Evil Geniuses(EG) CEO, Nicole LaPointe Jameson, took to Twitter this past weekend after her LCS squad beat TSM to flame the opposition saying, “Last owner’s meeting @TSMReginald complimented 100T as the only non-shitty new LCS team. So on behalf of the ‘shitty new’ LCS team… suck it.” And while this is entertaining, EG has shown that they are far from shitty. While their LCS roster has had some rough games, they still qualified for spring playoffs. And despite their Academy rosters’ rough start, they have started to come into their own and are facing off against their own Organization’s amateur roster EG Prodigies in the winners final of Giant Slayer’s Proving Grounds Tournament. The gauntlet has been thrown down, the EG civil war will commence, and no matter who leaves victorious, the true winner is Evil Geniuses and North America as a whole.
As entertaining as an EG civil war is, the narrative behind it should be developmental success. For years the League of Legends world spoke about closing the gap between Korea and the west; more recently, the conversation has changed to talking about why North America is lagging behind the other major regions. Claims that there isn’t enough natural talent, lack of investment in the amateur scene, and ping issues have all circled the LCS this year like annoying gnats that just won’t seem to go away. And yet, the two teams competing in the winner’s final of the current proving grounds tournament are made up of rosters almost exclusively consisting of NA talent. Evil Geniuses has invested in North American players and the gap between Academy and Amateur is closing. There is hungry NA talent fighting for their opportunities in the big leagues and Evil Geniuses is proving that development and investment work.
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