Before the start of the final week of LCS Summer 2022, Evil Geniuses had already secured their playoffs spot.
Dubbed “superweek” by Riot Games, LCS teams played their final three matches across three days instead of the usual two. Some were fighting for their spot in the LCS Summer 2022 playoffs, while others were vying for seeding.
After earning wins against Golden Guardians and Dignitas, EG secured the top spot in the regular season. To close it out, they had one last opponent on the board — Cloud9, who were looking to improve their seeding going into the playoffs.
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Evil Geniuses’ Inspired carried the invisible Arcane Vi buff against Cloud9
Cloud9 had more at stake than EG, but both teams still pursued champions that are strong in the current meta during drafts.
EG first picked Sivir on blue side for Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki and left jungle for last, locking in Vi for Kacper “Inspired” Słoma for the first time this season. Cloud9 matched late game AD carry for AD carry, with Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol on Twitch, while jungler Robert “Blaber” Huang played Viego.
Even though EG had more kills from the early to mid game, Cloud9 maintained a gold lead, however small, and accumulated more dragons.
Things started to change in the late game when EG wrested control in team fights, and got themselves three Mountain Dragon souls and Baron buff. 37 minutes in, they downed the inhibitor at top, then rotated to mid as five to continue pushing even though Baron buff had worn out.
While defending base, Cloud9’s Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami landed a perfect Glacial Prison onto Joseph Joon “jojopyun” Pyun’s Ahri. After eliminating the AP carry, they chased down EG’s bot lane as well for three kills, opening up the possibility of turning this game around.
But Inspired, just like Vi from Arcane, was stubborn enough to deny Cloud9 from ever coming back.
Playing around C9’s lack of vision in the top side jungle, he first used Vault Breaker to escape Ethereal Chains before casting it a second time to take down Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen’s LeBlanc in a 1v1. C9’s duo bot lane then thought that they could trade 2v1, but this was a 7/0/8 Vi who had five completed items including boots, Conqueror and Triumph runes, plus Divine Sunderer as sources of healing.
On top of that, Blast Shield was active, and after a series of punches, Inspired swiftly sent C9’s bot lane to their grave.
Rolling with the tempo, EG went on to secure another Baron buff to close the game out at 45:29. After the loss, Cloud9 and FlyQuest played a tiebreaker to determine seeding. C9 won to secure 5th place, and will face CLG in the upper bracket, while FlyQuest takes on Team Liquid next weekend.
Inspired’s Vi build
- Boots of Lucidity
- Divine Sunderer
- Black Cleaver
- Death’s Dance
- Guardian Angel
Fans can catch the LCS playoffs live on the official LCS Twitch channel.
READ MORE: All teams qualified for the LCS Summer 2022 playoffs
