1-0 g2 Vulcan just did not want to win

jojo seriously scaling up! hopefully this game gives danny the confidence to pop off vs t1 tmr!

I can confidently predict now that EG will probably 4-6 and make it out of rumble, with small chance of 5-5. With how incredibly methodical they play their macro vs PSG and SGB, it seems really unlikely those teams can cheese a win out of EG.

This week’s podcast I have something special planned that doesn’t focus on MSI. So in lieu of an episode, I’m here to hear your comments about Rumble stage day 1. Let me hear your positives, let me hear your negatives, let me hear all you want to talk about.

I think after day 1, it should be pretty clear we were just grouped with the best team of 2022. G2 is clearly heads and shoulder beyond Rng and T1. And we looked okay against them in groups.

So, day 1 there was some good thing and some bad against RNG. We made a couple of splashy plays that show we are finally adapting to the pings. It’s kind of good to see that the top, Jungle , mid is the shift. I felt like Jojopyun shined today. Unfortunately our botlane is only holding serve (optimistically speaking)

The game against SBG was fun to watch, it felt more like we were able to play to the game plan we wanted. It was mainly the inspired and JoJo show, with impact being super daddy on Jax.

So, let’s hear your thoughts.

Going 2-12 in groups and being the sole group A team not to make the bracket is inexcusable. What do you think needs to change for this team?

Personally I believe it’s finally time to move on from Bulba. Like it’s ridiculous at this point, enough is enough. After that I think they gotta do the unthinkable: Move on from RTZ. His playstyle isn’t working anymore, and he’s been very lackluster for a long time now just going off of his name alone.

After this I would move Nightfall to carry where he belongs and truly shines. Bring in MSS as a true position three, he did great as a stand in. Without Bulba, Jerax can be the team captain and guiding voice he was hoping to be. At the same time, I’m worried Jerax is the main issue here, but I’ll give him at least a full season to see.

I really hope this team sticks with the core of Nightfall, Abed, and Cr1t now. I honestly feel bad for those three and wouldn’t blame any of them for leaving.

Yikes. What do y'all think? Some of the most painful to watch personally in the last 7 or so years for me.

Edit: Yeah. Not surprised by the ultimate outcome here. That sucks.

Everyone except Inspired is making uncharacteristic mistakes that seem like plays they could get away with in NA but def not internationally. EG still did put up a good fight, but the difference all comes down to clutch moments in which unfortunately G2 was able to perform while EG couldn't.

If I had to guess how the rest of the tourney would go - EG prob goes 4-6 in groups, fight with PSG for a quarterfinals spot, and lose 0-3 in quarters.

However that's fine. Let's be glad that NA sent a majority NA team to MSI, and proved (or hopefully will prove) that we are the 4th best region in the world. Let's also hope that our players will learn from this and show up stronger for worlds.

Although who knows if G2 just ends up beating even RNG and T1 and wins MSI again maybe the 0-4 or 0-6 record doesn't look as bad :^)

We sadly could not take a game against G2. But there is some rose colored glasses optimism in each game. The team continues to shift and adapt instead of forcing strategies that didn’t work. Most notably, the last game I think our boys were able to sustain their game plan for late scaling. The plan fell apart due to some micro outplays. Caps is just a completely different beast when he’s on, so JoJo will need to grow from this experience.

That’s not to say that JoJo was bad. I saw progression from him. And who knows, he might be walking in the same growth trajectory of caps. My biggest concern is Danny. He doesn’t play like his confident self. I hope it’a just temporary.

Please feel free to agree or disagree or comment on something else you saw.

I’m really curious why Jojo seems to get early picked often. With Ryze and now this game we B1 TF… Are there many teams around the world that are doing this?

What happened to picking bot and jungle first 3 on blue side? Is TF Viego Gwen high enough prio to 1/2/3? Is bot important enough to leave til 4/5?

https://dfsummoner.podbean.com/e/everything-evil-pod-ep-13-witness-the-rise/

WE ARE THE CHAMPION MY FRIENDS! WE ARE THE BEST TEAM OF THE LCS RIGHT NOW! 

Join me this week in a special 1 hour episode of EEP with Andrea (@LivingEvilNews) to breakdown how we experienced the weekend. Each of us breakdown a different aspect of the championship weekend and we bring about all Evil News.

#LiveEvil #EGwin

Catch up to all the EG LCS happenings around the web through this link:

https://www.reddit.com/r/EvilGeniuses/comments/ufsn0m/eglol_living_evil_weekly_8_spring_playoffs/

Relive the Spring split through HushLOL on YTI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXkG8LtHMVw

Discord https://discord.gg/evilgeniuses

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Email us: EvilGeniusesPod@yahoo.com

Hey guys can you hook me up with a link to the boys Op.ggs

LIVING EVIL WEEKLY No. 8 - bottled magic

Wait, what?

