Evil Geniuses Finalize LoL Roster

North American esports organization Evil Geniuses announced the signing of Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho and Victor “FBI” Huang on Wednesday, November 23. By adding the former 100 Thieves players, EG finalized its LoL 2023 roster months before the next season kicks off.

Entering this year’s League of Legends offseason, Evil Geniuses didn’t need to make any major changes to its lineup, nor were they expected from the Spring Split champions. The organization has spent the last couple of years assembling a solid roster, spearheaded by star mid laner Joseph Joon “jojopyun” Pyun, MVP jungler Kacper “Inspired” Słoma, and an experienced support player in Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme.

However, while the team has achieved a lot in 2022, there were still questions about its ADC position, previously occupied by a rising talent in Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki. However, the young ADC LoL player has missed a good part of the LCS 2022 Summer Playoffs and even took a break ahead of the LoL World Championship 2022.

Even as late as last week, it was still unclear whether Danny would return to compete with Evil Geniuses in 2023. As Evil Geniuses dealt with the uncertainty of its bottom lane situation – as Danny has yet to announce his return and Muhammed Hasan “Kaori” Şentürk leaving to play in Europe – the NA esports organization decided to take no chances and started looking for a new ADC.

Eventually, EG landed a deal with former Golden Guardians and 100 Thieves ADC FBI, who, alongside Ssumday, Felix “Abbedagge” Braun, and Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun, left 100 Thieves on November 22.

Besides acquiring one of the league’s best ADC players as a suitable replacement for Danny, Evil Geniuses also struck a deal with FBI’s former teammate Ssumday. The 26-year-old will take over for Jeong “Impact” Eon-young, who was released from EG on November 20.

Of the two, the change in the top lane is the more surprising, knowing that Impact was the longest-serving member of the team. Moreover, he was regarded as one of the best top laners in the league, who has now found himself teamless.

With the signing of FBI and Ssumday, Evil Geniuses have now completed its 2023 LoL roster, which will feature some of the top talents in the league. Even though EG parted ways with Impact, they got their hands on another Korean top laner Ssumday, who played a key role in 100 T’s success over the years.

Likewise, signing FBI as a replacement for Danny is hardly a downgrade, given FBI’s status as one of LCS’s top ADC players. His signing also sees Evil Geniuses now field two of the region’s best ADC players, assuming Danny decides to return to pro play.

Elsewhere, Evil Geniuses field reigning LCS MVP in jungler Inspired, Jojopyun, who has in 2022 made a case for himself as one of the league’s future superstars and three-time LCS champion, support Vulcan.

The roster changes follow a fairly successful season for Evil Geniuses, who won the organization’s first LCS title in Spring. The NA squad also left a mark at the 2022 Mid-Season invitation, where they reached the semifinals, and they didn’t disappoint in the latter half of the season either.

After winning the LCS 2022 Spring title, Evil Geniuses also won the LCS 2022 Summer regular season, and then came one map short of reaching the LCS 2022 Summer Playoffs grand finals. Still, with a third-place finish, EG ended the year as the best-performing LCS team.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t show up at LoL World Championship, where Evil Geniuses crashed out from the group stage in 11th-14th place. Yet despite a disappointing ending to the 2022 season, Evil Geniuses seem to have all the pieces in place to make a splash in 2023.