With solo queue failing to teach the necessary skills, and even LCS alum struggling to cope, how would CLG fill the top lane? Thus formed a wild idea. Instead of trying to break through the bad habits and false lessons instilled by solo queue CLG would pull a mechanically gifted former LCS player, such as an ADC or mid laner, who'd never played top before and purpose build them for professional play. Instead of learning how to 1v1 on Riven, they'd teach their new top laner how to hold a tower 1v2 as Shyvana. Instead of learning how to split push as Tryndamere, they'd teach the new top laner how to combine Mundo and TP to generate intense pressure. A purpose built top laner specifically for the unique meta of professional top lane was created, CLG Nien.
The community backlash was strong, spurred on by things like Nien's former team mate and popular top laner Megazero criticizing CLG for passing him over in favor of Nien an at the time AD Carry. These sentiments would sour a vocal section of the community against Nien for the duration of his time on CLG and even color the judgement of some prominent esports personalities. Ultimately this section of the community would be cited by Nien as a contributing factor to his departure from the team after a full year of play and CLG's first ever positive results in the LCS.
Contrary to that wildly popular sentiment though, Nien was not a weak player. The most often lorded examples of Nien's "bad" play were actually the exact opposite. He was often criticized for being caught out farming behind an enemy tower, over staying with a hefty sum of gold built up, or being caught out tower diving an opponent. In all the cases Nien did indeed make mistakes resulting in his death which anti-fans and esports journalists alike would foolishly trumpet as proof that Nien was a bad player. The truth however is the exact opposite, not one of those scenarios is possible when losing. You can't get caught out dirty farming behind an enemy tower if you're behind, the enemy laner would simply kill you 1v1 as you'd have no place to go. You cannot be caught out tower diving an opponent when you're losing the lane, as you'd never have won enough trades to have the health disparity making a dive possible in the first place. And you certainly cannot stay in lane with over 2k gold in your pocket while losing the lane, you'd be crushed under your tower long before you could build to that point. This is not to say Nien was without his flaws, of course he made mistakes. He would occasionally lose lane to stronger duelists Balls or Dyrus on top of the mistakes born of greed listed above that would often result in his death.
Many of Nien's critics, blinded by their own solo queue mentality, have spoken at lengths about how better players would have survived the scenarios where Nien faltered, and they are in a sense correct. If we were to blind ourselves to everything but the top lane and compare Nien to someone like the much vaunted, and often fan requested to be the new CLG top laner, Zorozero it would be no contest. In a pure 1v1 head to head Zoro would smash Nien over and again in most matchups. League of Legends is however not a 1v1, and professional play is a long way removed from the smash your lane and carry by yourself attitude of solo queue.
When we separate away the lane phase and compare the team play impact of both players Zorozero is simply out classed a thousand times over. Nien's 1v2s, rotations, usage of teleport pressure, and willingness to sacrifice his own score to allow his team to win, all those things CLG wanted to purpose build into a top laner, result in Nien having more than double Zorozero's time spent fighting with his team when they needed him and a far greater impact on games. Even in the recent promotion matches with Teleport being so heavily buffed Zorozero's team impact was a shadow of what we've seen from Nien for the entire split.
League of Legends is a team game, and the importance of that team work has never been more apparent in the professional scene than it is today. CLG knew they'd have to build a top laner from the ground up to avoid the pitfalls generated by solo queue top lane play. Now with Nien gone there's a gaping wound in CLG's lineup and too few weeks to heal it. At best CLG finds a stop-gap in the form of an individually strong player like Zorozero or Megazero and fumbles their way around their solo queue bad habits to place in the top 4 again. At worst CLG is forced to start all over again training a new top laner from the ground up. Either way the hope of continued improvement and, a trip to Worlds this year, is low. Caused in part by the community's inability to cope with a player changing positions.
