very soon." This ambition became reality when, in early 2015, CLG signed
3379-752: The 2011 World Cyber Games, video game developer Garena took notice of the team's strong performance and offered to become the team's official sponsor. On 9 March 2012, Garena acquired FTW's roster and rebranded them as the Taipei Assassins. Approximately one month after their official sponsorship began with Garena, Taipei Assassins underwent several roster changes. The team first welcomed AD carry "bebeisadog" and mid laner "Toyz" . Support player colalin and mid laner NeXAbc then moved to substitute positions. Team captain MiSTakE also transitioned from AD carry to support. On 15 July 2012, Taipei Assassins took first place at
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3488-538: The 2014 GPL Summer started, TPA acquired Chawy from Singapore Sentinels as the substitute mid laner. They finished the group stage with 9 wins and 1 loss. TPA then managed to win against Insidious Gaming Rebirth (3–0); Saigon Fantastic Five (3–1); and ahq (3–0) to become the champion of the tournament the third time, getting the #1 seed of Taiwan & SEA Region in the World Championship 2014 . Taiwanese singer Jay Chou announced on 19 April 2016 that he had acquired
3597-541: The 2016 NA LCS Summer Playoffs coming to a close, Team SoloMid swept CLG in the semifinals 3–0. This however sent CLG to play Immortals at the Air Canada Centre (Toronto, Canada) in the coveted 3rd place match, with crucial circuit points at stake. On August 27, 2016, CLG fell to IMT in 5 games to place 4th overall during the 2016 Summer Playoffs. With a TSM Victory over Cloud9 on August 28, 2016, CLG auto-qualified (off circuit points) as North America's 2nd seed at
3706-413: The Assassins faced CLG EU. The Europeans won a fast-paced opener and held a clear advantage throughout most of the second game. However, after Bebe finished his core build on Caitlyn, TPA managed to take a team fight and the game. In the third game, the Assassins again prevailed in a long drawn out game, eliminating CLG EU from the IPL 5. TPA then defeated M5 2–0, making it their fifth consecutive win against
3815-503: The Corsair Vengeance Cup, In2LOL Kickoff EU, and Absolute Pro League March. On June 10, 2012, Counter Logic Gaming Europe flew to Anaheim, California to participate in the 2012 MLG Spring Championships. Beaten out of the Winners Bracket by Team SoloMid , CLG.EU defeated both Team Curse EU and Orbit Gaming to advance to round six of the Losers Bracket , where they fell to Counter Logic Gaming Prime , going home with
3924-615: The European roster elected to stay under the Counter Logic Gaming brand. The team's first challenge would be in the Kings of Europe online tournament, placing first after defeating Russian juggernauts Moscow Five in the final. The team experienced immense regional success over the next few months, consistently beating top European teams FnaticRC , Moscow Five, against All authority, and SK Gaming , and winning several tournaments, including
4033-591: The GIGABYTE Esports LAN on June 15, 2012. Despite a loss to Team SoloMid in the group stages, strong showings against Team Green Forest and Team Curse allowed the team to advance to the playoffs. There, after reaching the finals, CLG Black lost to Team SoloMid once again, taking second place. On July 14, 2012, CLG Black participated in Leaguecraft ggClassic #2. Having advanced to the playoffs, they defeated Curse Gaming , but lost to Team Dynamic, dropping into
4142-507: The GPL. TPA managed to take the first two games without much trouble, with Stanley constantly split pushing and outmaneuvering the opposition. SGS pulled out an interesting shield strategy in Game 3, with "Chawy" on "Karma" in mid lane. The strategy caught TPA off guard, and SGS managed to end the game in a rout of the Taiwanese squad. The Sentinels attempted a similar strategy in Game 4, again acquiring
4251-588: The IGN ProLeague Season 5 Taiwanese Qualifiers. In the group stage, Taipei Assassins finished first, going 3–0 by defeating AllLaneCarry, TimeToTerminate, and HaNa. In the offline playoffs of the qualifiers, Taipei Assassins went undefeated, taking out WhyTrollMe 2–0 in the semifinals and Corsair 2–0 in the grand finals to take first place. Taipei Assassins competed in the Season Two Regionals in Taipei. In
4360-619: The LMS spot of Taipei Assassins for his new esports organization, J Team . Taipei Assassins disbanded that same day. As of this edit , this article uses content from "Taipei Assassins" , which is licensed in a way that permits reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License , but not under the GFDL . All relevant terms must be followed. Counter Logic Gaming Counter Logic Gaming ( CLG )
