Impact played a large role in Evil Geniuses' win. | Provided by LCS

Evil Geniuses win over Cloud9 3-0 in LCS playoffs

Cloud9 regressed to the norm, and it cost them

Kenneth Utama

Published: Apr 17, 2022 06:47 pm

This article is over 2 years old and may contain outdated information

Evil Geniuses reminded every team in the LCS playoffs why they were so hyped up during the LCS Lock tournament earlier in the year. With a dominant 3-0 sweep over Cloud9, Evil Geniuses are set to fulfill the expectations set on the them earlier in the season.

Evil Geniuses take out Cloud9 in LCS playoffs

Both these teams started off the year with high expectations. Evil Geniuses were a team with three young players: Joseph “Jojopyun” Pyun, Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki and Kacper “Inspired” Słoma. Despite finishing fourth, the team were able to push all the way to the Grand Finals of the Lock-In Tournament and pushed Team Liquid to the limit.

On the other hand, Cloud9 started off with coach Nick “LS” De Cesare at their head. They were able to pull off incredibly unique drafts that involved Champions such as Ivern and Sona. However, both teams have completely changed by the time they faced off in the LCS Spring playoffs. LS was released by Cloud9, and was replaced by Maxwell “Max Waldo” Alexander Waldo. Cloud9’s drafts began to change, and their earlier success had died down by the time they reached the tail end of the season.

Both teams met in the third round of the playoffs. On one hand, Cloud9 were completely run over by 100 Thieves in the previous round, while Evil Geniuses lost a very close series against Team Liquid. EG were undoubtedly looking stronger going into the matchup.

Evil Geniuses were able to fulfill expectations and take the series against Cloud9 in a dominant 3-0 fashion. More importantly, the loss felt like a Cloud9 loss more than an Evil Geniuses win. Despite starting the season bringing new picks and variety to the LCS, since LS’ departure, the team returned back to the drafts that every other team was running, focusing on Park “Summit” Woo-tae’s carry ability. However, by the time playoffs came around, their strategy was dismantled. 100 Thieves focused a lot of bans on Summit, and Evil Geniuses focused on putting a lot of resources to put him behind. Today’s game was more of the same, as Jeong “Impact” Eon-young played tanks to minimize the advantage that Summit could get in lane.

Evil Geniuses will move on to face Team Liquid next weekend in Houston’s NRG Stadium.