LCS Playoffs: Previewing Cloud9 vs Evil Geniuses

League of Legends. Photo Courtesy of Riot Games. /

We preview the coming contest in the LCS playoffs between Cloud9 and Evil Geniuses.

Tomorrow, two titans will battle out for a spot in the finals of the LCS playoffs. We will find out if Cloud9’s dominance will continue or if the strong Evil Geniuses squad will manage to pierce the king’s armor.

Cloud9 (17-1)

C9 continued their absolute domination from the regular season in the first round of the playoffs, sweeping 100 Thieves 3-0. Like most of their games this season, the series against the Thieves was, frankly, not even close. Only two players died more than once in the three-game series: top laner Eric “Licorice” Ritchie died two times and jungler Robert “Blaber” Huang died four times in Game 3.

Evil Geniuses (10-8)

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Evil Geniuses also cruised through their first-round playoff series. They took FlyQuest down in four games and won most of the games in convincing fashion. The series was highlighted by some interesting picks from mid laner Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro, including two games on Ezreal mid.

Head-to-Head

Cloud9, of course, held the 2-0 series lead when the teams faced off in the LCS regular season. In their first meeting, EG was mired in a slump and Cloud9 took full advantage, surrendering only four times in a 30-minute speed run for C9.

In their second meeting, in the last weekend of the season, EG kept the game closer…sort of. The game went a minute longer and EG managed to pick up five more kills than in the first game. But huge games by Blaber and ADC Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen helped boost C9 to the win.

Key Match-Up

This series will feature the two best AD Carries in the LCS in Zven and EG’s Bae “Bang” Jun-sik. While Bang really hasn’t had to be the primary carry for the Evil Geniuses (that role has fallen more often to Jiizuke), in this series I would expect him to shoulder more of the burden. Cloud9’s mid Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer is one of the most versatile mid laners in the LCS and will likely be able to neutralize Jiizuke.

Both of these champions have overlapping champion pools, as they have put in most of their games on Aphelios this split. Expect that to be a highly contested pick in this matchup along with Ezreal.

Prediction: Cloud9 wins 3-0

Look, this is not to take anything away from Evil Geniuses, who have been the clear second-best team in the last few weeks. Cloud9 is just so darn good, I don’t think there is any team that can stop them. In every single lane, Cloud9 just outclasses EG.

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That said, I would not be surprised if Evil Geniuses did manage to take a game or even two off Cloud9. The talent is on this team to do that and I’ve said that C9 is only going to be beaten by a team that is playing at their absolute peak. But I don’t see any chance that EG can pull out their best game for an entire series and it’s entirely possible that their peak might not even be good enough.

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