The 2021 League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) 2021 Summer Playoffs (also known as the LCS Championship) kicks off on Saturday, August 7, with the opening upper bracket bout between Evil Geniuses and Dignitas. Betting-Previews.com brings you full coverage for the match with our picks and predictions.
2021 LCS Championship – Round 1 – Evil Geniuses vs Dignitas
When: Saturday, August 7 at 14:00 PDT
Game: Best-of Five (Bo5)
The 2021 LCS Championship kicks off on Saturday, with a clash between Evil Geniuses and Dignitas. The two LCS teams will lock horns in the first round of the upper bracket in a Bo5 series. After that, the winners will advance into the second round, where they’ll face the regular season runners-up, 100 Thieves, for a spot in the upper bracket finals.
Evil Geniuses (Still) The Best Team In The LCS
Evil Geniuses ended the LCS 2021 Summer regular season in third place with a 28-17 record; one win short of 100 Thieves in second and two wins behind TSM, who claimed the regular-season title for themselves. Although Evil Geniuses came up short in their quest for the title, they were just as impressive as the top two teams on the season, with a 18-9 record on the LCS 2021 Summer split.
I have been preaching about how good Evil Geniuses are for a while now, and I continue to be bullish on this side. Evil Geniuses might have disappointed a bit with their losses against Immortals and Team Liquid in the final two weeks of the regular season, but if you look at their performance metrics, EG are nothing short of the best team in North America.
Obviously, we should take performance metrics with a grain of salt and put some more focus on the stylistic matchups (especially in Bo5s). However, when the numbers are as far apart as they are here, it’s tough to ignore them.
| Team/GD | GD@10 | GD@15 | GD@20 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evil Geniuses | +1019 | +1552 | +2227 |
| Dignitas | +38 | -43 | -1 |
Just as a reminder, Evil Geniuses hold the league’s highest Gold Difference (GD) at 10, 15, and 20 minutes. What’s more, EG’s GD metrics are not only the highest in the LCS; but across all four major regions – LEC, LPL, and LCK.
Dignitas Are Just Not Good (Enough)
Evil Geniuses met with Dignitas three times over the LCS 2021 Summer and won two series (2-1). Dignitas’ only win against EG happened on the opening day of the summer season, which was also the week when EG went 0-3.
Evil Geniuses won the remaining two bouts convincingly and have since then looked much improved. On the other hand, Dignitas not only failed to improve over the season but looked progressively worse.
In fact, Dignitas are the only upper bracket team that ended the LCS 2021 Summer with a negative record (12-15) and only made it into the top-six due to their solid record from the LCS 2021 Spring (11-7).
I haven’t touched on the topic over the summer season too much, but it’s very obvious that there is a huge gap between the top LCS teams and the bottom six. While we saw a few upset wins from the underdogs over the season, those were really nothing more than that – upsets.
Talking about underserved victories, Dignitas came away with a robbery more than a handful of times this split, whereas you can’t really say the same for Evil Geniuses. As the eye-test would confirm, Evil Geniuses produced significantly more quality wins than Dignitas or any other LCS team for that matter.
| Team/Stat | EGR | MLR | GPR | GSPD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evil Geniuses | 63.0 | 3.7 | 0.99 | 5.0% |
| Dignitas | 47.9 | -3.4 | -0.22 | -1.2% |
Comparing other performance metrics, Evil Geniuses are miles ahead of Dignitas. They lead the league in Early-Game Rating (EGR), are ranked third-highest in Mid-Late Game Rating (MLR), boast the highest Gold Percentage Rating (GPR), and third-highest Gold Spent Percentage Rating (GSPR). On the other side, Dignitas are ranked seventh in EGR and MLR; and sixth in GPR and GSPD.
Keep in mind that those numbers include the whole LCS 2021 Summer split. If we look at only the numbers from the start of July, the hap becomes even larger.
From July 1
| Team/Stat | EGR | MLR | GPR | GSPD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evil Geniuses | 65.7 | 14.3 | 1.39 | 8.6% |
| Dignitas | 48.8 | 4.6 | -0.08 | 0.2% |
EG; 65.7 EGR (1st), 14.3 MLR (1st), 1.39 GPR (1st), 8.6% GPSD (1st)
Dignitas; 48.8 EGR (7th), 4.6 MLR (2nd), -0.08 GPR (7th), 0.2% GPSD (7th)
Much of Dignitas’ success in the latter stages of the season came down to their approach to drafting by picking a “cheesy” team composition. This caught a few teams off guard, helping Dignitas secure a top-six finish, but I don’t believe Dignitas will manage to surprise EG, who had enough time to analyse Dignitas games and will enter this match prepared for anything DIG throw at them.
Stylistic Nightmare
Since this is a playoff match, you have to take into account that teams put in a lot of work to watch their opponents’ film and find the right strategy. For that reason, you have to put some more focus on the style of play the teams use, but most importantly, how flexible the teams are – which once again favours EG.
One big issue with Dignitas is that this is a very linear team. They haven’t impressed me with anything they have shown and seem to be very one-dimensional in their approach. There’s essentially nothing that defines this team; they aren’t smart (EDward Gaming), they aren’t aggressive (Fnatic), nor are they able to earn leads outside of securing kills and choke out their opponents (Rogue).
As talked about before, they had the most success with their cheesy drafts, and that was the only “strategy” Dignitas have shown from an otherwise very one-dimensional playstyle. Evil Geniuses, on the others side, have shown that they can play different styles of League.
They can work through the top side, mid lane, and in some cases even through the bottom lane, although it was somewhat rare. It’s not like EG’s bottom lane is weak, but given the current meta, ADCs work more like a supportive role –support that will sometimes carry in teamfights.
All in all, Dignitas have a lot more work to do to prepare themselves for Evil Geniuses. In contrast, the latter only need to have an answer ready for Dignitas’ cheese compositions.
Evil Geniuses Underrated
Evil Geniuses have long been known as the “volatile team”, but as I was preaching throughout the season, EG have improved in that department. Yes, they will have games where they’ll look stupid and make weird calls, but if we look at their showings throughout the whole summer season, Evil Geniuses are a very disciplined team. They aren’t stubborn and don’t force fights which they know won’t end in their favour, and instead adapt to the situation and look for other ways to attack their opponents.
Can’t 5v5? Play around the map and put pressure on the opponent via split pushing. Can you win in a 5v5 situation? Force neutral objectives and make the opponents come to you.
I might sound like an EG fanboy, but this is legitimately a good team, and I still don’t get why they continue to be underappreciated.
Evil Geniuses are priced at 1.185 (Pinnacle) to win this match, 1.454 (Pinnacle) on a -1.5 map handicap, and 2.53 (Pinnacle) on a -2.5 map handicap. Although not exactly mouth-watering odds, there is value in backing EG on both map handicap markets.
They’re a class above Dignitas in all performance metrics and are arguably the best team in the league, and you can find numbers to confirm this claim.
Prediction: Evil Geniuses -2.5 maps – 2.530 Pinnacle (1u)
Betting Odds are correct as of Saturday, August 7 at 9:30 CEST
