Clutch Gaming

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Clutch Gaming
League of Legends Championship Series
Based inHouston, Texas
Owner
(after June 6, 2019)

Clutch Gaming (CG) was an American professional

franchised in 2018. In 2019, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment acquired a majority stake in Clutch Gaming and merged it with Dignitas
.

The team saw mixed success in its two years of competition. Although Clutch Gaming was never able to reach the LCS finals, it did qualify for the 2019 World Championship after winning that year's regional qualifier. At the World Championship, Clutch Gaming managed to advance from the play-in stage to the group stage of the main event. However, the team was eliminated after failing to pick up a win in what commentators described as a "group of death".

History

Founding

The

franchise model reminiscent of traditional sports leagues.[1][2][3] Several organizations expressed interest in joining a newly franchised NA LCS, including the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association.[1][4] The Rockets officially announced its acquisition of a spot in the NA LCS and the founding of Clutch Gaming on November 20, 2017.[5] Clutch Gaming was one of four organizations to join the NA LCS when it franchised, the other three being 100 Thieves, Golden Guardians and OpTic Gaming.[4][6][7]

2018 season

For the 2018 NA LCS Spring Split, Tae-yoo "Lira" Nam, Apollo "Apollo" Price and Nickolas "Hakuho" Surgent were acquired from

TSM, ending with 11 wins and 9 losses.[10] This placement secured them a spot in playoffs, where they began with an upset 3–1 victory over TSM in the quarterfinals.[11][12][13] However, Clutch Gaming lost 2–3 to 100 Thieves in the semifinals and 0–3 to Echo Fox in the third-place decider match.[14][15][16]

Clutch Gaming ended the 2018 NA LCS Summer Split in ninth place, with a 6–12 record.[17] The team qualified for the 2018 NA LCS Regional Qualifier after FlyQuest lost to 100 Thieves in the quarterfinals, as Clutch Gaming placed higher than FlyQuest in championship points due to the outcome of the match.[18] Clutch Gaming lost to Echo Fox 0–3 in the first round of the regional qualifier and was eliminated from Worlds contention.[19]

In late November 2018, Clutch Gaming and Echo Fox traded players in preparation for the upcoming 2019 LCS Spring Split (which had recently renamed to exclude "NA" from its title). Solo, Apollo and Hakuho left Clutch Gaming to join Echo Fox.[20] In return, Clutch Gaming acquired Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon and Tanner "Damonte" Damonte.[21][22][23][24] Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin and Philippe "Vulcan" Laflamme were also moved from the organization's academy team to complete the roster.[25]

2019 season

Clutch Gaming ended the 2019 LCS Spring Split in ninth place once again, with a 5–13 record.[26] Prior to the start of the 2019 LCS Summer Split, Clutch Gaming announced that it would replace Piglet with Cody Sun as the team's starting bot laner.[27] After defeating Golden Guardians in the last week of the summer regular season, Clutch Gaming was able to secure a spot in playoffs with a fifth-place finish and a 9–9 record.[28] In the quarterfinals Clutch Gaming once again defeated TSM 3–1, moving on to the semifinals, where they lost 2–3 to Team Liquid in a close series.[29][30][31] Clutch Gaming was then reverse swept by CLG in the third-place decider match, forcing them to begin in the first round of the regional qualifier for the 2019 World Championship.[32] After running through the entire gauntlet and defeating FlyQuest, CLG and TSM in the first, second and third rounds respectively, Clutch Gaming secured a spot in the 2019 World Championship as the LCS' third seed.[33][34][35]

Clutch Gaming began in the play-in stage of the 2019 World Championship, where they were placed in Group A with Russian team Unicorns of Love and Australian team Mammoth. After losing to the Unicorns of Love and defeating Mammoth in both round robins, Group A was locked in a three-way tie, but Clutch Gaming avoided the first tiebreaker match due to them having the shortest total game time (63:37) among their victories.[36] Clutch Gaming then defeated the Unicorns of Love to secure first seed in their group.[37] In the second round of play-in stage, Clutch Gaming was pitted against Turkish team Royal Youth, who they promptly swept 3–0 to secure a spot in the main event.[38]

Because of group draw rules for the main event, Clutch Gaming was forced into Group C, which was described by commentators as a "

