Second Verse Same As The First: Evil Geniuses Familiar System From Summer 2021

Statistics used as of 2/19/2022. Statistics do not factor in their loss to Immortals outside of how it impacted the standings.

Backs against the wall, Evil Geniuses searched for one final opportunity against Team Liquid. A game where they appeared to be outclassed by the star-studded Team Liquid line-up, Evil Geniuses turned to their carries for a moment of brilliance. Zoomers….zoom. Team Liquid wouldn’t allow that. Constructing a line-up around a hyper-aggressive mid-laner and an outstanding marksman sounds familiar for Evil Geniuses. In fact, it is nearly the same system they operated under in the summer of 2021.

Evil Geniuses, for the first time since June 6th, have a regular season losing streak greater than one. It is currently three. A team widely considered one of the best in North America has experienced turbulence to start the spring split. While widely considered an experimental stage given the lack of influence the spring has on a team’s ability to qualify for the grandest stage of them all, the team likely weren’t expecting this slow of a start to the regular season after their second-place finish for the Lock-In tournament.

Sitting at 2-4 on the season, the team doesn’t appear to be in panic mode — and rightfully shouldn’t be. But, its tough to ignore the similarities that plagued them in the previous summer.

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One of the beautiful things about 2021 Evil Geniuses was how they played around Daniele “Jiizuke”  di Mauro. The “Italian Stallion” had much to prove after a dreadful 2020. He would continually pressure his opponents — outputting the most damage per minute among mid laners in 2021 summer. He would also be the recipient of the most farm post fifteen among mid laners and he would put that gold to use.  EG would also bring in Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki, adding another threat to the team. And in return, the team would act as a safety net, putting themselves on the line to protect their president.

Evil Geniuses weren’t this strategically dominate team. They would prioritize turrets and rift heralds over dragons. They would win the laning phase and look to snowball that into team-fighting excellence. Both of their jungles provided an excellent ripple to how the early game was approached.

This season, they once again were bringing in a potential threat in the mid lane. Joseph “jojopyun” Joon Pyun deserved all of the hype he was receiving. Even if it did feel premature to promote him to the main roster after flaws in his game were still noticeable in the academy system, his start has been promising. There are a ton of similarities between Jojo and Jizuke from a statistics perspective.

Jojopyun hasn’t been a perfect player but then again, neither was Jizuke. It is tough to ignore his positioning errors — which at times have cost them important leads or game control. But this was also somewhat to be expected.

Danny has still been one of the top-performing marksmen in North America. He averages massive gold leads in the laning phase along with continuing to output excellent damage per minute numbers.

But teams have done an excellent job at removing the safety net from under Evil Geniuses. Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme hasn’t necessarily made a great first impression in his first split with the team. While acting as the primary engage in several matches, he’s left a lot on the rift.

And the legendary top laner Jeong “Impact”  Eon-young has been used in many different ways to start the season. Whether on a traditional competitive top laner like Gnar, planning a smite-support in Karma or trying to match the split push with a Tryndamere or Gnar. The identity crisis has impacted the stats sheet but it also impacted how he’s looked on the rift.

But one of the biggest surprises with Evil Geniuses has been their change in strategic focus. This split, they’ve been one of the best in first dragon secures. On the flip side, they’ve been one of the worst teams in herald control and turrets secured along with their struggles in team fighting.

Then again, it still feels like the same Evil Geniuses that impressed so much in the summer. Stylistically, they’re confused. For a team that fell off the face of the earth because of a bad meta read, that is somewhat concerning. But with time, there’s the hope that everything will straighten out. There are moments that are concerning — such as the previously mentioned Team Liquid managing to pick-off Jojopyun and Danny and finishing the game. But then again, when it works, Danny gets a pentakill on Zeri.

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Evil Geniuses appear to be comfortable with their system. It is a system that has helped turned them into North America’s beloved franchises. It is a system that has solidified Peter Dun’s status as one of the best minds in competitive League of Legends. And it helped turn Jojopyun and Danny into some of the most exciting players to come from the academy and amateur system. But it has also been figured out by a ton of really good teams in North America.

Strength of schedule is an interesting conversation. People are quick to point out the fact that their schedule is tough. But aren’t they supposed to win tough games if they’re a good team? Or are opponents just better than them now?

The beautiful thing about competitive League of Legends, when it comes to regular season, is that every game truly does matter when it comes to the standings. You can’t take games off, you can’t really take weeks off. While relegation is no longer a thing, to be a top organization you must win. And you must win a lot.

It is clearly understood that their record doesn’t reflect the overall strength for the team. Their record reflects that this team still struggles. If it wasn’t for the respect that the organization has been able to build over the past two years, or maybe if the organization had a different name, the conversations about Evil Geniuses might be going a little bit differently.

After losing to Immortals, that good press appears to be fading away just a little bit. And with the super week coming up, panic may be coming with it.

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