Evil Geniuses' GM Andrew Barton Is Confident In The Roster's Present And Future
Evil Geniuses have shown up big to start the new League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) season. The sole 3-0 team to start the first week of Lock In — later joining Cloud9, 100 Thieves, and Team Liquid at 3-1 in the second week — saw tremendous unexpected success right off the bat with a clean sweep in the quarterfinals over Golden Guardians to boot.
This was a roster that was overlooked in the offseason due to big-name pickups for Cloud9 in Luka “Perkz” Perkovic, Barney “Alphari” Morris with Team Liquid, and Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh for Team SoloMid.
The organisation added former multiple time LCS Champion and World Champion Jeong “Impact” Eon-young, back-to-back LCS finalist from last year in Lee “IgNar” Dong-geun, and AD Carry Matthew “Deftly” Chen, who has prior LCS experience and has risen to the occasion. This was all to go with their already top of the line jungler and former MVP, Dennis “Svenskeren“ Johnsen, and risky yet currently well-performing mid laner, Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro.
The team and roster we have put together has the ability to compete with anyone.
Click to enlargeA solid middle of the pack team; at least that’s what everyone that did their preseason Power Rankings had in mind. Now that the LCS Lock In is on its way to the semifinals, the roster has their General Manager, Andrew Barton, supremely confident that it can hang with the best.
“I’m not worried about anyone at the top. The team and roster we have put together has the ability to compete with anyone", Barton confidently said. “So I won’t be worried about any opponent and what they bring to the table just because I know what we have and I know what we’re working with here at EG.”
The squad certainly was expected to be good, but not this good, and especially not this quickly. Alongside 100 Thieves — and later on with their starting jungler, Santorin, finally arriving in North America, and Team Liquid — Evil Geniuses are firing on all cylinders right off the bat. Much to the surprise of not just fans and analysts, but for Barton as well.
“I don't think I necessarily expected it to click this fast and I still think we have a tremendous way to go. But obviously, we have a lot of experience on this roster, adding in IgNar, adding in Impact, and then Deftly himself has been an LCS player before, and we're very confident in all these players and bringing them in when it comes to their experience,” Barton said. “These guys are going to get on the same page and know what's expected of them. So ultimately I'm just proud of them for taking this tournament very seriously. And coming to work every day with a good attitude, and they're ready to learn, so it’s been great”.
All of these results aren’t just a byproduct of the round-robin being a best-of-one either. Evil Geniuses — from what was seen in the offseason — are serious about being a contender. Their pickups, their pickups’ performances and the team’s performance overall show that.
Click to enlargeOnce Evil Geniuses went into the quarterfinals against Golden Guardians, they continued their dominance. The solo lanes were instrumental in their series win and the criticism of Impact only being a threat on Renekton was dispelled. Jiizuke’s unexpected Ryze pick performed, and the question going into the season that many had, Deftly, carried in team fights.
This roster didn’t underestimate the newly revamped Golden Guardians or the fact that it was a best-of-three series either.
“Our coaching staff is meeting throughout the morning and the evening, just to ensure we're prepped on both sides — it's definitely a little more work,” Barton explained. “We have our amateur team [and] we have our Academy team that are all going through data for us. With an additional team on our League of Legends program, we just have a lot more data to work with. I'm super confident with our coaching staff and their ability to work together and get down to business when it comes either best-of-threes or best-of-fives.
After dismantling Golden Guardians, we asked Barton on his thoughts on having to face either Team Liquid or FlyQuest. Both teams looked much stronger with their starting junglers finally arriving in North America.
“I think both teams are strong. We’re happy to take on either, and whichever way it goes, that’s the way it goes,” said Barton. “This tournament for us is continuous learning and improvement. And as long as I’m seeing that out of our team, I’m going to be happy with the results because I know we’re coming into work every day and really trying to grind and get after it. I’ll be happy either way."
Like Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid ended up sweeping their quarterfinals opponent — seemingly toying with them. Win or lose, regardless of the outcome of their matchup versus them, Evil Geniuses’ General Manager is already looking towards the future, alongside acknowledging their strong start to the LCS.
“So far, everything’s great, and there's still going to be more to come. We still have Peter Dun and Turtle missing from our coaching staff. And once these guys get over here to America and start working with our LCS [team], I'm expecting things to pick up even further.”
There’s still much room for improvement, according to Barton. “I'm expecting our LCS team to look a lot cleaner and more decisive in their wins. So there's still more to come from our LCS team, and we're just getting started here.”
Evil Geniuses look to keep their strong start going as they face off against Team Liquid in the semifinals of the LCS Lock In tournament on Saturday, January 30.
Images via Riot Games
