i dunno about that, i'd say that a great deal of CLG fans are there mostly because of doublelift (myself included). hotshot has done almost nothing to generate any kind of brand loyalty over the last four years or so, yet CLG has managed to maintain the second biggest fanbase in NA from being an underdog - largely due to doublelift's life, where he started, how he's never won a tournament, et cetera. the only other player on the roster that longtime fans really care about is aphromoo, and he's rumored to be retiring or joining C9.
unless hotshot can give an actual good reason as to why CLG got rid of their coach, benched pobelter, and kicked doublelift after winning their first tournament in three years, i'm basically done with supporting CLG's LoL team. very few people are going to stay with CLG out of loyalty to the team itself, since it's gone through so many iterations and has generally not been too kind to its fans
This is a really good summary. In fairness Reginald has held onto Dyrus for a long time (not that that's any great credit in my opinion, but TSM fans are odd), but a lot of Regi's efforts over the years, like it or not, have been to build up a strong team and generate loyalty to the TSM 'ideal'. A lot of the baylife shit went out the window post-S2 and all those people seemed to wander off to support C9 instead, but rather than give up on the identity of the team Regi continued to work hard on building up a good stream network and familiarising people with the new players, and the changes have been a lot less disruptive (WT and Bjergsen have been around for ages now). Given that they've been successful of course this builds off itself, but still.
I think a lot of modern CLG fans have essentially latched onto the old CLG fans by concentrating their love for CLG into love for Rush Hour (interestingly dlift and Aphro
both have that underdog thing going on, even though doublelift definitely has The Storyline, add the perceived bromance to that and it generated a lot of love for them), because having faith in CLG and its org is not very easy and the CLG players are pretty hard to get close to, and with dlift's recent comments pretty much putting paid to that for sure (there was a lot of hope Aphro would move to TSM too lol) it's left a lot of resentment over the years of accumulated confusion, frustration, etc. CLG fans have a habit probably more than any other team of 'backseat managing' and tended to be pretty possessive but I think in part that arose from Hotshot's decisions being inaccessible and simply not yielding results. A lot of people dislike Regi but TSM fans honestly seem happy with the directions he's taken the team in.
I mean I'm not saying all players should be 24/7 on social media or streaming instead of practising, but honestly, it's the thing that sets NA apart from the other regions right now and what fans respond to, NA LoL is still very much in an entertainer phase and fresh blood is not being cultivated well at all. It's difficult to expect NA fans to think like Korean fans when the scene is so different. What I'm witnessing is a pretty mass confusion/exodus because a lot of people are realising, 'Well, I liked doublelift/[some ex-CLG player] more than I ended up liking CLG'. Because doublelift was the underdog, CLG became the underdog, being tied so closely to doublelift's successes and losses, and while they had doublelift they were still a coherent assembly of players you could root for. Especially since CLG isn't the same old CLG strategically anymore that made them so fun to watch tbh.
Feel really awkward for WT, this must be quite odd for TSM fans. But I'll give them that they've been pretty sportsmanlike (well, maybe because they're also very gleeful tbh) about eating their words about doublelift. And honestly stuff like 'doublelift is cocky' has a grain of truth to it, he's also humble and hard-working, but, yes, he presents himself with a lot of bravado and plays in a reckless manner sometimes, it can be offputting when it's not accompanied by success. It's the exact same thing a lot of people love about doublelift, to deny that it's true because it's being presented as a criticism would be odd. But a lot of shit TSM fans have said about doublelift, that he's ruining CLG, that he's donezo as an ADC, etc., suddenly look really dumb in hindsight. If doublelift does well I'd like to see the credit goes to where it belongs though. I don't think people will be embracing of WT sadly and this must have been very abrupt for him. This really is three-player-swap over again.
If CLG keeps winning I think some people who can't stand TSM might support the organisation anyway because CLG will more than ever have its underdog identity (simply because they'll be the team that's winning vs. all-stars) and there'll be WT probably (even though CLG fans don't think WT is good either!), Zion still I suppose. But how many people love CLG because of Hotshot anymore
more than they loved doublelift, or because they feel there's a coherent identity about the team? It feels more like that it's fuckin TSM that is holding people back more than that it's a new team for doublelift, if doublelift had gone to another team we'd be seeing a lot less reluctance from some quarters.
In NA LoL people tend to support players way more than the organisation, the only team I've ever felt where that
wasn't true was TSM (which is one of the thing I always disliked about TSM fans). I don't count C9 because they were the same roster for so long and they're still mostly the same team, they have essentially subsumed a lot of TSM's old cultural ways too. There's also a big schism here between the org and doublelift because honestly of the shit dlift has been saying on stream and the framing of it as a clear backstabbing, which has made it really emotive (that TSM video was really, really well-done, it made me really sad to watch honestly). It certainly sounds that way but the way Hotshot has been acting on his Twitter sounds like he might have a donezo pt. II coming up. I'm just not sure what it would take to make doubtful fans think 'doublelift was really at fault here'. To clarify I don't think he likely is although I think there may have been some issues between the two about team management, Hotshot has his own history in this regard too.
It's just that this being framed as a continuation of doublelift's story solidifies the player loyalty and makes it a personal thing rather than a player/org thing, which at the end of the day is a precision strike to CLG fans who have put a lot of spirit and energy into trusting the team despite the wild ride. CLG fans ourselves perceive us to be insanely loyal; in a way I think some people feel this is a backstab to us as well, from HSGG and not dlift (which is VERY important to establish, would that jersey thing have been let slide half as much as it has if people didn't think dlift had been hard done by?) whether they could logically explain that or not.
It's also worth noting that with the return of Alex Ich and the introduction of teams like Renegades, we might see some of the older fans who really can't stomach TSM start supporting or double-supporting them, they have pretty much the same emotional thing going on honestly but with visa issues instead of roster swaps. CLG has old brand prestige but so did Dignitas.
(bring back nhat nguyen)
