LCS Lock-in 2022: Liquid defeats Evil Geniuses in a tight 3-0 Final match
The 2022 LCS Lock In Championship has ended on a high note, expectedly pitting Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses against each other in a best-of-five series final stage.
Liquid managed to secure their second straight win in the pre-season tournament with a 3-0 victory over EG despite a changing roster of many new faces. It ran multiple rosters in the competition due to import restrictions, giving starts to Team Liquid Academy AD carry Sean “Yeon” Sung, top laner Bradley “Bradley” Benneyworth, and support Bill “Eyla” Nguyen.
While the team might have struggled to find its footing at some points, their efficiency has later proven to be capable to run over EG’s pressure and it managed to walk away with a $150,000 prize pool.
Recap of the semifinals
Two days before the finals, Team Liquid had to face Dignitas while Evil Geniuses met Cloud9 in a blockbuster contest for the best-of-five semi-final stage of LCS Lock-In.
Dignitas finished fourth in Group B with a 1-3 record. However, Team Liquid was also coming in strongly as it expectedly defeated FlyQuest 2-0 to qualify for the semifinals. Team Liquid placed 2nd in Group B with three winning streaks that gave them momentum and confidence.
Meanwhile, Evil Geniuses was battling against a newly rejuvenated Cloud9 team, who finished second in Group A with a 3-1 record. However, Evil Geniuses remained the fairly sizable favorite in this match as its roster, led by breakout starlet Joseph “jojopyun” Pyun, shows more consistency.
EG finished Group B at the top with a 4-0 record and then got past Golden Guardians in straight maps in the quarter-final. Four of its players made at least four kills per person per map in this tournament.
The four teams fought a fierce game, but Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses both won their respective semifinal matches, leaving C9 and Dignitas behind and going to the final.
Finally, Team Liquid v Evil Geniuses
Game one was won by EG until a team fight cost them a quadra kill to Bjergsen’s Sylas. Hans sama defused all attempts by EG at securing bot lane pressure with Eyla by his side, with Jojopyun continuously catching the end of an arrow from Hans sama’s Varus.
EG maintained its lead at the beginning of game three for over 20 minutes, only falling short when Hans sama was given multiple kills. Belgian top laner Bwipo ambushed the enemy team as Volibear to disrupt them as the game came nearing its end.
This prevented EG from getting anywhere past the humongous bear, enabling Hans sama to burn down the remaining enemies. Bwipo himself finished the series with 22 kills and 14 assists.
Liquid managed to stride a clear path to the Nexus and walked away as the two-time LCS Lock In champions. This marks the second time Santorin and CoreJJ got involved in the team’s victory after winning both this year and the inaugural tournament last year, despite the difference in lineup.
Fans can now celebrate while waiting for the upcoming 2022 LCS Spring Split that is scheduled to begin this Friday. However, its first match currently remains unannounced.