Evil Geniuses cut down Cloud9 to open week 3 of 2021 LCS Summer Split

After stumbling out of the gate to kick off the LCS Summer Split, Cloud9 came into tonight’s opening matchup of week three on a resurgent four-game winning streak. The team had reclaimed sole possession of first place last week, and should have easily held onto it with a winnable game against Evil Geniuses, a team that C9 had beaten with a nearly 9,000-gold lead during their last meeting. 

Tonight, a repeat performance wasn’t in the cards for C9. In fact, C9 were down by 9,000 gold just 22 minutes into the game. After several teamfight losses and five unanswered towers taken by EG, C9 had dug itself into a hole the team failed to escape. After cracking the base for what felt like the entirety of the game, EG finally put C9 to bed in just 25 minutes. 

The EG bottom lane duo of veteran support IgNar and rookie AD Carry Danny pooled their efforts together, lifting their teammates on their shoulders by combining for a scoreline of 3/0/31. EG would find its win with an eventual final score of 22-7, largely thanks to the supportive efforts of its bottom lane. 

Danny, who has only played seven games on the professional stage, has quickly turned into EG’s hottest player as of late. The amateur scene star-turned LCS pro player has a KDA of 11.6 over the span of EG’s last three games, according to League stats site Games of Legends.

With this loss, C9’s winning ways were halted, and the team are now a half game ahead of 100 Thieves for first place. Should the Thieves take down CLG later tonight, there will be a tie between C9 and 100T at the top of the league.

As for EG, the slow climb back toward the upper half of the LCS continues as the team’s record improved to 13-12 tonight. After starting the Summer Split with three consecutive losses, EG strung together wins against C9and Team Liquid the last two weekends, two teams that EG will certainly need to beat on a consistent basis if they’re going to make a deep postseason run. They’ll get a break from tough opponents as the weekend goes on, though, as EG is slated to finish its week three schedule with matches against CLG and Golden Guardians.