As we come into the home stretch of the Spring Split only one team has secured a playoff spot, Cloud9. With the rest of the league still hunting for a playoff spot, this weeks feature match is Evil Geniuses versus Team Liquid. Fresh off their first 2-0 weekend Evil Geniuses looks to keep the momentum rolling into the playoffs. While Team Liquids rather disappointing 0-2 weekend puts them in an almost must-win situation.







Evil Geniuses

One of the newest members to the LCS franchise, Evil Geniuses (EG) are in a good position for their takeover of Spring Split Playoffs. With a previously successful core in, Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam, Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen and Colin “Kumo” Zhao the team is finally finding their play style. Even with that core the team had a slow start to the year, going 2-4 in their first six. There was much concern about clashing play styles between the core and the team’s new veterans, Bae “Bang” Jun-sik and Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro. The team has apparently worked through some of these differences as they look to push their three-game win streak into a playoff birth.







What to Expect

Throughout the entire split, the team has been incredibly active across the map, contesting for 75% of spawned Rift Heralds and obtaining 64% of dragons. Even when EG was losing games they were playing the map correctly. The team regularly swaps their bot lane up to create pressure on the map, allowing for Svenskeren to get Rift Herald. While the main carries of the team come in the mid and bot lane. Top laner Kumo has no problem playing the secondary role, playing low maintenance champions like Mordekaiser, Sett and Aatrox.

Although fans were worried about team synergy after a pregame interview with Bang where he irritably admitted: “I can’t control my teammates”. Bang has learned to live with that notion as the team looks more cohesive each week. The bot lane duo of Zeyzal and Bang has become one of the strongest and adaptive in the league. The duo has been on the forefront of new picks for bot lane in the LCS, debuting the Sona and Tahm Kench as well as the Senna and Rumble bot lanes this year. With a mid laner like Jiizuke who, led his former team Vitality to a successful Worlds 2018 run, 2019 was nothing but disappointing. After making the switch the LCS Jiizuke has looked revitalized. He has played 9 unique champions across the first 14 games, second-most in the league. With his diversity and loose playstyle coupled with the consistency from the bot lane, EG has solidified themselves as real contenders in the LCS.





Team Liquid

Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Coming into the 2020 season, no analyst, fan, or expert could have possibly predicted that Team Liquid is in their current position. After four consecutive championships, it came at somewhat of a shock that the team would make a roster change. Bringing in new jungler, Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen the team has been admittedly aiming more towards international success. The team experienced some difficulties acquiring a visa for Broxah and played the first three weeks with substitute Shern “Shernfire” Cherng Tai. Couple that with some motivational issues from the team’s superstar, Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng the curtain begins to peel back on the team’s issues. With a loss in this game, Team Liquid would lose control of their own destiny in the playoff race, requiring teams like Immortals or 100 Thieves to also lose.

What to Expect

One player who has been playing his heart out this split and that is Team Liquids mid laner, Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen. Currently holding the second-highest gold and cs difference in the league, Jensen has been a rock for Team Liquid this split. Each week the mid and jungle duo of Jensen and Broxah gets a little bit stronger and before last weekend it looked to be only improving. Last weekends 0-2 puts the team in a tough position. Any more losses surely puts them on the outside of the playoff picture so, they will need all their stars to step up big against Evil Geniuses.







Even though Doublelift has stated he has been having some motivational issues this split fans should still expect a big weekend from the star. This team has played around Doublelift for most of its existence. This season, however, the team has been experimenting more with playing around the teams other stars like Jeong “Impact” Eon-yeong. With picks like Sett, Impact has shown once again that he can be a carry for this team. Especially with a favorable matchup against young gun, Kumo. A big hurdle Team Liquid has to overcome is that the team holds the most Elder Drake spawns in the league, at six. Even though, they also have not secured an Elder Drake as a team. This is going to have to change if the team wants a chance at making the playoffs this split and it all starts this weekend. The match kicks off Saturday, March 14th, at approximately 7 PM EST over at watch.lolesports.com