4469-587: The North American Pro Division Offline Qualifier. There, losses to Team EnVyUs and Team Kaliber would force CLG to attempt qualification in a second online stage. The team was one of four to qualify online, and secure a spot in the 2016 CWL. On February 2, 2012, Counter Logic Gaming picked up the unsigned eXperience Gaming roster, made up of Jonathan "Loda" Berg, Joakim "Akke" Akterhall, Jesper "Mirakel" Nyhlén, Per Anders Olsson "Pajkatt" Lille, and Alexander "Pinoy" Pettersson, under
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4578-502: The Round of 32 group stage, Taipei Assassins took first place in their group, going 3–0 by defeating 301 英雄聯盟 , TeamMarlboroClassicS, and TheCradleOfVictory. Advancing to the Round-of-8 group stage, Taipei Assassins once again went undefeated, going 3–0 and taking first in their group, defeating AllLaneCarry, 皮卡丘打毛線 , and TheoryOfEvolution. In the playoffs, Taipei Assassins took out MksZ 2–0 in
4687-688: The Russian team. In the semifinals TPA was once again outmaneuvered and overrun by FnaticRC, falling 0–2. Taipei Assassins took 3rd place at the event with $ 7,500 in winnings. After winning 2012's GPL, TPA was invited to the 2013 Spring and Summer split of the GPL. On 10 January, TPA was invited to participate in the GIGABYTE StarsWar League Season 2. TPA had a good performance in the group stage, going 3–1–1, winning against Positive Energy, LGD Gaming, and Royal Club Huang Zu, while tying against Najin Sword and losing to MVP Ozone. However, they showed
4796-625: The additions to their roster, CLG Dota took part in The Defense Season 2. CLG finished second in their group behind Quantic Gaming, qualifying for the playoff stage. There they defeated mTw and mousesports to reach the Winners Bracket Final, where they lost to compLexity Gaming . The team met mousesports again in the Losers Bracket Final, but was defeated, taking home third place. On September 29, 2012, Counter Logic Gaming
4905-538: The all-female ex-Ubinite roster was announced as CLG Red, a second Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team, and on August 6, 2015, the organization announced that Devin "Mylixia" Nash had become the new CEO, while HotshotGG became the President/Owner of Counter Logic Gaming. On December 2, 2015, the organization announced that they had expanded into Call of Duty by acquiring the roster of Denial eSports . On July 31, 2017, Madison Square Garden Sports , owners of
5014-411: The bracket to play for the final worlds seed against Fnatic . The team took a clean victory, and secured themselves a spot in the Season 2 World Championship. Later that month Counter Logic Gaming EU was one of two European teams invited to attend the 2012 OGN Summer Championship . The team went undefeated in group play, going 3–0 against CLG Prime, LG-IM, and MVP Blue. CLG.EU defeated World Elite in
5123-400: The champion of the tournament once again. TPA was also invited to IEM Season VIII - World Championship but got only the 5th/6th place along with Invictus Gaming. TPA then acquired Winds from Taipei Snipers as the new jungler. They came to All-Star Paris 2014 as Taiwan & SEA representative but they got a bad tournament with 4 losses against Cloud 9, Fnatic, SK Telecom T1 K, and OMG. Before
5232-439: The decision that Lilballz was to be replaced by their new jungler Sarsky. Since IPL 5, TPA was in the doldrums. Therefore, the team desired to win tournaments, so much pressure was made and led to the team playing under a bad atmosphere. After TPA showing some bad results against teams in the 2013 GPL Summer, Garena announced that Stanley was released from TPA and Toyz retired from competitive League of Legends on 30 June 2013. At
5341-625: The ex-mouseSpaz roster of Tarik "tarik" Celik, James "Hazed" Cobb, Stephen "reltuC" Cutler, Pujan "FNS" Mehta, and Peter "ptr" Gurney as CLG.CS. The team's first major event under the CLG banner was the first of three annual majors , ESL One Katowice 2015 , where they dropped out in the group stages of the tournament. The team had decent success over the next few months, winning the CEVO Season 6 LAN Finals, and coming in fifth/sixth place at ESEA Global Finals Season 18 , losing to European teams Fnatic and mousesports . This middling level of success
5450-494: The final. Catherine "CAth" Leroux left the team on May 29, 2016. Klaudia "klaudia" Beczkiewicz joined as a player and Erik "da_bears" Stromberg joined as a coach on August 24, 2016. da_bears left the team six months later on February 14, 2017, who would be replaced by Cody "cubed" Thaw as head coach along with players Jennifer "refinnej" Le and Emma "Emy" Choe, replacing missharvey and klaudia. On February 13, 2018, CLG Red signed Lily "ProMise9k" Chen, to replace potter who had left
