In the world of eSports, there's a pair of teams that ruthlessly despise each other almost as much as baseball's Yankees and Red Sox: Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) and Team SoloMid (TSM). It was these two teams that went head-to-head on Sunday night in a battle for first place in North American "League of Legends" play.
And it was the underdog — the Boston Red Sox in this metaphor — that won. Not only that: CLG crushed TSM in a 3-0 sweep, besting their rival in a best of five match without contest.
Here's CLG getting interviewed by ESPN after the match:
They touch on the rivalry briefly, but it's far more serious than what's discussed in the interview. Here's a lengthier breakdown of the long-running rivalry from the company that makes "League of Legends," Riot Games:
In so many words, the guy who runs TSM (Andy "Reginald" Dinh) and the guy who runs CLG (George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis) don't like each other. Dinh used to actually be a part of CLG, but he and Georgallidis didn't get along.
"Reggie's the type of guy who will kick your sand castle and then take your sand. I'm just the type of guy who will sit in the corner and make my own sand castle," Georgallidis says in the video above.
The rivalry isn't limited to the team owners, but extends to its players as well. As seen in the video above, plenty of smack talk gets dealt when TSM's "League of Legends" team gets interviewed at various events.
It must've felt satisfying, then, when CLG's Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng nailed a rare "pentakill" during Sunday night's second finals game. We've got a deeper explanation for that right here, but the long and short is Doublelift took out the entire TSM team in a single fight.
Here's a look at Doublelift's incredible play in action:
Doublelift may not get a ticker tape parade in his hometown after the big win, but he helped reclaim CLG's former greatness and firmly reignited the rivalry between his team and TSM. Both teams are headed to the "League of Legends" world championships in Europe this coming October, where the feud will assuredly rage on.
