Evil Geniuses Have The Blueprint, Time To Use It
Geniuses are always plotting, scheming and thinking ahead - the bigger picture is always on their mind. This is also the case with one of the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) teams, Evil Geniuses. A team that over time has worked on a blueprint that now, more than ever, is at the perfect time to be used.
After they rejoined the LCS in late 2019 following their purchase of Echo Fox’s slot in the league, the Evil Geniuses have always been looking for different ways to find that League of Legends glory. As a team that had to start from scratch due to them not having a single member on their roster, the team had a tough road to renew their LCS presence. Not only did they once again have to establish a fanbase, but they also had to acquire players through various other teams.
The end result of that was a roster of strong players in their own right that tried to coordinate it all together but couldn’t make it work. This roster had Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon in the top lane, Dennis "Svenskeren" Jonhsen in the jungle, Greyson Gregoyry "Goldenglue" Gilmer in the mid-lane and a duo of Bae "Bae" Jun-sik, and Tristan "Zeyzal" Stidam. This was a good a roster as it gets given the circumstances. Some play from mid-laner Daniele "Jiizuke" di Mauro was sprinkled in there as well but didn’t quite work.
This conglomerate of players netted the organisation a third-place finish in the spring split playoffs - not bad for having your return to the LCS be without a roster. Come the summer split though, they worsened, finishing at sixth place during the regular season and mirroring that placing in the playoffs.
The placing called for a change of pace and a reiterating of the blueprint going into the 2021 season. First, they added one of the most stable top laners in recent LCS history in Keong "Impact" Eon-young. Second, they brought in Matthew "Deftly" Chen and Lee "IgNar" in the bottom lane. And they were all to go with Svenskeren and Jiizuke, who got a second change from the organisation.
All of these players showed promise one way or another in the Lock In tournament. They all had their moments in the tournament which led to a surprising performance early on, and although they got quickly shut out eventual tournament winners, Team Liquid, LCS enthusiasts could see that there was something there, something to work with going into the spring split.
During the spring split, they maintained a solid foundation as one of the teams in the middle of the pack and showcased flashes of potential with wins over the likes of first-place finishers, Cloud9. This wasn’t enough though as come playoff time, they got quickly stamped out once again, this time at the hands of Team SoloMid. Once again, there was something there, something to work with going into the following split. All they needed was some minor adjustments.
These minor adjustments came at the hand of newcomer ADC, Kyle "Danny" Sakamaki, who completely took the league by storm, earning himself Rookie of the Split. On top of that, their wildcard of a mid-laner in Jiizuke, showed up big time playing at an MVP calibre level. The team began to click: cogs were turning, wins were being racked up, and suddenly Evil Geniuses was one of the better teams in the game. But once again, they were cut short in the summer playoffs.
This all brings us to the 2022 season, one that the Geniuses look tremendously exciting for with this new roster. A roster consisting of Impact and Danny now have added some heavy hitters.
They brought in top tier jungler, Kacper "Inspired" Sloma from the LEC’s Rogue as well as top tier North American support, Philipe "Vulcan" Laflamme from Cloud9. But one addition took home the cake, the replacing of impressing mid-laner Daniele "Jiizuke" di Mauro and adding highly-touted newcomer, Joseph "jojopyun" Joon Pyun. All to be used as part of the blueprint.
It’s time for Evil Geniuses to take note of the title sheets, write down their site and floor plans because, with this new roster, the once zero organisation is now on the way to becoming a hero.