Cloud9 vs Evil Geniuses

Next up, we have a very exciting clash between Cloud9 -- the most dominant team in LCS history -- and Evil Geniuses, a team that, despite their shaky start to the season, managed to improve leaps and bounds and actually finished second, right behind the boys in black and blue. Is this truly the fight between the number one and two teams in the region? As strange as it might seem, all signs are pointing towards that actually being the case.

We all know what Cloud9 is capable of, and we're also aware that they're the heavy favorites to hoist the LCS trophy in a matter of days. What, then, is left for us to talk about? Well, for the time being, everyone's wondering whether or not there's a team in North America that can actually challenge them, whether that's on an individual level or as a team. So far, there hasn't been a truly worthy challenger, a team that was able to trade heavy blows. Still, we're in a Best of 5 format right now, and that changes things, at least ever so slightly.

Evil Geniuses, in particular, is a fascinating mishmash of experienced veterans. They all come from different places, teams, backgrounds and that's evident in their play as well. For the vast majority of the regular season, this five-man line-up struggled mightily to synergize and understand how they wanted to play the game. They all engaged and fought on their own terms, completely oblivious to the fact that they're a smaller part of a much bigger whole -- a team. As time went on, however, they got on the same page and, by proxy, improved tenfold.

Right now, they're aggressive beyond belief (almost to a fault), and they're always willing to fight regardless of the state of the game. Fortunately, they have more than enough mechanical talent and team-wide cohesion to pull off this insane engages and set-ups, but they're also a coin-flip kind of team. When things go their way, they're pretty much guaranteed to win because they never take their foot off the pedal. With even the slightest of leads, Evil Geniuses plow forward without any reserve. When that's not the case, however, they still function and play in the exact same way, but they're not strong enough to actually pull things off. You can't just ignore the state of the map and whether or not your opponents have reached their power spikes and, therefore, have an inherent lead should a team fight break out. It also feels like they throw caution out the window a bit too early and just ignore their win conditions, but also the win conditions of their opponents.

It's not that they're one-dimensional, or that they don't have a good enough grasp of the game or the meta, but rather that they're inpatient. They wait a bit, and then once those first hectic team fights break out it's like they get "hooked" and can't revert back. League of Legends, however, is a different kind of game, and it has a unique ebb and flow. Macro and set-up lead into action after which things have to revert back to macro and set-up. The better a team does the former, the better the latter (more favorable, rather) will be. It's an investment that's a necessity.

It's really simple, and yet most teams can't maintain this kind of pace. They're either good at one thing or another. The best ones, however, excel at both.

The last we've seen of Evil Geniuses was their stellar 3-1 win over FlyQuest mere days ago. It wasn't exactly the cleanest series overall, but they got their hand raised, which is the only thing that matters. It was, in a way, a series of games that perfectly embodied their biggest strengths and weaknesses. We saw their immense mechanical talent, their off-the-wall engages and individual prowess, but also their sloppy set-up and the fact that they're often too eager to make things happen -- they go for the jugular vein without any set-up, and that's a huge, debilitating flaw that gives the best teams a window of opportunity.

Cloud9 can capitalize even if you're playing perfectly. They're that good. Their play defies the odds and boggles the mind in the process. They've also fought against Evil Geniuses a couple of weeks ago and didn't skip much of a beat en route to a dominant, clean win. In fact, no team in North America was able to make Cloud9 look even remotely vulnerable and human, other than that one flash in the pan from Team SoloMid. It's really hard to put it into words, and their statistics speak for themselves. Each and every player on this behemoth of a team is playing some of the best League of Legends you'll see all year. Even Licorice, a guy many thought robbed Ssumday of his All-Star LCS First Team position dumpstered the Korean legend without breaking a sweat (and regardless of the match-up). They're so darn good, it doesn't even make sense.

Give them an inch and they'll take a country mile. You know they're going to win. You just know it, and you also know it'll happen in one-sided fashion. But you still tune in because of sheer curiosity, just to see how easily they'll dispose of yet another team. This Best of 5 is no different. While it is rich with many fascinating narratives (Kumo, Svenskeren, and Zeyzal were replaced on Cloud9 back in December), it's just not enough to actually make things competitive. And that's okay.

Odds are, we're witnessing the rise of a seemingly unassailable giant -- we're seeing North American history being written in real time. Obviously, we simply have to side with Cloud9 on this one. That's the only logical choice at this point in time. That said, Evil Geniuses are a talented bunch and they also have inside info on how Cloud9 wants to play the game. That shouldn't be enough in the grand scheme of things, but they could make things somewhat competitive. Either way, we're in for a lot of fun.