At the conclusion of the 2022 LCS Spring Split, Evil Geniuses finished in a three-way tiebreaker with FlyQuest and Golden Guardians. FLY beat out GG for the 6th seed, but upon losing to EG in the following match, it was Evil Geniuses who secured a top 4 finish in the 2022 LCS Spring Split. As the 4th seed, Evil Geniuses will face off against Team Liquid in a best-of-five series in the first round of the 2022 LCS Spring Split. 

After Evil Geniuses qualified for the 2022 LCS Spring Playoffs, support Philippe "Vulcan" Laflamme spoke to Inven Global about his outlook on the post-season and how EG have grown throughout the Spring Split. 

How are you feeling now that you've qualified for playoffs, and how did you feel knowing you only had to beat CLG Academy to do so?

I felt pretty confident coming into today but there is always this thing where when your opponents sub in their Academy team, some of your players may play differently because they feel like they have to do more or feel pressured to gap the other guy to show that they're much better.

It's happened to me before — your opponent subs in their Academy squad, you try to do too much, and it's super cringe and embarrassing. I was confident, but in the back of my mind, I was also like 'I hope this s**t doesn't happen again.'  Thankfully, it didn't.

It's also nice to secure playoffs because there will be fans back in the studio and I haven't gotten a chance to play with fans in the arena in quite a long time. I also want to be there in Texas to play at NRG Stadium. It's a very big arena and it looks pretty hype, so it feels good to have made it.

CLG Academy finished 1st in the Spring Split. How did they compare to the main CLG roster in terms of challenging EG?

They were not good.

*laughs* Fair enough. EG is now in the post-season, but made with a 9-9 record. How do you think the team's current form measures up to a 50% winrate in the regular season?

I think we're good, we just have to figure out what fits us best. I think we definitely have a clear style that we play much better than others. It's going to be much easier for us to prepare and make sure we get a composition that allows us to play our own style. In playoffs, we can prepare much harder and have multiple scenarios in which we can play what makes us most comfortable.

I don't see any team being clearly better than us. I think we can take down anyone in playoffs, it's just about how we prepare and our week of scrims. The only team that I guess is kind of scary is TL. I think that 100 Thieves have kind of been on a roll, but I've never thought they were really that good, even when they won the LCS Championship last summer. I thought their win was kind of a fluke. We'll see come playoffs.

Is there anyone specific you'd like to face in the 2022 LCS Spring Playoffs?

I want to play against Cloud9. I think C9 look pretty shit right now and I want some dopamine by getting revenge against them.

Every player on EG has been vocal that your team, for whatever reason or another, will be much stronger in a best-of-five format compared to the best-of-one format. Assuming you agree, what will make EG better in a series format?

It's kind of like what I said earlier in that preparation will be much more important. We have a lot of good pieces and the way we win on stage is pretty reliable. We do have flukes here and there, but I think that even though we haven't been able to beat TL, C9, or 100 Thieves on stage, but when we scrim against them, it doesn't feel like they are that much better than us.

I said TL was scarier than the others because I think they have a very strong bot lane, but I think our mid, jungle, and top are better than theirs. If Danny and I are able to strategize properly against their bot lane, I think we can win the Spring Playoffs.

Danny has always been a good teamfighter, but the general consensus is that his laning phase has improved alongside you. Do you feel like his improvements are more due to the development of your synergy as a duo or his individual adjustments?

I think it's both. I think I bring a lot of experience to the table and I tend to play my lanes pretty aggressively and push a matchup if I can. It's something that Zven and I got pretty good at doing - we just fight them and use our spells aggressively to get winning scenarios. When I first played with Danny, he was more focused on farming up and playing for teamfights since he believes he is so much better at teamfighting than anyone else on the server.

It was kind of a clash in playstyles, so at first, it was kind of hard to get on the same page. Since then, in playing with me, I've explained different situations in terms of what we want to do to play as well as possible, which is something I think everyone should be striving to do. Still, it's not just me helping him - he's been steadily growing as a player, and just getting another LCS split under his belt as a young player definitely helps as well. It's definitely a bit of both.

Bot lane synergy is important, but so is support/jungle synergy. How do you feel like Inspired and yourself have grown as a duo throughout the 2022 LCS Spring Split?

Honestly, I think Inspired and I have always been pretty good. We kind of clicked instantly. He's a very smart jungler and he has good communication so it is easy to ask him what he wants to do and I can connect on that in how I want to help him gain an advantage.

Our synergy is pretty good in that regard. I do think we can synergize better in teamfights — sometimes, when one of us goes in, the other doesn't. We need to go in together and go super hard as a duo in context of our team. We're not there yet in that regard, but I feel that, at least, our early game synergy is very good.

Is there anything you want to say to the EG fans before the start of the LCS Spring Playoffs

Thanks to the EG fans for sticking with us. I know this wasn't as dominant of a Spring Split as you expected from us or as we expected from ourselves. However, I'm confident that we will make you proud in playoffs, so keep cheering for us. I'll see you all soon.

All images by: Riot Games via ESPAT