Despite the best efforts of the esports gods, Evil Geniuses and TSM played five full games of League of Legends today. After a swath of delays and pauses, including one that lasted over two hours, EG defeated TSM 3-2, eliminating them from Worlds 2022 contention.
During the second game of today’s playoff series, EG and TSM had their contest interrupted by seven different pauses, most of which came in the final stages of the game. After the second game concluded, the teams did not take the stage for two whole hours as LCS engineers attempted to fix audio issues that had negatively affected both teams throughout the early portion of the series.
Following the delay, the two teams decided to play through the issues in an effort to continue the series without having to postpone it to a later date. Since both teams were affected by the audio problems, they deemed them to be a unique competitive disadvantage for both teams, deciding to play on with the blanket issue as a result.
From a gameplay perspective, EG got off to a slow start in today’s series, just as they did in last week’s second-round playoff series against Cloud9. Just like they did in that series, EG dropped the first game, putting themselves behind the eight-ball early. They dropped the first game in day-appropriate marathon fashion—losing the opener, the longest game of the LCS Summer Split playoffs, in 46 minutes.
From there on out, it was still a difficult battle for EG, who won two of the final three games of the series in a combined game time that nearly matched the length of the two-hour delay.
For EG, it was mid laner Jojopyun who helped carry his team to victory. Across the five games of the series, the rookie of the year carried the banner for EG with a total combined scoreline of 17/10/46, and a kill participation mark of 82 percent. His Flash-Smite combo (through the use of Unsealed Spellbook) to secure a Cloud Soul for EG in the fleeting moments of game five ultimately tipped the scales in EG’s favor for good.
EG now stand just one series away from advancing to the 2022 World Championship. Only Team Liquid remain in their way, with the winner of that win-or-go-home match on Sept. 4 going straight to Worlds no matter how the remainder of the LCS Championship plays out.
As for TSM, they’re now eliminated from Worlds contention. After missing the playoffs in the Spring Split, the team rebounded slightly in the summer but went home early regardless. TSM has two of its current starters, Solo and Spica, entering free agency later this year since their contracts with the organization are set to expire in November.
