After our article on the reasons explaining why G2 will make short work of Evil Genius, it’s time to rebalance the debates by explaining under what conditions the North Americans could send the Europeans back to the fountain. Even if the LCS champion team is not the most experienced on the international scene, they could be much harder to beat than it seems at first glance.
A constantly growing team
At the start of the competitive season, few would have put a coin on EG as an LCS favorite. The team ramped up throughout the split, getting stronger with each step. Certainly this is the case for all the teams, but the EG have so far progressed more than the other formations. It’s very likely that the team will come up with new strategies and tactics specifically for MSI, and G2 may very well be surprised by their progress. As these will be the first matches of the competition, the Europeans will not have time to adapt and will not be able to offer a satisfactory response to the North Americans. Today EG is not the favorite of the group, but burying the team already would be a big mistake, given their progress during the Spring Split.
An inspiration of genius
Yesterday we sang the praises of Jankos, explaining that he would be one of the great assets of G2. Casually, Inspired could be even more than that for Evil Geniuses. Let’s be clear that in terms of experience and game vision, the advantage goes to Jankos. VSHowever, the EG jungler very often plays the role of carry with champions like Nocturne or Viego. This strategy is ultimately very unusual in Europe, and it is not impossible to surprise teams with it. Especially that the advantage of a jungler carry is to be able to feed anywhere on the map, and therefore to potentially take advantage of each situation for snowballing. While most teams prefer to bet on a carry in lane to ensure sufficient resources to feed automatically (i.e. with farm, whereas a jungler carry can be counter jungle or not find ganks and accumulate delay), it remains possible to jostle them with different strategies.
Play bot, win a lot
If the two teams will send inexperienced botlanes on the international scene, the Evil Genius still seem to have the advantage on this precise lane. Generally the strategies of the G2 consist in taking the advantage on the midlane before helping their duo, put beforehand on more passive champions in early. Only for this tactic to work, you must not be too dominated by the opposing botlane. And at this little game, the North Americans seem a little better than the Europeans. At the very least, they experienced it more in the playoffs. It would therefore not be impossible to see EG go on a very aggressive botlane to hinder the G2 game plan.
Surprised to see me?
If yesterday we said that one of EG’s weaknesses is their tendency to have to ban Ahri systematically, it should be noted that the team generally forces a ban on the opponents’ midlane with Jojopyun’s Leblanc banned 94% of the time against EG in the playoffs. It’s a safe bet that the Europeans will leave it open at least on the first game, in order to take a huge psychological advantage in case of victory, because despite Jojopyun’s talent, Caps seems for the moment to be a cut above. Only the G2 mid laner can also completely miss his games if he is in difficulty at the start of the game. There is probably a card to play on this side for EG.
The impact of a top laner
Although EG seem to be at a disadvantage when it comes to their international experience, they still have a major advantage on that side with Impact. The former world champion is still going strong, and despite years spent in the LCS, we regularly see him gain the upper hand over new generations from other regions. Capable of taking on a carry or frontlane role, the Korean should serve as an anchor for his team. It is he who will allow them to keep their cool in the face of the colossal pressure of such an event. And even though Brokenblade has a lot of talent, it’s hard to put him on the same level as Impact.
The European Masters of League of Legends hold their Spring Split champion, and there is an air of deja vu. For the third time in a row, Karmine Corp won the grand finale – 100% French this year.