Evil Geniuses jungler Inspired had some harsh words after the LCS’s shocking 0-9 start at the 2022 LoL World Championship.
North America’s international performance has been an ongoing source of community frustration in recent years. Save for a few standout showings like Team Liquid’s MSI finals showing back in 2019, the region has notoriously failed to deliver when it comes to those all-important international events.
And it turns out it’s not just the community that’s getting frustrated.
In an interview with Travis Gafford, Evil Geniuses jungler Kacper ‘Inspired’ Słoma had some harsh words for the team’s international performance. When asked about how he thought the region were shaping up at Worlds so far, his response was simple: “I think we suck.”
“After the meta shift for Cloud9 I thought that they would be in a really rough spot — I thought that they might not get a win. For 100 Thieves, I thought they would at least get a win against CTBC Flying Oyster.”
But that 100 Thieves win did not come, and North America remains the only winless major region at the 2022 World Championship.
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Can NA turn around the 0-9?
When it comes to reversing NA’s fate in the second round robin of the group stage, Inspired thinks it’s EG or nothing.
“I expect us to at least get a win — I still think we are the best NA team. If NA’s going to get a win, I hope it will be us.” But for more than a single win? Inspired wasn’t so confident, saying that it would need “a lot of good games, and a lot of good drafts”.
The #Worlds2022 Group Stage standings after the first round robin! pic.twitter.com/TuuhEbVzOI
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) October 11, 2022
It’s not just NA’s performance as a whole that he’s been unimpressed with so far at Worlds. It’s his own.
He explained that he felt EG’s loss to DWG KIA was on him, and that the team’s loss to G2 Esports had knocked his confidence. “I maybe lost some confidence, and playing against Damwon maybe I didn’t feel that confident going into the game. I think I shouldn’t have been like that, because I think if I played with more balls I would have just carried the game.”
It’ll be a rough road upwards from here for North America. But Evil Geniuses will have a chance to kick off their redemption arc in their rematch versus G2 Esports on October 14.