An off day for Evil Geniuses means nothing in Jojopyun’s eyes

For players and teams at the top of the standings in any sport, it’s hard to stay motivated; especially if they’re like Evil Geniuses in the 2022 League of Legends Championship Series. With no one near them in the standings, the team came into their Week 6 match against 100 Thieves looking off their game. As a result, EG just suffered their second loss of the split. Evil Geniuses’ mid laner Joseph “Jojopyun” Pyun was aware of the team’s rare off day.

Our win streak ends today, but there’s still plenty of time to start up another one. #LCS pic.twitter.com/v3jWYEoup6

— Evil Geniuses (@EvilGeniuses) July 24, 2022

“We weren’t as on point today and we didn’t seem as confident today to make plays,” Jojopyun said.

It was an odd statement for a team coming off a top four performance at the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational and sitting atop the LCS standings. This EG team has oozed confidence all split, but at times, that has spilled over into cockiness. Jojopyun said the team isn’t being lazy, but are taking a more laid back approach.

“We’re not stressing as much,” Jojopyun said. “We’re still obviously working hard and trying to improve, but at the same time we’re not really grinding really hard where we can barely play, we’re not overdoing things.”

Jojopyun and Evil Geniuses — the road ahead

EG has earned the right to be cocky in the LCS — a 9-2 record and first place at the 2022 LCS spring split will get you that honor. Jojopyun specifically is known to be outspoken, he is often found smack talking on social media and in post-game interviews. He means what he says but it also gives him extra motivation to play better in non-high-stakes games.

“That’s one of the reasons and it’s just more fun so I guess they go together,” Jojopyun said. “It makes the game more fun to play and watch.”

The loss hardly affects the team’s chances at Worlds 2022, the team is still a game above 100 for first place even with the loss and it’s just a best of one game. But, Jojopyun wanted to ease concerns of the team potentially starting to underperform.

“We shouldn’t get too ahead of ourselves and just focus on Worlds; we [have] still got to focus on winning LCS. That’s important,” Jojopyun said. “I feel like all of us are just better than the other teams, and the LCS maybe isn’t as strong.”

Jojopyun mentioned that no one in the LCS excites him; he looks bored in regular season matches, but the playoffs should rekindle his fire.

“I feel like compared to China and Korea, the LCS isn’t as strong; but there’s still some strong moments in the LCS so we just got to pay attention,” Jojopyun said. “It’s more like playing in a high stakes match, if it’s like playoffs or finals or something then I feel much more hype, but if it’s in the regular season, I don’t really care much.”