Liquid roll over undefeated Evil Geniuses in LCS Lock In final: results, placements

Team Liquid have dethroned fast-growing North American darlings Evil Geniuses, delivering breakout star Joseph “jojopyun” Pyun and his team a quick-fire 3-0 defeat in the LCS Lock In grand final. The Sunday victory nets them $150k and early 2022 silverware.

• Team Liquid claim their second Lock In title
• Preseason champs hand Evil Geniuses first 2022 loss
• Cloud9, Dignitas round out top four

The LCS 2022 Lock In preseason tournament certainly delivered the action as the 2022 League of Legends season gets underway in earnest in North America.

Team Liquid have emerged as eventual victors, defending their 2021 preseason title with a three-game win over Evil Geniuses. The EG roster, led by breakout starlet Jojopyun, quickly became the must-watch roster of the tournament, but couldn’t get the job done against TL’s veteran squad in the decider.

Despite their 0-3 loss, however, Evil Geniuses had a strong start to their year, topping Group B undefeated and smashing Cloud9 — albeit without their full roster — in a three-game landslide in the semifinals.

Earlier in the event, Dignitas stunned reigning champs 100 Thieves in the quarterfinals, and TSM disappointed with a group stage exit.

Here’s all the action from the LCS 2022 Lock In preseason event, including all the group stage and elimination game results, final placements, team rosters, and plenty more.

LCS 2022 Lock In final placements

LCS 2022 Lock In groups

The North American preseason Lock In tournament saw the league’s ten franchised teams split into two five-org groups. They then plaedy a single round-robin to eliminate one team from each group and determined knockout seedings.

Group A standings

Group B standings

LCS 2022 Lock In results

Group Stage results: January 14-22

Quarterfinals: January 22-23

Semifinals: January 28-29

Grand Final: January 30

Visa issues plague Lock In rosters

All ten competing LCS teams played with varying degress of their starting lineups at Lock In. TSM and Golden Guardians fielded their academy rosters for the duration of the tournament, as Visa issues and the ongoing global health crisis have meant certain international players had been unable to reach LA on time for the start of the Lock In.

Cloud9 coach Nick ‘LS’ De Cesare confirmed on a Twitch stream multiple members of Cloud9’s official LCS roster would be unable to attend the tournament. Darshan, Zven, and Isles played the event as starters instead.

• Read More: The problem with the LCS Lock In tournament

Dignitas replaced jungler Kim ‘River’ Dong-woo with academy jungler Lawrence ‘eXyu’ Xu for their earliest games. River returned for quarterfinals.

Riot Games

CoreJJ is yet to secure his green card for NA residency, putting Liquid in a tight spot for LCS 2022 Lock In.

Team Liquid also had Visa issues, with support CoreJJ unable to acquire a green card in time to gain resident status for the Lock In, according to a report by Upcomer. Without CoreJJ’s residency, the team currently has three imports in top laner Gabriël ‘Bwipo’ Rau, AD Carry Steven ‘Hans sama’ Liv, and CoreJJ.

Rather than simply using their academy bot lane, the team played Hans sama and CoreJJ on a rotational basis. Hans sama played with academy support Bill ‘Eyla’ Nguyen, and CoreJJ was partnered with academy ADC Sean ‘Yeon’ Sung.

LCS 2022 Lock In teams