5559-436: The first contest and put Moscow Five one game up in the series, but TPA rallied and took the next two games to win, earning a spot in the grand finals opposite Azubu Frost . The Assassins once again dropped the first game in the set, but Frost folded under TPA's stellar coordination and relentless pressure throughout the next three games. TPA beat the Korean squad three games to one, securing the championship title and taking home
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#17328590081255668-596: The former, CLG Dota placed third in the European group stage, and beat Orange Esports and Team Infused in the playoffs, before losing to PotM Bottom in both the Winners Bracket and Grand Finals , taking home second. In the latter, which was a round-robin tournament, the team finished second behind Natus Vincere. On May 18, 2012, In the middle of these two tournaments, Loda and smulgulig left the team, and CLG picked up Rasmus "MiSeRy" Filipsen and Dominik "Lacoste" Stipic to replace them. From June 21 to August 12, 2012, after
5777-511: The gap to the last major of the year, DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca , where Counter Logic Gaming was knocked out of their group by Natus Vincere. The remainder of the year brought equally disappointing results for the team, culminating in a last place finish at the ESL ESEA Pro League Season 2 Finals . Shortly after, on December 15, the organization announced that it was looking for a new fifth member, after FNS decided to step down from
5886-506: The heavy criticism from the public. On May 19, 2014, after considerable speculation, Korean import Wu-Yeong "Seraph" Shin was officially announced as the team's fifth member. With its third-place finish in the Spring, CLG was able to compete in the 2014 NA LCS Summer Split. For five weeks in the mid-season, CLG held first place and peaked at a 13–7 record. However, toward the end of the split their form began to decline, and days before Week 11 of
5995-755: The moniker CLG Black, made up of Jonathan "Westrice" Nguyen, Thomas "Thinkcard" Slotkin, Brandon "Easy" Doyle, Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes , and Kenny "I KeNNy u" Nguyen. The team defeated Rock Bottom Gorillas and Team Liquid Academy In the North American Challenger Series Spring Qualifier, successfully qualifying for the Spring Split of the Riot Games NA Challenger Series, the second tier of professional League of Legends in North America. Westrice announced his retirement from professional play on February 24, 2015, before
6104-405: The name CLG Dota. On March 2, 2012, exactly a month later, Johan "smulgullig" Gidmark replaced Pinoy after the former acted as a stand-in for the team for minor online events. From March to August, after success in relatively minor online tournaments, CLG Dota's schedule was dominated by various more prolific online tournaments, either of the form of a group stage followed by playoff finals, or of
6213-450: The nation-locked 2011 World Cyber Games , CLG formed a temporary all-Canadian team. Elementz returned to the roster for the event, and Team Solomid players Shan "Chaox" Huang and Brian "TheOddOne" Wyllie made up the rest of this temporary roster, alongside CLG members bigfatlp and HotshotGG. CLG was beaten by the Polish team in the semifinals, but was able to triumph over French team Millenium in
6322-693: The new year, CLG.EU decided not to renew their contract, and parted ways with the Counter Logic Gaming organization. On January 25, 2013, the team announced that they had joined Evil Geniuses . On April 30, 2012, Counter Logic Gaming announced that it was looking for players to form a League of Legends B team . The roster for this team, Counter Logic Gaming Black, was finalized on May 12, 2012, made up of Devon "Hoodstomp" Mark and Austin "LiNk" Shin of Orbit Gaming , Lyubomir "Bloodwater" Spasov of 4Not.Fire, Christopher "Zuna" Buechter of mTw.NA, and Benny "Sycho Sid" Hung. After strong showings in various online events, CLG Black attended their first offline tournament,
6431-512: The one million dollar grand prize. Riot later released a set of TPA-themed skins for each of the champions they played in Game Four of the Finals. Shortly after the conclusion of Season 2, TPA announced the addition of two more players onto their roster. "Zonda" was brought in as a substitute for top lane while GoDJJ joined as a second AD player; the changes suggested the formation of a second squad under