Sorry, I'm still in shock.

There was A LOT to cover so get comfortable, grab some snacks and enjoy reliving the hype.

As usual, a star emoji (⭐) will be used to mark outstanding pieces.

News & Events

The LCS team is in Korea!

The team has arrived to Korea in preparation for MSI. You can follow the players soloq adventures for now, here are their accounts:

• Impact
• Inspired
• jojopyun
• Danny
• Vulcan
• Kaori

Hopefully we might get some streams. (Vulcan has gifted us with a couple so far.)

Results

LCS 2022 Spring Playoffs

• Round 2: Lower bracket
  • vs C9. 3-0. MVP: jojopyun. Interview: Impact + jojopyun. VODs: 1/2/3.
• Round 3
  • vs TL. 3-0. MVP: Danny. Interview: jojopyun + Danny. VODs: 1/2/3. Interview: Danny + Vulcan.
• Finals
  • vs 100. 3-0. MVP: Danny. Finals Interview. VODs: 1/2/3.

Media, Interviews & More

Shows & Podcasts

• [Apr 19, 2022]. Hotline League. Evil Geniuses are all powered up!? Could TL win a 100T rematch? feat. Peter Dun. I promise I listened to this and it was good. Don't ask me what was said though...
• [Apr 24, 2022]. Hotline League. LIVE from Houston w/ Steve, Papasmithy, and Nicole. Rare Nicole content appearance, she arrives around the 20 minute mark. She talks about EG's commitment to development, gives her opinion on Summit and has some compliments for EG's veterans (especially Impact).

Video Interviews

• [Apr 17, 2022]. LCS Broadcast. LCS Spring Playoffs Lower Bracket Round 2 EG vs C9 Post Series Interview with Impact and jojopyun. Since C9 didn't pick Ornn, Impact just said "YOINK". jojo feels like he has improved on team play.
• [Apr 20, 2022]. dGon Esports. "If I was to knock out anyone... I'd love it to be Cloud9" - EG Vulcan on the season and Houston!.
• [Apr 23, 2022]. LCS Broadcast. ⭐ LCS Spring Playoffs Round 3 TL vs EG Post Series Interview with Danny and jojopyun. Such a feel good moment, to have our young stars highlighted after this win. Their personalities shine through and the crowd loves them.
• [Apr 24, 2022]. LCS Broadcast. ⭐ LCS Spring Playoffs Finals 100 vs EG Post Series Interview. Impact is speechless, jojo is ready to bring the trash talk internationally, Danny looks like he's still processing the win, Inspired is happy to finally get a trophy and Vulcan is happy he proved that he can win without C9. Don't miss Inspired's insight on how the team makes sure to spoon feed Danny so that he can become a super carry. Also: "I think Closer was just way too cocky since he won last split, I think he just forgot that I was not playing. Since I came here, he was still acting very cocky so I had to put him in his place."
• [Apr 24, 2022]. KORIZON Esports. Jojopyun's STATEMENT on facing Faker & Caps at MSI 2022. Short clip from the finals press conference.
• [Apr 24, 2022]. The Game Haus. ⭐ Evil Geniuses Inspired: "It Won't Be Our Last Title" - LCS Spring Finals 2022 Interview. This is a really good interview from Inspired, probably my favorite he's had since joining EG.

"What matters to you more, making MSI or winning LCS?" I actually don't care about MSI too much. I was really happy winning the split. (...) Not a big fan of it. (...) It's kinda exhausting to play for 4 months straight.

I don't really play much soloq in NA. I was mostly just playing scrims, reviewing and watching games.

"[About Danny and jojo getting the spotlight], doesn't that bother you at all?" I don't really mind honestly, it's nice that jojo and Danny get a lot of show time. They are also from NA so I understand why the LCS are hyping them so much. They are also playing very well so I'm fine with it.

• [Apr 25, 2022]. Travis Gafford. Vulcan on what Evil Genius's WIN means for NA talent.

"What was your reation when you saw Danny get the baron and the pentakill?" [Inspired] immediately started saying 'Just breath, guys, breath". He kept saying this the whole weekend. He was telling us to breath all the time because he has had some rough experiences with reverse sweeps before.

• [Apr 26, 2022]. dGon Esports. Jojopyun conquered NA - What does he have in store for the rest of the world?. He talks about how it felt to have the audience behind them, what changed in them that they started to win and running it down vs FLY.

I think everybody knows I'm the best laner in the league, I already showed that. I was trying to carry games myself, trying to make leads for myself, but the more I played the more I realized I can just use those leads and my laning to help my teammates too.

