Stephen No
Cloud9 awaits their opponents in the Grand Finals as the Evil Geniuses are set to face off against Flyquest in the Loser’s Finals. While EG fell to C9 in the upper bracket finals, they managed to look fairly competitive— even stealing a win against the undisputable best team in North America. Flyquest continues their lower bracket run as they clutch out a Silver Scrapes-worthy victory against TSM.
Now, as three teams remain with two series remaining, let’s preview the lower bracket finals and see how each roster stacks up.
Evil Geniuses (2nd seed, 1-1 postseason record)
The Evil Geniuses were defeated by 1st-seeded Cloud9 last Saturday— but didn’t look completely hopeless like most other teams. With the help of Jun-Sik “Bang” Bae’s solid laning phase and prowess on Aphelios, the Evil Geniuses managed to flip a 5,000 gold-deficit to win game 3 of the series. However, they would eventually lose the series in the following game 4, a 22-to-9 stomp of kills in just 31 minutes.
Some questions remain in the top lane for Colin “Kumo” Zhao, who has yet to produce dominant laning performances. Kumo has been victim to a few unexpected solo kills and often falls behind his opponent— Cloud9 constantly took advantage of this and camped the young top-laner throughout the series.
Even though the team looked outclassed by Cloud9, Evil Geniuses should look to bounce back in their next match. EG has won all three times against Flyquest, most recently facing off in the first round of the upper bracket in a 3-1 victory. Fans should look to see more stability and consistency in the Evil Geniuses’ mid-jungle synergy— but as long as Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro can pull ahead of Flyquest’s Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage in the midlane, things shouldn’t look too worrisome for the newest squad in the LCS.
Flyquest (3rd seed, 2-1 postseason record)
After losing to the Evil Geniuses in a series plagued with frustrating pauses and client issues, Flyquest look to quench their revenge and snag their first-ever win against the Evil Geniuses. The team has since surged through the lower bracket, dominating the Golden Guardians and clutching out a win against postseason monsters TSM.
One notable change to this lineup is Colin “Solo” Earnest, who has since replaced Omran “V1per” Shoura in the toplane since Flyquest’s loss to EG. Solo has been impressive in the laning phase, and contributes some of the highest damage output for his team. In Flyquest’s recent five-game-series against TSM, Solo often brunted the majority of TSM’s ganks, allowing his teammates to secure other objectives around the map.
However, none can deny the impact that PowerOfEvil has brought back to Flyquest. Aside from the upgrade in the top lane, Flyquest’s midlaner has since been an unstoppable force in the postseason, even earning the Player of the Match reward in both of the team’s wins. Although there was criticism for PoE’s lackluster performance towards the latter half of the regular season, there’s no doubt that the German midlaner is the most integral piece to the roster’s lower bracket run.
The over-under
While most fans and analysts predict the Evil Geniuses to pull ahead of Flyquest once more, it’s clear that this series is likely to go the distance. It’s likely that most of the pick-ban phase will look to prioritize comfort picks for both teams’ toplaners while saving counter-picks for the midlaners. Ultimately, this should be a fun and exciting match, with the winning team set to advance to the finals against Cloud9.
The Evil Geniuses face off against Flyquest on Saturday, April 18th.
Who do you think will win the series? Let us know by tweeting @SlashShout!
Loading…