EG dominate in the Week 3 opening match against TSM

Evil Geniuses are at the top of the North American League of Legends Championship Series following their game against TSM in Week 3. EG closed out the near flawless 26 minutes win over TSM, moving to a 5-1 record.

Despite TSM drafting Lucian and Nami — an extremely powerful duo — for their bot lane, EG notched the First Blood. They kept up the pressure from there, snowballing the lead into a 5K gold advantage by 22 minutes in. Everything TSM threw at the defending LCS champs was shot down; EG were able to close out the game in under 26 minutes with a flawless 12 kills to zero.

“I know what mistakes we made and I think it’s easily fixable,” TSM’s Mingyi “Spica” Lu said in a post-game interview. “We’re missing a bit of coordination and it just comes with time.”

TSM are in the midst of integrating two new players — Huang “Maple” Yi-Tang and Choi “Mia” Sang-in — into their roster. Spica said that both players are experienced, meaning there’s not many things they need to be taught. What the team needs most is time to figure out their play style and team coordination.

“We’re still in the early stages of just figuring out how we want to play,” Spica said. “Everybody has a different idea of how they want to play the game; it’s best if work together and make compromises wherever you can.”

EG stay winning

Coming into the match, EG were heavily favored to beat TSM. That expectation meant extra pressure, but also motivation.

“It’s something to look forward to because every team is like, ‘Oh, EG, they’re the team to beat,'” EG’s Kyle “Danny” Sakamak said. “It’s fun to have a little challenge of keeping that title.”

The commonly cited sports platitude of “it’s easy to reach the top and hard to stay there” is in full effect for EG. Returning from the mid-season invitational, EG are the team to beat.

“It’s a lot of pressure on the no. 1’s shoulders to keep maintaining it,” Danny said.

If anything, EG’s loss to Counter Logic Gaming during Week 2 may have been a blessing in disguise. The team no longer has the pressure of maintaining a perfect record over their heads. The team looked totally at ease in their match against TSM.

“The faster we lost [the perfect record], the easier it would be for all of us,” Danny said.