First win for NA at MSI with three more games left in group stage
After consecutive losses against G2, Evil Geniuses defeats Oceania's ORDER to pick up North America's first win at MSI 2022. It is also the organisation's first win on the international stage. EG decided to go back to comfort with Ahri and Xayah picks for their mid and bot laners. They also had more proactive top and jungle champions with Gwen and Xin Zhao.
While the game started slowly for both sides, EG quickly set the pace in the bottom lane. ORDER's Ian "Corporal" Pearse was unable to recover from the early deaths and this made things more difficult for the team. Moreover, EG's priority on the Ahri paid off as Joseph "Jojopyun" Joon Pyun was able to have a positive impact for the team.
After taking the lead in mid-game, EG's Impact continued to find advantages for his team, giving ORDER no chance for a comeback. He dominated the side lanes as well as the team fights. He also executed a flank in the 19th minute that helped EG stop ORDER from stacking up dragons. Moreover, he was involved in almost every skirmish EG took part in as he ended the game with more kills than the entire ORDER team combined.
The team pushed down ORDER's base after taking down the baron and ended the game with a 12,000 gold lead.
Jojopyun believes EG can do better at MSI
After the game, EG's mid-laner Jojopyun spoke about their performance so far at MSI 2022.
"I think we played better this game than we did versus G2", Jojopyun said. Yeah i mean they [G2] are playing better than us on stage, in the next games, we will play much better. I think if we play much better as we did in the playoffs we will beat them. Me and Danny are quite new on the international stage. I think we can beat them if we play well I think they are better at the moment.
The king of trash-talking was also surprised to hear that ORDER had done the same to them before the game. "I didn't even know they trash-talked, to be honest," Jojopyun said. "I don't even know who they are really, it's funny though."
Bug sends Vulcan's Leona flying to the sky
While EG had a good game, an in-game bug which sent EG's Philippe "Vulcan" Laflamme's Leona to the sky stole the show. The bug led to a pause from Riot who gave EG the option of restarting the game. However, the team decided not to opt for the restart and play through the bug.
With a win today, EG will feel better heading into day 3 of MSI. They will face ORDER again tomorrow and a win will increase their chance of finishing second in Group C.
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