LCS Lock In 2022 Week 1 Takeaways
The first week of matches in the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Lock In tournament was full of impressive and surprising performances, from the likes of Evil Geniuses impressing with a 3-0 start to Cloud9’s half substitute roster starting red-hot, there was much to look at.
With that in mind, here are some of our takeaways from the first week of play in the LCS Lock In 2022 tournament.
Evil Geniuses perform to expectations, sweep the first week
Similar to last year’s Lock In tournament, Evil Geniuses have taken the Lock In tournament by storm, but not similarly is the roster in which they’re doing it with. When it came to their initial 2021 Lock In performance, the Geniuses were unexpectedly strong, taking names and looking on the up and up. This time around though, this team is performing to expectation with their new pick ups, although earlier than expected, they are firing on all cylinders, especially after their victory over Team Liquid.
The young duo of mid-laner Joseph “jojopyun” Joon Pyun—who is debuting in the LCS—and ADC Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki showcased what the new era of players is capable of all the while the other two additions, namely jungler Kacper “Inspired” Sloma and support, Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme are performg well. This team has the ability to go far and so far they’ve shown why that’s the case.
Counter Logic Gaming’s fresh new faces
Although not as positive in the win column after the first week as the likes of Evil Geniuses, this new Counter Logic Gaming is a sight for fan’s sore eyes. After a mediocre year that consisted of five well-rounded and experienced players in each of the roster’s roles, a batch of fresh new faces is something the organisation’s needed.
It might be too early to tell, but an impressive and exciting win over Immortals, who in many people’s eyes upgraded where they needed to, might some early signs of something positive to come to this tenured organisation who hasn’t seen success since 2016.
Team Liquid’s interchanging bot lane
It’s no secret that after this offseason concluded, Team Liquid were the superteam. A team championed by two of their remaining players from last season, namely jungler Lucas “Santorin” Larsen and support Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in just needed the ideal pieces around them to continue on track and they got them. Astonishingly, they managed to upgrade one of what many thought was hard to upgrade role after they landed North American superstar, Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg who came out of retirement and left Team SoloMid after eight years with the organisation. To top it all off, they acquired two high-end superstars from the LEC, top laner Gabriel “Bwipo” Rau who returned to the top lane after a one-year stint in the jungle, and ADC Steven “Hans Sama” Liv. There’s no better way to follow up on last year’s team than this.
Unfortunately for them, their full roster hasn’t been able to be unleashed due to CoreJJ’s ongoing Greencard issues leading to an interchanging in the bot lane. So far, the duo of Hans Sama and support, Bill “Eyla” Nguyen have been an unexpected hit while the duo of Sean “Yeon '' Sung and CoreJJ haven’t been in. In the end, the team is still 2-1 in the group after a loss to the strong-performing Evil Geniuses. If this team is still performing well without their full roster only time will tell what the full thing will become.
Cloud9’s still got it
This roster of two LCS starters in the form of jungler Robert “Blaber” Huang and now mid-laner, Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami plus three Academy players has been surprising. Granted, one of these Academy players is multiple-time Worlds visiting Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen, but still. Many fans, pundits, and analysts chalked them up to end in the lower half of the standings and they’ve impressed.
All of their Academy players have to play, their LCS starters are doing their thing and they’ve earned their keep thus far. Only time will tell if this will continue or if they’ll finish with an early playoff exit.
This is just a number of exciting takeaways from just the first week of Lock In 2022.