Dreams can come true : EU Promotion Tournament

by Jeremy Heimann

NIP vs Millenium - NIP is a team with three players who were on the Season 3 Worlds' stage with expectations to do well from the start, and up to this point they have failed to meet those expectations. Once again they are heavy favorites to win a series for a chance to play in the LCS. They tend to play very safe in laning phase and prefer to stay in lanes as long as possible. Zorozero will usually split top while Nukeduck goes bot. This strategy is called 1-3-1 and is the plan they almost always go with. This style was used very much in the EU LCS spring split to mixed success.

Millenium is just one split removed from being a playoff team and this last split has to be a major disappointment for them. Creaton was able to keep a 4.0 KDA even though his team lost the most games. Kottenx has helped the team play better towards the end of the split. He also seems to like the early gank junglers that should be used against a team like NIP. Lane swaps would favor Millenium and if they can make the game about rotations and taking objectives instead of farming for the first twenty minutes I like their chances.  Prediction Millenium 3-2 over NIP

Cloud 9 Eclipse vs Supa Hot Crew - Cloud 9 Eclipse, the winners of the Coke League playoffs, should be considered the strongest challenger team. Supa Hot Crew don't care how they finished and decided that C9E was a better match-up for them then NIP, and that decision will either be great or a bad call on their end. C9E is without their star jungler, Kou, because of the age requirement.

The match-up to watch is in the mid lane. Febiven versus Selfie - a mid laner that joined the SHC late in the season and came out on fire, but since then he hasn't made many sparks. Febiven could really control the mid lane and that spells bad news for the SHC. I expect bot lane to go even - with the edge going to the SHC. Prediction C9E 3-1 over Supa Hot Crew

Denial Esports vs Copenhagen Wolves-Denial Esports, formerly known as Departed, is among the better teams in Europe and should be considered one of the best. The Polish comparison with Roccat has to be made which won their way in defeating the best of the worst LCS teams. Denial had trouble defeating NIP or C9E so it's hard to give them much chance against the Wolves. Prediction 3-0 Wolves over Denial 

Nien leaves CLG and Toxicity against Pros

(An emotional Nien during his interview with Ongamers.)

by Jeremy Heimann

     The big news of the day is Zach ”Nien" Malhas stepping down from CLG. In an interview with Travis Gafford, Nien included under performance to his own standards, toxicity towards him on forums and social media, and undisclosed family issues as his reasons. What percentage each of these reasons play in his choice is unknown. Nien is the type of person that will put others before himself, and he wants to see his team succeed.
     He also doesn’t plan on playing this split, although the possibility of his return to CLG was left open if they couldn't find someone that could fill his shoes. This was his own decision and not forced upon him by the CLG empire.
    The involvement of the community and its passionate fans does concern me. We lack the ability to control others actions, but we can improve on our own.The power of one has been proven to be a working method. The method is started by one not spreading hate - then another joins in and change begins. Change has to start somewhere and that somewhere is inside of all of us. Nein is just an example. If we don’t want to lose other pros to similar reasons then we need to squash that parasite now.

What do other pros think?

Josh Atkins ‏@NintendudeX
I hope the community learns a valuable lesson about how devastating hate toward a player can be to a persons mental health after this.

Mitch Voorspoels ‏@SkumbagKrepo
You will never be able to teach moron's/douchebags to give proper/constructive criticism so don't even try. At the same time there is no point in taking their comments seriously. It's very hard sometimes but the only way to keep going with a sane head.

Marcus ‏@LoLDyrus
@CLG_Nien this community is a double edged sword I disagree with you stepping down but if it's for the better I wish you the best of luck

Hai Lam ‏@Hai_L9
I think this is a pretty big case of where the community sucks ass, trashing on a player until he retires is pretty rough. I think the general opinion of the community towards players is wrong, aka hating on Nien and or praising players that I disagree with.

Søren Bjerg ‏@Bjergsen
Really sad to hear about Nien. Unfortunately I think the community played a big part in crushing his confidence. Stay strong man!

**Travis Gafford's original interview for Ongamers can be found here: CLG Nien announces his decision to step down from starting roster.