This is a Very Important Game for Evil Geniuses
If the North American representative wants to sneak into the playoffs in good form then they can’t afford dropping games against Saigon Buffalo and PSG Talon, the minor region teams. Evil Geniuses already dropped their game against RNG and it didn’t look good for them, although let’s be honest, it was the expected outcome as the lol odds indicated. It seems that G2 Esports, Royal Never Give Up and T1 have a guaranteed spot in the finals, while the rest of the teams will be fighting for the last spot.
Fortunately for EG, during the first day of the rumble stage they took down Saigon Buffalo and scored their first victory in this stage. Now, the concerning thing is that they didn’t completely roll over them like we would expect, although we have to credit to SGB’s laners because they survived the early game fairly well against a composition that had a lot of potential to make pickoffs early on in the game. But now that the Buffaloes know what kind of game Evil Geniuses are playing, they might have a better chance against them in this rematch.
Evil Geniuses Showed a Different Approach Against SGB and RNG
We’ve talked multiple times about Evil Geniuses’ fixed way when it comes to play the game, which is mostly around teamfights and a slow early game, and to be fair, it worked perfectly for them in their 2022 LCS Spring Split run. But we all know that adaptiveness is a very important trait that any good League of Legends team has, and during the first day of the rumble stage Evil Geniuses showed that they are more than capable of adapting.
In their first game against Royal Never Give Up, EG tried to replicate the playstyle that enabled G2 Esports to take down T1, which at that time was considered the strongest team in the tournament. They picked a Diana-Yasuo composition just like G2, but they were lacking some of the other tools that G2 had against T1. Impact was playing Gwen, which compared to Brokenblade’s Ornn, didn’t do much for EG’s composition. But the important thing is that EG tried a different playstyle and many lol betting experts agree.
Evil Geniuses played a way faster-paced early game compared to what we are used to seeing from them, and they noticed that it could work. Against Saigon Buffalo, they picked Twisted Fate and Jax, two champions that excel at split pushing and paired with Vulcan’s Leona, they were able to get a decent early lead. Evil Geniuses did a good job transitioning their lead into the mid and late game, closing out the game in a steady manner. I don’t know if this new EG face we are seeing is going to be enough to get them into the playoffs, but it sure is much better than what we saw during the group stage.
The VCS Representative Still Can Make it Into Playoffs
Although Saigon Buffalo had a rough start in the rumble stage, it’s still not even close to being over for them. During their first game against PSG Talon they struggled a lot to survive the early game, but ultimately they barely made it. SGB was far behind and around the 20th-minute mark they were 11k gold down, but the Buffaloes almost made a huge comeback after a couple of good teamfights from them. The PCS representative couldn’t find a way to take down Hasmed’s Vladimir for a good part of the game and it took them way too many fights to get a chance at finishing the game.
I think that if Saigon Buffalo jumps in the G2 train and starts drafting like them then there’s a huge chance that they can take down Evil Geniuses against the lol odds. They already proved that their players are good enough to play around teamfights, they just need the right tools to start pulling off some much-needed wins.
In their game against Evil Geniuses they already sort of tried this, but I think they should double down on this and instead of picking Vladimir or Gwen for Hasmed maybe try something Ornn, especially because we already saw him play that type of champions during his VCS Spring Split run.
Evil Geniuses vs Saigon Buffalo Game Information
Date: Sunday, May 22
Time: 9:00am ET
Live Stream: Riot Games – Twitch
Evil Geniuses vs Saigon Buffalo Predictions
Evil Geniuses is definitely the favorite team coming into this match because they already took down Saigon Buffalo in their first encounter. The thing that makes this rematch very interesting is that both teams already had 2 days to read the meta and try to interpret it in their own way. Saigon Buffalo might be able to copy a few picks from the winning teams, especially G2 Esports, while Evil Geniuses seems pretty determined on how they’ll play for the rest of the rumble stage.
In the end, I think this matchup will once again end up going in EG’s favor, unless Saigon Buffalo switches things up in their drafts, which might end up giving them an edge. The Buffaloes are good players, but they are struggling at getting early leads, which is one of the most important factors to score victories in this year’s MSI meta.
