?Evil Geniuses will meet with Team Liquid on Saturday, April 23, to play for a spot in the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) 2022 Spring grand final. Liquid are the favourites, having won both of the regular-season matches, but can they emulate that success in this best-of-five (Bo5) series?

Team Liquid are 4-1 up against Evil Geniuses in the head-to-head on the season, with a 0-1 defeat during the LCS Lock-In group stage their only blemish. Four consecutive wins have followed, including a commanding 3-1 victory in the LCS Lock-In finals, two LCS 2022 Spring regular-season matches, and a 3-2 victory in the first round of the playoffs. This explains why esports betting sites have Team Liquid priced as the heavy favourites for this bout, but you have to question whether Liquid’s past success justifies the offered price.

Admittedly, Team Liquid entered the LCS 2022 Spring postseason as the favourites to claim the crown, but they have yet to show the level of consistency you would expect from them. In the first round of the playoffs, Liquid nearly lost against EG (3-2), and they arguably should have. Liquid have since played just one match, losing 2-3 to 100 Thieves after choking a 2-0 lead. Meanwhile, Evil Geniuses had to fight through the lower bracket and performed surprisingly well with wins against FlyQuest (3-1) and Cloud9 (3-0).

Talent-wise, Liquid are better than Evil Geniuses, but the quality gap isn’t that massive. The top lane is a complete toss-up, while the mid lane match-up should favour Liquid, but with the improvement Joseph “jojopyun” Joon Pyun has shown, we would argue he can go even with S?ren “Bjergsen” Bjerg. Liquid should have the upper hand in the bottom lane, but realistically, Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki is just as capable of carrying the game as Steven “Hans sama” Liv. The jungle match-up is hard to compare due to different playstyles, but if you’re looking for a jungler that can carry the game, Kacper “Inspired” S?oma is undoubtedly the man to do it.

Liquid’s biggest advantage is their deep champion pool and the ability to showcase different playstyles. However, this can turn into a double-edged sword, especially when Team Liquid try something too fancy, which often backfires.

Evil Geniuses are rightly the underdogs but have shown enough in the last two series for us to believe they can compete with Liquid. Hence, we are taking EG to cover the map line.