6540-516: The only roster under the Counter Logic Gaming banner. CEO Helen Georgallidis and COO Robert "CyberBob" Del Papa resigned with these announcements, and Kelby May was promoted to general manager for the organization. Kelby remained at CLG for two years until September 2014, when he stepped down; Matthew "MaTTcom" Marikian was promoted to general manager, while Bryan "bchenN" Chen was hired as the director of finance and operations. On November 10, 2014, Counter Logic Gaming announced that they had acquired
6649-658: The organization announced that they had signed PewPewU's friend and doubles partner, North California–based Melee player Zac "SFAT" Cordini, making them among the first established Super Smash Bros. duos to be signed to the same organization. New Jersey–based competitive Smash 4 player and content creator Richard "Keitaro" King Jr. joined Counter Logic Gaming as a video editor on March 9, 2016. Southern California –based Smash 4 player James "VoiD" Makekau-Tyson joined on June 16, 2016. New York Super Smash Bros. Melee player Cody Schwab joined on January 20, 2023. Louisiana based Melee player Sasha "Magi" Sullivan joined
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#17328590081256758-486: The organization expanded into Super Smash Bros. , picking up Northern California –based Melee player Kevin "PewPewU" Toy. He attended June's CEO 2015 and July's EVO 2015 under the Counter Logic Gaming brand, placing ninth place in the individual categories of each. He also placing third in doubles of the former and first place at EVO. On October 23, 2015, Counter Logic Gaming signed New Jersey –based Smash 4 player Tyrell "NAKAT" Coleman. On December 16, 2015,
6867-471: The organization in the near future. Taipei Assassins attended the 2012 GPL Season 1 playoffs on 17 November in Singapore. They were seeded directly into the finals of the three-team tournament, being the number one seed holding a 38–2 record throughout the regular season. The Singapore Sentinels managed to defeat Saigon Jokers in the semi-finals, setting the stage for a showdown between the two strongest teams in
6976-407: The plan being to alternate between the two. On May 28, 2015, Chris "Blurred Limes" Ehrenreich was announced as the new head coach of the team, while existing analyst Tony "Zikz" Gray was moved to a new position, Strategic Coach. CLG had their best regular NA LCS split yet in the summer of 2015, finishing in second place with a record of 13–5. Their record gave the team an automatic playoff bye into
7085-540: The quarterfinals and NaJin Sword in the semifinals. Matched up against Azubu Frost in the final series of the tournament, CLG.EU almost took victory before losing three games in a row, and was only able to take home second place. Counter Logic Gaming EU traveled to Los Angeles in October 2012 to compete in the Riot Games Season 2 World Championship . In the group stage, CLG.EU looked dominant while taking games off of Team Dignitas and Saigon Jokers. Advancing out of Group B as
7194-480: The quarterfinals to Team Liquid , and ended up in fifth place. Shortly after the playoffs ended, Scarra resigned as head coach on April 17, 2015. Less than a month later, LiNk also left, releasing a public statement about his time with CLG, in which he criticized almost every player, as well as the management and the coaching staff. The next day, the organization announced that they had replaced LiNk with two players, Eugene "Pobelter" Park and Jae-hyun "HuHi" Choi, with
7303-432: The recruitment of Darshan "ZionSpartan" Upadhyaya. CLG was fined $ 2,000 by Riot, while Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng was fined US$ 2,500 for encouraging the violation. Furthermore, the team was restricted from fielding ZionSpartan for the first week of the 2015 LCS. Counter Logic Gaming began as a group of ten League of Legends players in April 2010, originally including Andy "Reginald" Dinh , among others, but solidified as
7412-594: The revamped CLG roster, who ended the regular season in sixth place with a record of 13–15, scraping into playoffs. A loss in their first series against long-time rivals Team SoloMid meant they could no longer qualify for the Season 3 World Championship . The team claimed fifth/sixth place in the playoffs by beating Team Curse, and secured requalification for the next season of the NA LCS. On October 23, Chauster announced his retirement from competitive play, while bigfatlp moved back to
