Week 3 of the 2021 LCS Summer Split featured an opening-day upset with Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro leading his team against Cloud9.
Jiizuke’s Ryze teleports back into the LCS
Evil Geniuses Jiizuke played outstandingly well against C9’s Luka “Perkz” Perković’s Akali in mid on his classic pick, Ryze.
Alongside Jeong “Impact” Eon-young on Nocturne and Lee “IgNar” Dong-geun on Galio, the trio used their ultimates in unison to catch out stray enemies around the map.
Ryze comes as an effective counter pick against meta mid champions like Lee Sin and Akali because of his strong scaling and split-push potential. In the game against Cloud9, Evil Geniuses Jiizuke garnered 288 CS over Perkz’s 184.
The EG squad eventually closed out the match by sieging the C9 base from all sides. They initiated the final fight with a wombo combo comprising Galio’s Hero’s Entrance and Nocturne’s Paranoia.
Evil Geniuses Jiizuke picks Katarina as his favorite one-trick champion
When asked about which is his favorite champion, Evil Geniuses Jiizuke mentioned Katarina as someone he could play as a one-trick for life.
“If Katarina was powerful, I would pick Katarina,” said Evil Geniuses Jiizuke. “She fits my playstyle and she’s really fun to play.”
The mid laner said that Katarina can definitely carry your team’s gameplay as long as you get her ability reset upon getting a kill or assist.
Jiizuke mentioned that Riot Games has nerfed Katarina for her OP status in solo queue, making her an impossible pick in competitive play.
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Jiizuke speaks up about the infamous Lucian dive
Jiizuke weighed in on the current atmosphere of the NA region and how players are defined by their worst misplays.
“To me, I played really well in Spring, but the whole performance and my stats were clouded by a single Lucian game,” stated Jiizuke. “The most famous part was my dive, but everyone int-ed in some team fight and that’s why we lost.”
The mid laner also mentioned that he regularly plays “like a maniac” and doesn’t really look at statistics even though he’s usually ranked first or second in most stats.
While the misplay made Jiizuke stick out like a sore thumb in the LCS, other major League of Legends regions had players who take on a similar mindset.
“There’s Caps and Hylissang in Europe, TheShy and Rookie in the LPL, and even Chovy in the LCK,” stated Evil Geniuses Jiizuke. “They have bad games, but the important thing is what you do for the most part.”
The EG player believes that he played well 80%-90% of the Spring Split and can be regarded as a top 3 mid laner, but the NA audience clouded his entire season with a minor lowlight.
Evil Geniuses will face Team Liquid on June 26 at 6 a.m. GMT+8.
Catch the action live on the official LCS Twitch and YouTube channels.
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