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A throttling at the hands of Fnatic to open the 2022 League of Legends World Championship yesterday followed by a close win over feisty Brazilian champions LOUD today had North American fans sweating for their third seed, Evil Geniuses. Taiwanese runners-up Beyond Gaming loomed as the benchmark to surpass should EG want to push through to groups.
Led by jojopyun on Sylas, Evil Geniuses passed with flying colors—specifically, red, white, and blue.
The meta shifts, EG shift with it
In three games, Evil Geniuses have played 14 unique champions out of a possible 15, with only jojopyun doubling up on Sylas. The team’s bottom lane had been under the microscope since it was announced that Danny would be taking a leave from the team due to mental health reasons.
It was a fundamentally different look for EG, who in Kaori have an AD carry that is more aggressive and lane-dominant than Danny was. In this game against Beyond, however, the Turkish marksman knew his role on Aphelios: sit back for a while and take over the late game. A disastrous Caitlyn/Lux game against Fnatic saw them follow up with Kalista/Taric against LOUD. On the top side, Impact and Inspired have run the gamut as well, trotting out Aatrox, Kennen, Maokai, and Lee Sin, among others.
All of these different looks, and more importantly, the fact that EG have executed on two of them against solid opposition, should give North American fans hope heading into the end of the play-in group stage and beyond.
A game of phases
EG’s second win of Worlds could be broken down into distinct phases. An explosive early game saw 12 kills traded between the two teams and a 4,000-gold lead accrued by EG. With jojopyun doing the heavy lifting on Sylas and a pre-planned top dive at level three, EG strode to a comfortable lead against Beyond.
By the 15-minute mark, jojopyun had amassed six kills and died for the second time, leaving the kill score at 8-4 in favor of the North American squad. Ten minutes later, Inspired stole a Cloud Drake. Then, almost 15 minutes after the game’s most recent kill, Beyond jungler Husha got caught out on Vi, giving Kaori his first kill of the game. Two minutes later, the game was over and Kaori had five kills.
Life comes at you fast.
EG are now 2-1 at Worlds 2022 and head into a contest against winless Oceanian representatives Chiefs Esports Club on Saturday, Oct. 1 at 6pm CT with more wiggle room. But the fine margins of the play-in stage mean EG can’t afford to underestimate their opponents. Despite their 0-2 record, Chiefs have shown their upset potential. Beyond take on DetonatioN FocusMe at 5pm CT and Chiefs at 8pm CT.
