Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #19 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le have taken a 2-0 victory over world champions LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #2 pANcada Bryan Luna tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira , sending a shockwave through the Masters Tokyo bracket. LOUD have been relegated to the lower bracket, whereas EG will next face Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak or EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 S1Mon Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋) ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) .

Two months ago, Evil Geniuses were kicking off the VCT Americas in an extremely weak fashion, going 1-4 in their first weeks. LOUD recorded a completely opposite 5-0 start some months after lifting the Champions trophy.

Today, those roles flipped. EG defeated the world champions in flawless fashion, becoming the fourth team to defeat them in history and the first to ever put the Brazilian team in a lower bracket.

“We thought we should have 2-0'd LOUD in the playoffs in NA,” Boostio said. “I think we've been this good, we're just finally being consistent with it. When we're consistent with it, I think we'll just keep winning. There's no limit.”

It always felt like Evil Geniuses were in control. Even on Ascent, which should have been LOUD's to take, EG managed a 7-5 half.

And they ran away with it.

After getting the pistol, Ethan found four with the Ares. jawgemo dropped three in the following round. In the third round of the half, tuyz hid in a corner outside A. He spent nearly 20 seconds watching jawgemo from behind, at which point EG's Omen player heard the crowd, flipped around and swung the round further in his team's favor.

“I had a feeling [...]. I just had to flick back just in case I didn't clear that, because I'm pretty bad at clearing stuff sometimes,” jawgemo said. “And the crowd yelled very loud that whole time,” Boostio chimed in.

tuyz also mentioned the crowd noise, reasoning that he expected another player to join jawgemo, giving him an opportunity to swing the round back in LOUD's favor.

From there, it was a cake walk to the 13-5 win that closed out the series.

That win was the final nail in LOUD's coffin, as the Brazilian roster had already shown weak signs on Fracture. With only aspas going positive on the first map, LOUD mustered just seven rounds throughout the map. EG hit the exact opposite statline, as just one of its players went negative on their way to the 13-7 win.

“It was a combination of things. They seemed really well, they seemed really connected and we were the opposite today. It's just props to them,” saadhak noted. “They're playing really well, they are adapting really well, they have solid game plans. We were a little bit off, but that doesn't take away all the effort and the preparation they had.”

C0M was one of the four positive players, recording a server-high 1.53 rating despite relatively average numbers, owing to his high assist count and kill differential. He also averaged an 85% KAST, tying for first with teammate Demon1.

Despite Demon1's seven double kills on Ascent, he and C0M had a much calmer second map. This allowed for jawgemo to fire up, flexing his 1.76 rating and 89% KAST while topping out all other major statlines.

“I think we've been this good for a long time now, I think we showed hints of it in the [Americas] playoffs,” Boostio said.

While LOUD didn't discredit their opponents, the players and coach fRoD focused mainly on mistakes on their own part. The IGL in particular pointed to the fact EG already went through two matches of warmup prior to this one.

“I wouldn't say it was insanely difficult to deal with or anything like that. It was just some stuff that we have to go back, discuss, make sure we're on the same page with what we want to do,” fRoD said. “Ultimately, I think we have to give them credit. We came in with a good game plan and they were just playing extremely confident, hitting all their shots, had extremely good utility usage. Regardless of what we would have done, it felt like they just came in playing hot right now.”

Yes. Yes she does. (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

For LOUD, it's now time to reset. They're back on the server in two days to play the loser of the Liquid vs. EDG quarterfinals. They need to quickly shake off this match, avoid it getting to their hands, and stay positive for a lower bracket run.

“Something that works out really good for us is having a short-term memory. Regardless of whether we win or we lose, we do our best to forget about it and focus on the next game,” fRoD said. “Something I say often is that our next opponent is our toughest opponent. Regardless of the outcome, we're going to go look at our games, focus on our next opponent and try to do the best.”

For EG, it's a much different story. After all, they had finally beat LOUD after so much pain during the VCT Americas. The Brazilians 2-1'd them in both of their previous bouts.

“We got punished enough in those first two matches to be able to talk about what we needed to talk about,” potter said. “We were just able to dissect [each of those rounds] and figure out how we were going to approach it again the next time.”

They now have three days of rest before the semifinals, where potter would rather face Liquid, considering them a more predictable and stable team compared to EDG's unpredictability and honeymoon phase. Her players?

“Don't care,” Demon1 said.