LCS Summer 2020 Playoff Preview: Evil Geniuses vs 100 Thieves

We preview the second series of the LCS Summer playoffs losers bracket, as Evil Geniuses take on 100 Thieves.

We round out the first weekend of the LCS Summer Split playoffs for 2020 with one more matchup in the loser’s bracket. One of Evil Geniuses and 100 Thieves will keep their season and their hope for Worlds alive, while the other will have their season come to an abrupt end.

Evil Geniuses

Record: 8-10

Roster

Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon
Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen
Greyson “Goldenglue” Gilmer
Bae “Bang” Jun-sik
Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam

Playoffs: Lost vs FlyQuest (2-3)

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FlyQuest managed to take down Evil Geniuses in a hotly-contested series that was far closer than I thought it would be. After losing the first two games, EG was able to battle back and win two straight games to bring the series to match point. Unfortunately, they did lose the deciding game in under 30 minutes, but it was still an impressive showing.

The key to their two wins was strong play out of their mid laner, Goldenglue. In those two wins, he had a scoreline of 7/1/10 on Orianna and Leblanc. In the other three games he had three kills and 14 deaths.

Their top laner Huni, who they expected to be one of the main carries for the team, really didn’t bring much to EG in this series. He got an off-meta pick of Hecarim top twice in losses and lost the deciding game on one of his signature champions, Gangplank.

100 Thieves

Record: 7-11

Roster

Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho
Juan Arturo “Contractz” Garcia
Tommy “ry0ma” Le
Cody “Cody Sun” Sun
Philippe “Poome” Lavoie-Giguere

The Regular Season

100 Thieves entered the season with a much different lineup than what they ended up with. Veteran William “Meteos” Hartman was subbed out for Contractz in the jungle while Poome was brought up from Academy to replace former support William “Stunt” Chen. Both of these moves appear to have paid dividends, as both players have outperformed the original starters.

Indeed, 100 Thieves managed to turn their season around after a disastrous 2-6 start to go 5-5 down the stretch to secure a spot in the playoffs. This is a team that has a lot of very obvious limitations in the two primary carry positions, but they can still get some strong performances from across the map.

Head to Head Matchups

Top Lane: Huni vs. Ssumday

The most-volatile of the matchups in this series, Huni was the impetus behind the mid-season roster swap for EG. As I noted, he didn’t exactly make that tradeoff pay off, and he’s facing perhaps the best top laner in the league. Ssumday has been an absolute monster all year and is going to be 100 Thieves’ primary carry they will play around.

Advantage: 100 Thieves

Jungle: Svenskeren vs. Contractz

Two former Cloud9 junglers, one left at the apex of his LCS career, the other in disgrace, and both have taken opposite career trajectories. Svenskeren was the 2019 Summer MVP, but upon joining EG has become one of the most needlessly-aggressive junglers in the league.

On the other hand, Contractz left C9 with a lot of wasted potential and bounced around before ending up on 100 Thieves. This split, though Contractz has been one of the team’s strongest players and one of the best early game junglers in the entire league.

Advantage: 100 Thieves

Mid Lane: Goldenglue vs. Ry0ma

The tradeoff of getting Huni in the lineup was that Evil Geniuses would have to take on Goldenglue as their mid laner and, honestly, they got better performances than they could have expected. And certainly, he has out-performed Ry0ma, one of the weakest laners and the mid who gives up the most unforced deaths.

Advantage: Evil Geniuses

ADC: Bang vs. Cody Sun

In my opinion, Bang has been the most-underrated AD Carry in the LCS. He’s one of the most efficient ADCs in terms of his damage-to-gold ratio (1.45, second only to FBI) and is able to absorb a lot of pressure as a weak-side bot laner. On the other hand, Cody Sun has proven to be a sub-standard laner and one of the worst ADCs in terms of damage output.

Advantage: Evil Geniuses

Support: Zeyzal vs. Poome

Zeyzal is another criminally-underrated support, just by virtue of the fact that he makes very few mistakes in game. Contrast that to the young Poome, who was second in most unforced kills by a support despite playing in only 12 of 14 games. It’s to be expected from a young player, but Poome hasn’t yet shown the consistency you’d want out of a support.

Advantage: Evil Geniuses

Keys to the Series

It’s going to swing around the lane where the teams are most even, which would be the mid lane. Ry0ma and Goldenglue have both shown a lot of inconsistency and poor play, which is why they ended up being among the lowest-ranked mids by the end of the season. Whichever one of them can step up this series will likely decide the winner.

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Even though Ry0ma was the player who ended up being lower-ranked, I actually lean more towards him as the better player than Goldenglue. His 1.87 adjusted KDA (which is below average) was on the back of more assists, solo kills, and fewer deaths per game. He also slightly edges out Goldenglue in terms of damage-to-gold ratio.

The X factor, though, is the jungle, which can decide this matchup. Even though Contractz is the better player, I actually think Svenskeren will provide much more attention to the mid laner. If Goldenglue can take advantage of that additional pressure, he can decide the series. But that’s a big “if.”

Prediction: 100 Thieves win 3-2

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