7521-419: The roster. CLG announced Jacob "FugLy" Medina as their new fifth player and Faruk "pita" Pita as their head coach on January 20, 2016. FugLy left the team on March 13, 2016. Kenneth "koosta" Suen replaced jdm64 on June 13, 2016. After ELeague Season 1 on July 14, 2016, Tarik "tarik" Celik and Faruk "pita" Pita departed from the team's active roster. Ethan "nahtE" Arnold and Yassine "Subroza" Taoufik joined
7630-563: The same time, Jay and Achie join TPA to solve the roster vacancy. TPA lost the chance to go to the Season 3 World Championship after they lost 0–2 vs. Gamania Bears in the lower bracket of the S3 Taipei Qualifiers. They ended their bad season 3 with a loss against ahq in the 2013 GPL Championship. In the beginning of Season 4, TPA acquired "Morning" from Wayi Spider as the new mid laner; while "BeBe" switched back to AD Carry and "DinTer" became
7739-631: The second seed, the team faced World Elite in the round of eight. This match was marred by technical issues and had to be postponed due to power failures and connection problems. In the deciding third game, CLG.EU were finally able to secure victory. The team maintained their form through the first game of their semifinal against Azubu Frost, but were outmatched in games two and three, losing out overall. They finished in third/fourth place and were awarded prize money of $ 150,000. On November 29, 2012, Counter Logic Gaming EU attended IPL 5 in Las Vegas , and began
7848-472: The semifinals and then played a show match with the visiting CLG EU, which they lost. The Assassins continued their streak and defeated Corsair 2–0 in the grand finals, qualifying for the Season 2 World Championship in Los Angeles. Taipei Assassins participated in the Season 2 World Championship held from 4 to 13 October 2012 in Los Angeles. Of the five regional champions, four teams, including TPA, were given
7957-452: The semifinals, where they were able to sweep Team Impulse , matching CLG against rivals Team SoloMid in their first NA LCS final. In the final, Counter Logic Gaming swept their long-term rivals, and became NA LCS champions for the first time, while Doublelift won the first LAN event of his five-year career. The team also secured the first North American seed to the 2015 League of Legends World Championship . Although they were drawn into what
8066-404: The signings of Vivienne "BiBiAhn" Quach, Coline "Kaoday" Le Floc'h and Marissa "madss" Dasta, playing alongside GooseBreeder and uhKelsie. The replacements marked the departures of di^, Emy and Juli. On April 6, 2023, Counter Logic Gaming disbanded the roster, with the players of CLG Red announcing that they had been released by the organization and had become free agents. On June 14, 2015,
8175-485: The split began, coach MonteCristo announced that the team would spend a number of weeks " bootcamping " in Korea to prepare for playoffs and a prospective World Championship spot. In the 2014 NA LCS Summer Playoffs, CLG entered with considerable expectations after their stint in South Korea. The team was heavily favored to take their initial series from Team Curse , but was cleanly beaten, and eliminated from contention for
8284-547: The start of the split, and was replaced by Samson "Lourlo" Jackson. After placing last in Spring, CLG Black was forced to participate in the qualifier for the Summer Split. William "Scarra" Li replaced Easy in the off-season , playing his first official match on June 3, 2015. After winning the first game of the qualifier, "Stixxay" was banned by Riot Games for two weeks due to his in-game behavior. Counter Logic Gaming Black lost both subsequent games, using Parsa "Frost" Baghai as
8393-618: The starting roster. As one of the top three teams from the North American region, CLG auto-qualified for the newly created Riot Games NA League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS), the Spring Split of which began February 27, 2013. Following a regular season placement of fourth with a record of 13–15, the team was knocked into the Summer Promotion Tournament following defeat in the playoffs. CLG won their promotion match against bigfatlp's challenger team, Azure Cats, and
8502-406: The substitute. On 11 October, Lilballz got a ban from Garena since he is caught from elo-boosting and retired right after the ban is active. From November 2013 to January 2014, TPA competed in the 2014 GPL Winter. They finished the group stage with 8 wins and 2 losses. They managed to beat Full Louis (3–0), Saigon Jokers (3–2), and Taipei Snipers (3–2) in the knock out stages and became the champion of
8611-654: The summer in Cologne , Germany and in the new year in Katowice , Poland and offer the most prize money. Other events, known as Masters events, are held in numerous cities around the globe, which have included Dallas , Shanghai and Sydney . The Intel Extreme Masters are a product of the ESL. In 2006, when the Intel sponsored European tournament saw room for expansion outside of Europe, especially in North American markets, Intel provided funds for
