On April 17, team Evil Geniuses (EG) confirmed their place in Houston after sweeping and defeating Cloud9 in the LCS 2022 Spring playoffs. With this victory, EG is now one step closer to the LCS 2022 trophy while C9 will now have to experience the remainder of the split as spectators.
The beginning of the first game saw both teams focus their resources on both ends of the map, with EG continuously applying pressure on Park “Summit” Woo-tae by ganking him non-stop. This early game pressure by EG put Summit’s Jayce far behind as he was sent to the death chamber on three different occasions in the first ten minutes. Despite seeing the top side of the Rift crumble before their eyes, C9 was able to adapt, with the advantage accumulated by their bot lane bringing in three Dragons and the first Turret of the series. Despite claiming the Elder Dragon, C9 was not able to overcome the scaling composition and teamfight abilities of their opponents.
After losing the first match, C9 decided to change their strategy going into the second game by drafting a late-game-oriented lineup with a hyper-carry bot lane. This adaptation did not play in their favor as they saw Joseph “jojopyun” Joon Pyun become a monster on the battlefield after he was funneled six kills in the first 21 minutes of the game. The EG mid-laner wasn’t the only problem, as the rest of his squad was once again able to come out on top with their strong teamfight capabilities. On the back of Jojopyun’s incredible performance on Viktor, EG’s AD carry Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki was able to obtain a pentakill to close out the second game of the series.
Did Danny even want this Pentakill? #LCS pic.twitter.com/xY9jDV7snF
— LCS (@LCSOfficial) April 17, 2022
Here are EG’s highlights following the second match:
- Jojopyun on Viktor: 11/1/5 with more than 27,000 damage done to champions.
- Danny on Zeri: 5/1/8 with a pentakill.
For the third and final game of the series, Danny once again found himself on Zeri and continued his path of destruction. The 18-year-old ADC was able to take the new League of Legends Champion to its limit and finished the game with a score of 13 kills, 4 deaths, and 10 assists. EG had made sure to enable his rampage by once again drafting the Nocturne-Ryze combo that allowed Danny to deal damage without any real concerns. Despite the end result, C9 tried to fight back by grabbing a crucial Baron after eliminating Danny, but they once again were not able to overcome their opponents in teamfights.
If Danny looked great in the last game, it was Jojopyun who was named the Player of the Series with a KDA of 24/10/23 across the three games. With this victory, EG will now take part in their first-ever finals week in the organization’s history. They will now face Team Liquid in the lower bracket finals. A victory would solidify their spot in the grand final against defending champions 100 Thieves.
