Image credit: Riot Games
The LCS finally comes out on top against the LEC.
Evil Geniuses defeated MAD Lions in the first best-of-five series of the day, moving on to the group stage of Worlds 2022. But EG's win is two-fold; not only did they defeat MAD in a clean 3-0 sweep, but they also created history by being the first LCS team to defeat the LEC in an international LAN series.
With that win, EG moves on to the group stage whilst MAD will be heading home. This also makes it the second time that MAD has failed to make it past the Play-In Stage at the world championship. Another addition to that fact is that MAD is also the only team from a major region that has failed to do so on two occasions.
EG showcased great versatility in the series, ensuring that all three games featured different champions. While game one was pretty much even up until the late game stage, it was games two and three where MAD started to slowly crumble under the pressure.
Game one saw the likes of Jung "Impact" Eon-Yeong with Aatrox and Muhammed "Kaori" Hasan Şentürk on Varus pop off with five and four kills respectively. But that's not all as both Kacper "Inspired" Słoma and Philippe "Vulcan" Laflamme provided great lane presence and rotations that resorted in multiple kills. Inspired's Baron steal also proved to be a pivotal moment in game one, giving EG new life to take the game.
From then, MAD looked deflated and it only got worse from there. While they did start the early game well, EG soon took over and began to snowball that advantage through lane pressure or even forcing fights against MAD. Given the composition of bringing both Varus and Draven back for game two, it cost MAD dearly as EG kept both players in check, particularly Yasin "Nisqy" Dinçer who ended game two with six deaths.
While game three did take slightly longer for EG to finish it, they did so in style by keeping MAD at arm's length for the majority of the game. This was evident in the fact that MAD could only muster three kills to their name throughout game three. It was also fairly impossible for MAD to take a full-on fight versus EG given their team composition. Game three also saw Kaori make a strong case for a permanent spot in EG's starting roster for next season with his Aphelios.
After that win, it has also been confirmed that EG will be in Group B alongside DWG.KIA, G2 Esports, and JD Gaming. It has also been confirmed that GAM Esports is in Group C with DRX, Rogue, and Top Esports. with Just the best-of-five between Royal Never Give Up and DetonatioN FocusMe left, there will be a live draw later to see where the winner of the series and Fnatic will end up.