8720-429: The team May 27, 2020. On July 9, 2020, CLG Red announced the signing of Juliana "Juli" Tosic, following the departure of bENITA in May. Viktor "flashie" Tamás Bea became the roster's final head coach on December 20, 2020. On November 1, 2021, refinnej left the roster, followed by the addition of Kelsie "uhKelsie" Click on December 13, 2021. The final iteration of the roster would be completed on August 12, 2022, with
8829-460: The team a month prior. She would leave two months later, being replaced by missharvey on May 15. CLG Red announced the signing of Mounira "GooseBreeder" Dobie on July 12, 2018, utilizing a six-woman roster. CAth would return to the roster as a trial, replacing bENITA on the starting roster, on May 29, 2019. Head coach Stephan "vEz" Vezina, who had joined in July 2018 to replace cubed, parted ways with
8938-409: The team announced a name change from Counter Logic Gaming to Counter Logic Gaming Prime, to differentiate themselves from the organization's second North American League of Legends team, Counter Logic Gaming Black. In June 2012, the newly named CLG Prime attended MLG Anaheim 2012 , falling to rivals Team SoloMid in the finals. CLG Prime was one of two North American teams to be invited to compete in
9047-478: The team made it to the semifinals of the tournament, before being knocked out by Cloud9 . The team qualified for ESL One Cologne 2015 on August 2, 2015, as one of only two North American teams attending. CLG.CS performed surprisingly well at the event, but close losses against European powerhouses Ninjas in Pyjamas and Natus Vincere sent them out in the group stages. A string of mediocre domestic results bridged
9156-613: The team on August 17, 2016. On November 30, 2017, CLG announced that the organization would be parting with the CS:GO team. On July 5, 2015, Counter Logic Gaming announced that they had signed the ex-Ubinited roster of Christine "potter" Chi, Diane "di^" Tran, Benita "bENITA" Novshadian, Catherine "CAth" Leroux-Racette, Stephanie "missharvey" Harvey as a second, all-female, Counter -Strike: Global Offensive team, called CLG Red. Six days later, CLG.CS Red placed first at Electronic Sports World Cup 2015 CSGO Women , beating out Games4u.se Female in
9265-458: The team on March 9, 2023. On December 2, 2015, Counter Logic Gaming announced that they had expanded into Call of Duty, after buying the roster of Anthony "Methodz" Zinni, Michael "Blfire" Glushenok, Aaron "CMPLX" Vetelino, and Tyler "FeLony" Johnson from Denial eSports . The team's primary goal was participation in Stage 1 of the 2016 Call of Duty World League (CWL), to which end they attended
9374-407: The team were cited as the main motivators. Doublelift was announced as the newest member of Team SoloMid shortly afterwards. On November 11, 2015, former analyst and strategic coach Zikz was announced as CLG's new head coach, and on November 20, 2015, the organization announced that Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes , formerly of CLG Black, would be the fifth player for the team at IEM San Jose , although he
9483-591: The team's head coach, while also announcing that tryouts had begun for all positions. Eight days later, Darshan "ZionSpartan" Upadhyaya was announced as the newest addition to the lineup, replacing Seraph, whose contract the organization had decided not to renew. A month later, in December, it was announced that LiNk would return to the starting lineup for the forthcoming split, alongside Jake "Xmithie" Puchero , formerly of Team Vulcun . On December 19 CLG attended IEM IX Cologne with their new roster, aside from Xmithie, who
9592-449: The team. Shortly afterwards, bigfatjiji was forced to change his name to bigfatlp by Riot Games . In June 2011, CLG attended the Riot Games Season 1 World Championship in Sweden. Despite a loss to Team SoloMid , they advanced from the group stage , but were knocked out of championship contention by FnaticMSI , and forced to fight for an eventual fifth-place finish. In August 2011, after
9701-425: The third place match, CLG Prime became the last North American team to qualify for the Riot Games Season 2 World Championship . At October's Riot Games Season 2 World Championship, CLG Prime was knocked out in the group stage, taking home a ninth/tenth-place finish and US$ 50,000. Following their disappointing World Championship performance, Voyboy left the team, and former MiG Frost player Yoon-sub "Locodoco" Choi