SK Telecom T1, China's Royal Never Give Up, and Europe's Fnatic.[39] Clutch Gaming finished the main event group stage with a 0–6 record and were eliminated without picking up a single win in the double round robin.[40]

Clutch Gaming merged with Dignitas on October 28, 2019.[41] Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the owners of Dignitas, had previously bought a majority stake in Clutch Gaming for over $30 million, on June 6, 2019.[42]

Season-by-season records

Year
League of Legends Championship Series
 Mid-Season Invitational World Championship
P W L W–L Pos. Playoffs
2018 Spring 20 11 9 .550 6th Semifinals Did not qualify Did not qualify
Summer 18 6 12 .333 9th Did not qualify
2019 Spring 18 5 13 .278 9th Did not qualify Did not qualify Group stage
Summer 18 9 9 .500 5th Semifinals

References

  1. ^
    Dot Esports
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  2. ^ Khan, Imad (June 1, 2017). "Riot releases details on NA LCS franchising with $10M flat-fee buy-in". ESPN. Retrieved April 6, 2025.
  3. ^ Volk, Pete (June 1, 2017). "NA LCS is franchising. Here's what that means". Polygon. Retrieved April 6, 2025.
  4. ^ a b Wolf, Jacob (October 19, 2017). "Sources: NA LCS team roster finalized with Rockets". ESPN. Retrieved April 6, 2025.
  5. Dot Esports. Archived
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  6. ^ "League of Legends meets NBA as teams backed by Warriors, Rockets face off". ESPN. Archived from the original on February 5, 2018. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  7. Dot Esports
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  8. ^ "Sources: Rockets-owned Clutch Gaming looking to get Apollo, LirA and Hakuho". ESPN. Archived from the original on February 5, 2018. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  9. ^ "Sources: Febiven, Solo sign with Clutch Gaming". ESPN. Archived from the original on February 6, 2018. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  10. ^ "NA LCS 2018 Spring Split | Teams and Standings". LoL Esports. Riot Games. Archived from the original on March 26, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
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  15. ^ Donigan, Wyatt (April 1, 2018). "LoL: 100 Thieves beats Clutch in five-game semifinal". ESPN. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
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  17. ^ "NA LCS 2018 Summer Split | Teams and Standings". LoL Esports. Riot Games. Archived from the original on August 27, 2018. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
  18. ^ Goslin, Austen (September 13, 2018). "How to watch the 2018 NA LCS Regional Qualifier gauntlet: Streams, schedule and results". The Rift Herald. Archived from the original on January 26, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2018.
  19. ^ Geddes, Chase (September 14, 2018). "Echo Fox survives Round 1 of NA LCS gauntlet". ESPN. Archived from the original on September 16, 2018. Retrieved September 15, 2018.
  20. Dot Esports. Archived
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  21. ^ Wolf, Jacob (November 23, 2018). "Sources: Huni to sign with Clutch Gaming". ESPN. Archived from the original on January 13, 2019. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
  22. Dot Esports. Archived
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  23. ^ Wolf, Jacob (November 24, 2018). "Sources: Clutch Gaming to sign Damonte". ESPN. Archived from the original on January 13, 2019. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
  24. Dot Esports. Archived
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  25. ^ Goslin, Austen (July 27, 2018). "Piglet returns to the LCS as the new ADC for Clutch Gaming". Archived from the original on January 13, 2019. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
  26. ^ Zamora, Steven (May 29, 2019). "Clutch Gaming: 2019 Summer Split Preview". The Game Haus. Retrieved March 11, 2022.
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  30. ^ Kolev, Radoslav (August 11, 2019). "Cody Sun, Clutch Gaming trample TSM in LCS quarterfinals". VPEsports. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
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  36. ^ @lolesports (October 4, 2019). "Tiebreakers explained: ..." (Tweet). Retrieved October 4, 2019 – via Twitter.
  37. ^ "Clutch Gaming, Splyce win their groups on Day 3 of League of Legends World Championship play-ins". ESPN. October 4, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
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  41. ^ Yim, Miles (November 18, 2019). "People are investing millions into League of Legends franchises. Will the bet pay off?". Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
  42. ^ Hermann, Adam (June 6, 2019). "76ers owners Harris Blitzer acquire esports' Clutch Gaming for reported $30 million". PhillyVoice. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
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