In Week 4 of the LCS, Evil Geniuses have finally gotten things under control, starting off their three-game super week with a 2-0 against FlyQuest (who they knocked out of first place) and Golden Guardians. EG had to play both matches on Saturday after a delay in Friday’s games caused their match to be rescheduled.
League Officials have identified a technical issue that they believe will impact the integrity of the upcoming game, so Evil Geniuses vs FlyQuest will be postponed until a later date. #LCS
— LCS (@LCSOfficial) February 26, 2022
Evil Geniuses’ rough start to LCS 2022
Evil Geniuses were one of the hottest League Championship Series teams at the beginning of the year. They were everyone’s scariest team to face against in the Lock In draft, then they went 9-0 till the Lock In finals. They lost to Team Liquid 0-3, but with Liquid’s strength, it was more than excusable. But that 0-3 loss foreshadowed a rough start to the LCS split ahead of them.
Evil Geniuses technically started the split 2-1, winning their first game against TSM, losing their second to Cloud9 and winning their third against Dignitas. There are a few nuances to their opening games that sour that 2-1 start, however.
Their season opener was TSM’s very first game together, and it was only Cloud9’s second game, with each of them having only a week’s practice. Each of their first two opponents also had mixed language in-game communication, making the 1-1 start look much rougher.
In Week 2, they went 1-1 again, with a shaky 46-minute victory over Dignitas QNTMPAY (who is now 3-5) and a loss to 100 Thieves. In Week 3, they followed it up with an 0-2 week against Team Liquid and Immortals Progressive, giving Immortals only their second win of the entire year to bring their overall record (including Lock In) to 2-8.
Finishing the round-robin
They will finish their first round-robin with a match against Counter Logic Gaming, who are in ninth place at 2-6. If they secure another victory, they’ll end the first half of the split with a positive win rate. But if they lose to a 2-6 team, it may be a sign that they still have work to do.
Luckily, despite the shaky wins followed by a three-game losing streak, the team has remained stable. “I think everyone on the team tries helping each other out, especially when someone makes a mistake,” said their rookie mid laner Joseph “jojopyun” Joon Pyun. “Let’s say someone makes a mistake, [we] do a good job of not blaming them or feeling that they messed up.”
“Taking in the big picture of what the team had gone through from Lock In to 2-4, we knew it was going to be a really big weekend for them,” Joshua “Jatt” Leesman said. “Their two hardest games of the weekend were actually today,” he continued. “Right now in my head, they’re already 3-0.”
Evil Geniuses clearly have a lot of potential and star power among their mix of veterans and young guns — they proved that in the Lock In. If they finish the first round-robin with a win, they may have proven their own stability, but if they lose to a 2-6 and struggling CLG, Evil Geniuses may still have a ways to go.