9810-504: The three pentakills in the tournament. Later TPA went against Moscow 5 in a rematch of the Season 2 World Championship semi-finals. Stanley on Rengar ran rampant on the Russian squad, advancing the Assassins 2–0 into the playoffs. TPA faced a massive upset in Round 2 against FnaticRC, falling 0–2 into the losers bracket. There the Taiwanese team would sweep two series against the Singapore Sentinels and Curse Gaming. Coming into Round 4,
9919-476: The tournament with a winning streak against North American teams CLG Prime, Team FeaR, and Team SoloMid . The eventual winners of the tournament, World Elite, pushed CLG.EU into the Losers Bracket, where they faced Season 2 World Champions, Taipei Assassins , who beat the Europeans and eliminated them from the tournament, leaving them with a disappointing final placement of fifth/sixth. In December 2012, just before
10028-415: The tournament, FTW took first place ahead of 150 other teams to qualify for the 2011 World Cyber Games . At the 2011 World Cyber Games, FTW could not make it through the group stage as they finished third in their group with a 2–2 record. FTW defeated Team Jantelaget and Orange eSports and lost to NaJin e-mFire and Millenium. Mid laner A8000 left the team after the event. Despite being eliminated early on in
10137-529: The tournament. During the time of 2014 GPL Winter, TPA also took part in IEM Season VIII – Singapore , but lost to Saigon Jokers and got the 5th/6th place along with Singapore Sentinels. Right after the 2014 GPL Winter, "Sarsky" left TPA. DinTer became the starting jungler and the team played in 2014 GPL Spring. They won all their matches in the group stage. In the knock out stages, TPA defeated Insidious Gaming (3–0), Taipei Snipers (3–2), and ahq (3–2) to become
10246-436: Was allowed to remain in the 2013 NA LCS for the Summer Split. Following this unsatisfactory split, HotshotGG decided to step down, and Aphromoo left. Bigfatlp rejoined the active roster, and Zachary "Nientonsoh" Malhas was acquired to fill the other vacant position. CLG also announced, on July 24, 2013, that OGN caster Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles would be joining CLG as a coach. The Summer Split proved no better for
10355-475: Was also one of the first in North America to implement a multi-team gaming house, and the current residence is able to house all their major divisions and the management staff on a permanent basis. On July 31, 2017, Madison Square Garden Sports acquired a controlling stake in CLG. On April 6, 2023, NRG Esports acquired CLG. The terms of the sale included only CLG's flagship League of Legends team, with all other players and staff being laid off. The CLG brand
10464-598: Was an American esports organization headquartered in Los Angeles , California . It was founded in April 2010 by George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis and Alexander "Vodoo" Beutel as a League of Legends team, and branched out into other games. CLG fielded the oldest League of Legends team active at the time, having competed in every split of the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS) since it began in Spring 2013. CLG won two NA LCS splits,
10573-521: Was announced as their starting support player, while Austin "LiNk" Shin, formerly of CLG Black, joined as a substitute player. The team also dropped the Prime suffix from their name, due to the departure of Counter Logic Gaming Europe and disbanding of Counter Logic Gaming Black. On January 15, 2013, bigfatlp announced that he would be stepping down from the starting roster to a substitute position, citing lack of confidence in his own play, while LiNk stepped up to
10682-399: Was considered to be the easiest group, CLG finished below Flash Wolves and KOO Tigers , and so failed to progress to the tournament's knockout stage. Despite having their most successful NA LCS season, the organization made large changes to the championship winning roster. On October 23, 2015, it was announced that HuHi would be stepping up to the active roster, having fulfilled the role of
10791-404: Was fined US$ 10,000 by Riot, after being found guilty of soliciting Team Dignitas ' William " Scarra " Li without acquiring his current team's approval. Additionally, Scarra was prohibited from serving as CLG's head coach on stage for the first three weeks of the 2015 NA LCS Spring Split. On January 6, 2015, after this first ruling, CLG's management voluntarily revealed a similar violation regarding
