On April 23, Evil Geniuses defeated Team Liquid 3-0 to advance to the LCS Spring Split Finals for the first time ever in the organization’s history. On top of that, their AD Carry, Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki set the all-time record for most pentakills in a single season: three.
Things didn’t look too great for Evil Geniuses in the early stage of the game as they witnessed Danny fall behind on the hyper-carry champion Jinx. With Danny falling behind, Evil Geniuses decided to shift their attention to the top side of the map and try to get Jeong “Impact” Eon-young ahead. With the help of his team, the former world champion gained a significant lead over his lane counterpart and wreaked havoc all over the Summoner Rift.
Despite said lead, Team Liquid was able to shift the momentum of the game back in their favor by winning a crucial teamfight right before claiming the third Dragon of the game. This situation led to Team Liquid trying to claim the Baron, but Danny decided otherwise by stealing the neutral objective. The 18-year-old player then decimated the opposition in a pentakill. The steal orchestrated by Danny was the nail in the coffin for Team Liquid as Evil Geniuses took game 1.
BARON STEAL AND PENTAKILL, @DannnyIoI ARE YOU SERIOUS?! #LCS pic.twitter.com/6Mt4VOhH2X
— LCS (@LCSOfficial) April 23, 2022
The second game of the series was a close back and forth between both teams but it was once again Evil Geniuses that took it home to gain a 2-0 lead. Team Liquid decided to opt for a new strategy by drafting a poke-heavy bot lane with Ashe and Zyra. This adaptation complicated things for Evil Geniuses bot lane as they were heavily punished in the early game, but Danny and the rest of his team were able to fight back with their exceptional teamfight abilities.
With Evil Geniuses banking on their teamfight-oriented composition, Team Liquid had to look to stack up on objectives. Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg and his teammates were able to steal both Elder Dragon and Baron in two back-to-back sequences, but in the end, Evil Geniuses were able to outclass them one last time in a teamfight to push the series to match point.
The final KDAs for EG after game 2 were:
- Impact: 2/2/11
- Inspired: 7/2/10
- jojopyun: 3/3/12
- Danny: 10/1/7
- Vulcan: 0/5/17
And on the losing side, TL’s roster presented:
- Bwipo: 5/2/4
- Santorin : 3/5/7
- Bjergsen: 1/3/9
- Hans Sama: 1/6/9
- CoreJJ: 3/6/8
In a last-ditch effort to save the series for themselves, Team Liquid decided to throw one final curveball and draft Lee sin for the first time for Lucas “Santorin” Tao Kilmer. This strategy briefly paid off as Santorin was able to get a few kills in the few minutes of the final game, but the hopes were short-lived as Evil Geniuses showed their aggressiveness and 5v5 supremacy one last time. Danny once again went on a path of destruction as he was able to keep a clean record on Ezreal without a single death in game 3. The North American native finished the series with a combined KDA of 26 kills, 11 assists and only 3 deaths. For this performance, he was named Player of the Series.
PLAYER OF THE SERIES #LCS pic.twitter.com/8RoGjctjNx
— LCS (@LCSOfficial) April 23, 2022
Evil Geniuses will now look to take down 100 Thieves to capture their first-ever LCS trophy in a special edition of the Finals as it will be the first time in LCS history that the last series of the split will not feature Team Liquid or Cloud9 or TSM (TeamSoloMid) as one of the contenders.
