In today’s first-round matchup of the LCS Spring Playoffs, Evil Geniuses kept their split alive with a 3-0 sweep of CLG, setting up a match with Golden Guardians next weekend.
The series saw EG, who finished fifth in the round-robin portion of Spring, take down a higher-seeded CLG in convincing fashion, winning by way of both dominant stomps and ferocious comebacks throughout the course of the match.
The third game of the series was by far the most dramatic and tense of the match, as it appeared for its majority that CLG would remain alive and push the contest beyond a three-game sweep. For the first 30 minutes of the series’ final game, CLG cleanly owned Summoner’s Rift and was one final push from extending the series.
But, despite CLG’s best efforts to remain alive in the third game, Evil Geniuses cut right through a 7,000 gold lead.
EG AD carry Victor “FBI” Huang would not be denied, as his late-game Aphelios came online, and the team was able to win three consecutive teamfights with the champion. Mid laner Joseph “Jojopyun” Pyun also supplemented the final victory of the series with an infinitely-scaling Veigar pick that helped EG survive and thrive all the way to the end of the 41-minute affair.
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“I’ve been saying this since last year: regular season really doesn’t matter,” Jojopyun said in a broadcast interview following the match.
“With how the bracket works and everything, it really doesn’t matter too much, so I knew we were playing really well in scrims too… we started ramping it up in scrims and we started playing really well so I think we’re all confident.”
Last season, Jojopyun and EG had to win four consecutive matches with elimination looming over their heads when they won the 2022 Spring Split, and they’ll have to do the same this year en route to an LCS title. Their run to the Spring championship will continue on Friday, March 31, when they face off with Golden Guardians.
For CLG, their Spring has ended after losing six of seven playoff games.