10900-497: Was invited to play in the NVIDIA Game Festival 2013. As a result of TPA losing 1–0 to Royal Club Huang Zu, TPA decided to start tryouts for new positions for their jungler (to replace Lilballz), although the decision was somewhat indecisive. TPA would, however, pull out a surprising 2–1 victory against OMG, one of the strongest Chinese teams, showing that TPA was still a strong team, despite a recent slump. This eventually led to
11009-522: Was ninth to twelfth, and the team returned home with nothing. On October 15, 2012, the organization announced that MiSeRy and Pajkatt were leaving to join LGD.int . No replacements were announced. Later that month, on October 29, Akke also left the team to join No Tidehunter , and Counter Logic Gaming Dota officially disbanded. IEM Season VIII - World Championship The Intel Extreme Masters ( IEM )
11118-467: Was not announced as the starter for 2016. At the tournament, CLG would beat out both Unicorns of Love and Jin Air Green Wings 2-0, before falling to Origen in the final, marking the first time a North American team had beaten a Korean team in a series . On April 17, 2016, CLG won their second consecutive NA LCS championship, defeating longtime rivals Team Solomid 3–2 in the grand finals. With
11227-488: Was not enough for the team, and on April 29, 2015, ptr was kicked. On May 8, the organization announced it was actively looking for a new fifth member, and on June 2, Josh "jdm64" Marzano rounded out the squad. The team went on to place fourth regionally in the online stage of ESL ESEA Pro League Season I , and so qualified for the LAN stage of the tournament. After unexpectedly taking out both Fnatic and Keyd Stars in their group,
11336-523: Was officially shuttered post-acquisition. Consequently, Madison Square Garden Sports now owns a major stake in NRG. Counter Logic Gaming was founded to compete in League of Legends tournaments by George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis and Alexander "Vodoo" Beutel in April 2010. In December 2011, Counter Logic Gaming merged with the Absolute Legends organization. Although the two organizations decided to separate
11445-465: Was one of fourteen teams invited to attend the 2012 edition of The International , the roster's first and only LAN tournament . The event was run by Valve , the developer of Dota 2 , and took place at PAX Prime in Seattle , with a $ 1,600,000 prize pool. The team was knocked out of the tournament in the group stage after being beaten by teams including Evil Geniuses and LGD Gaming . CLG Dota's placing
11554-441: Was picked up. On November 29, CLG Prime entered IPL 5 . Despite surprisingly strong showings against Curse EU , FnaticRC , and Moscow Five, the team placed fifth/sixth. After the event, Locodoco expressed in an interview that "coming to America was a mistake", but added that it did not indicate he would be leaving the team. However, on December 4 CLG announced the departure of Locodoco, and on December 28, Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black
11663-504: Was the last major tournament for this short-lived CLG Black lineup; Hoodstomp announced his retirement on October 16, and on December 28, 2012, CLG Black officially disbanded. Bloodwater, Zuna, and Sycho Sid went on to play for Team Vulcun, while LiNk was moved up to the Counter Logic Gaming Prime roster, eventually replacing Michael "bigfatlp" Tang. In January 2015, CLG formed a new secondary League of Legends team, under
11772-874: Was the only game offered in the first season, the variety of games has increased greatly, to the four that were offered during Season 5. World of Warcraft was offered during Season 4, but was dropped for Season 5. The Season 5 Finals will be held at CeBIT and will included a US$ 130,000 prize pool. Games offered in Intel Extreme Masters: Counter-Strike (Seasons 1–6), Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos and Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne (Seasons 1–2, 3: Asian Championship Finals — CS1.6 and Asian Championship Finals — WoW, 4: Global Challenge Chengdu, 5: Global Challenge Shanghai), World of Warcraft (Seasons 2: Global Challenge Dreamhack, 3–4), Quake Live (Seasons 4–5), StarCraft II (Seasons 5–6), League of Legends (LoL) (Seasons 5: World Championship (LoL Invitational), 6) IEM utilizes
11881-418: Was unable to attend due to visa issues; the team played with a substitute and finished second, behind Gambit Gaming . The new roster made a remarkably strong start to the 2015 Spring NA LCS Split , and just missed out on a playoff bye after losing a second-place regular season tiebreaker to Cloud9. Despite looking strong going into the 2015 Spring Playoffs, CLG was once again unable to perform, losing in
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