CLG Dhokla: “I think my personal goal is to establish myself as a ‘top’ top laner in this League”

From slugging it out in Academy to sitting on top of the LCS, Niship "Dhokla" Doshi's journey back to NA's premier league is nothing short of inspiring. After two weeks, Counter Logic Gaming sits joint top of the LCS summer split regular season. A position CLG fans have long forgotten about. CLG Dhokla sat down with Esports.gg's Piratechnics for an exclusive interview.

Pira: It was a bit of a tough game for you today – You guys did take a loss. Nevertheless, CLG is having a fantastic start. How are you still feeling in the CLG camp after everything in four games?

CLG Dhokla: Well, obviously it sucks to lose. The game definitely felt winnable. I think we just threw trying to end the game where we could have just gone for the Baron and Dragon and probably just got the win after. It is the regular season, so losses are going to happen, especially in a best-of-one. It's fine and we're going to learn from it for the rest of the Split.

Pira: Yea sometimes taking the loss early is better. It can reveal a few things you can work on. This is still CLG's best start in a while and obviously, you've been promoted up from the team. How is the environment here even compared to the Academy squad and just finding yourself here on the LCS stage?

CLG Dhokla: The environment's pretty chill. I definitely like the vibes of the coaches in review. It's pretty chill and not too much pressure. Even if we have bad games in scrims, there's not so much pressure. They're really not flaming us or anything. I do appreciate that. It's just a good environment to be in, similar to Academy.

Pira: That's good to hear. Now for yourself, how familiar were you with all the players [on this roster]. How often did you scrim when you were still on the Academy squad with the main roster? Or was this a relatively new thing for you to jump into?

CLG Dhokla: I didn't scrim with the main team at all in the Spring Split. And then just started scrims with them in Korea. Since we got back, now we've been scrimming with the main team. That's been going good.

Pira: Despite the loss today, you still have had a pretty big impact in the LCS as a top laner in the past couple of games. How are you feeling in terms of how you rate yourself against the other LCS tops coming in after some years outside of the LCS?

CLG Dhokla: I think I would call myself No.3, I think Bwipo and Impact are interchangeable 1 and 2, depending on what the day is. And then I see myself as the third-best top.

Pira: And you are going up against one of those guys tomorrow!. You actually have Impact on the docket. Do you have any special strats prepared for how you're going to beat them?

CLG Dhokla: I just play my best game I can and just hope that's good enough to win.

Pira: Do you have any words for Impact?

CLG Dhokla: Just – Good luck. It's always fun competing against him. He's really good. Even if I lose, I'm sure I'll learn a lot in the games playing against him. So, just looking forward to the challenge.

Pira: Coming back into the LCS a lot of people talked to you about it, but what is your goal for yourself, and for CLG?

CLG Dhokla: I think my personal goal is to establish myself as a "top" top laner in this League. For the team, I think it's to be top three, to make Worlds this Split. I think that should be the goal for every team.

Pira: Do you think there's anything fundamental you guys need to work on, or is it just going to be little optimizations and you'll get there?

CLG Dhokla: I think it's just little optimizations. We just mess up small decision-making here and there. That cost us this game against Flyquest today. Being very active in the moment and being able to make these split-second decisions that will win us the game. It just comes with playing on stage over time. So yeah, I'm looking forward to that.

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