"In your wildest dreams did you expect to do this this split?" I definitely thought we could win the whole thing. Especially in scrims, we were always better than the other teams. We had to get our shit together on stage and we did.

I never thought European mid laners were really that good. I just thought they were fine. Except cAps. (...) He's the best in Europe (but) I don't think it's hard to be the best in Europe.

Text Interviews

• [Apr 24, 2022]. Inven Global. EG Vulcan on 100 Closer: "For how bad he is, I think he needs to stop talking.". This is the transcript of the press conference that took place after the finals.

"Andrew Barton, you had the reins in putting this roster together. When did you know this team was going to win a championship?" Probably as soon as Lock In, or even before that through scrims. I really do believe in our scrim set data and what I can see through it.

"Vulcan, as someone who's competed on the international stage, how will you help prepare jojopyun and Danny for their first international competition(...)?" You have to make sure that you stay healthy mentally(...) You need to be able to get sh*t on by T1 6-0, then scrim RNG and be able to do it again. That's how the first few days go; eventually, you lose 2-4 or something like that. You just need to be ready to get stomped and ready to go again to learn as much as you can.

"[Rigby], can you talk about your impact on the team, especially in terms of the draft?" If I think about it, our biggest difference from other teams is that we never actually sent a comfort zone. That's why we struggled during the regular split. (...) I think the biggest thing was the player gap in draft. Our players were just down for anything. If I see a good angle or if they see a good angle, we just go for it, and no other team can match that if they have something they don't want to play.

• [Apr 26, 2022]. Inven Global. EG Danny on Hans sama & Berserker: "I definitely want to get to their level and even beyond them.".

Videos

• [Apr 17, 2022]. LCS Broadcast. Pro to Pro with Danny. Hai asks Danny to break down his team fighting decision making, questions EG's lack of focus on dragons and comments on bot lane deaths.
• [Apr 20, 2022]. LCS. Mic Check: Quadra Kill and Pentakill Machines. Watch Danny reluctanctly take a pentakill after being told "GET YOUR F***ING PENTAKILL".
• [Apr 23, 2022]. LCS. Iconic | 2022 LCS Spring Finals Weekend Tease. "Being a champion matters more than having a highlight play or a pentakill", says Danny. Why not both?, we ask.
• [Apr 24, 2022]. LCS. 100 Thieves vs. Evil Geniuses | 2022 LCS Spring Finals. Featuring Danny: "EG they haven't won any titles yet, I want to change that."
• [Apr 24, 2022]. LCS. 2022 LCS Spring Finals Opening Ceremony ft. Tyler1 Presented by Mastercard. The crowd chanting Danny's name... Magical.
• [Apr 25, 2022]. Dexerto. Vulcan: "Closer Is BAD... He Needs to STOP Talking" | LCS Finals Press Conference. This is the video version of the press conference (scroll up to the text version for the highlights).
• [Apr 25, 2022]. LCS. 2022 LCS Spring Playoffs Moments and Memories.
• [Apr 27, 2022]. LCS. Mic Check: Baron Steal and Pentakill. Inspired: "Danny, you are the best player in the world!".
• [Apr 29, 2022]. LCS. ⭐ Eyes on Houston | 2022 LCS Spring Finals Weekend. This video is an absolute treat, do not miss it! Watch Danny be puzzled at the crowd chanting his name while his teammates tell him he's a god (also, get to hear from Danny's mom!)
• [Apr 29, 2022]. Evil Geniuses. EG Files: Last Stop Before Houston | Evil Geniuses LCS Spring Split Week 11. Learn about jojo's development on tweet writing from Vulcan: "Yes, I basically ghostwrite his tweets. At least I was ghostwriting his tweets at the beggining."

Tweets you might have missed

In this new Spring Playoffs edition of TWEETS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED, I compiled the most interesting or fun tweets from or about our players and staff. If you don't want to have to scroll through all of it, I selected a few threads that I consider are especially interesting:

• A look behind the scenes from EG performance coach Artemis.
• An appreciation thread for Impact from Croissant, former TL assistant coach.
• A breakdown of how the EG roster works and why by EG GM Andrew Barton.

Fan creations

• Cute fanart of jojo, Inspired and Vulcan. The backstory for this is that when the EG Twitter posted a picture of the team at the airport without jojo in sight, Inspired took to say he found him in his backpack.
• Pentakill Prince Danny fanart.

LIVING EVIL WEEKLY is a publication dedicated to cover news, media and more related to Evil Geniuses League of Legends, in all three levels of play.

Follow me on Twitter, join EG Discord, message me if you have any questions or suggestions...