EG Danny: “I think right now Varus is probably the strongest blind pick ADC that one could play”

Hello, Danny, thanks for sitting down and talking with me and congratulations on your victory over Dignitas! For you, this was your first playoff series in the LCS. Did you have any thoughts or nerves before this first match?

Danny: I had a lot of thoughts, but no nerves. One of my main thoughts was ‘this is going to be a breeze and we’re just going to move on to the next match versus 100 Thieves.’The level of confidence from June to now has gone up by not even 100 percent but like 300 percent. I feel like right now, we’re in a very comfortable position.

Talking about the roster now, for most of the year Evil Geniuses have pretty seamlessly balanced both Svenskeren and Contractz as their starting jungler. Obviously today EG started Contractz, but can you tell me what he brings to the table?

Danny: I think he brings a lot of early game aggression to the team and he makes very, very nice and calculated plays that Sven sometimes struggles to do. I think that Sven is also good in his own right with his team fighting and his shotcalling mid-game, so I think both have their strong points. I do think that Contractz as a jungler is kind of better for our team.

.@BudLightGaming ACES to win games >>> #EGWIN pic.twitter.com/GOmhWUF9TW

— Evil Geniuses (@EvilGeniuses) August 7, 2021

Going into the games now, you guys won your first match in a pretty convincing manner. How was the team feeling after the first game?

Danny: After I completely smurfed the game on Varus, the confidence level was super high and our team morale was high. Of course, we kind of trolled the second game which brought our confidence down a little but we came back in the third game.

Like you said, game two was significantly more difficult for you and Ignar. Was this due to the matchup or something more?

Danny: Our champions were definitely not adequate as an answer to their draft. Dignitas actually drafted pretty well, they drafted super hard engage and then I was an immobile champion, Varus of course, and I didn’t have any peeling champions, so it was quite hard.

#LCS pic.twitter.com/lPUkXuBSaj

— Evil Geniuses (@EvilGeniuses) August 7, 2021

Game two was definitely a rollercoaster, but why do you think this game ultimately went to Dignitas?

Danny: I think we played the team fights quite sloppily and we let them have too much free time to scale. Their Xayah and Irelia were really difficult to kill and they just overran us in the mid-game.

In game three, your solo laners were incredibly far ahead of their opponents. What do you think your role was in this game?

Danny: Like any Varus game, you’re supposed to sit back and poke and only engage if you see an angle. I didn’t really have to do anything special but I definitely had a job to make sure we didn’t get too far behind and prevented the enemy botlane from taking over the game.

Talking more about this Varus, in three out of the four games you were ‘stuck’ on the pick. What do you think about the champion right now?

Danny: As of right now, I think that Varus is probably the strongest blind pick ADC that one could play and I think with how strong he is in-lane and how comfortably he transitions into mid-game, and his poke and engage, I think he’s solid. He kind of falls off late game but we had a lot of other scaling picks like the Lucian and Azir, so I think we were fine.

Screw it

✨@EG_Danny fancam✨#LCS pic.twitter.com/nX3KTGMszF

— LCS (@LCSOfficial) August 7, 2021

At different points throughout the series, it felt like all members of EG got their time to shine. Who would you pick as the MVP?

Danny: Truthfully, I think it could come down to me or Ignar. I think for how we played on botlane, we were really solid and sometimes over performing and I think we did really well, so it would be either me or Ignar. I’d actually probably give it to Ignar.

Reflecting on the series, what do you think Evil Geniuses’ biggest asset is right now?

Danny: I think we have a lot of aggression and we don’t care as much as other teams do. Safety is obviously one of my concerns but I’m also very down to just flip it and go in. I think our aggression is similar to that of some LPL teams and with that we can take over games faster than other teams who are just playing to scale. I think that works fine in NA but when they go to international leagues, they will struggle.

Now you guys are moving on to face 100 Thieves in your next series. Do you have any thoughts going into this matchup?

Danny: Against their botlane, not really. We’re really comfortable where we are and we’re really solid overall. I think it’ll just be a snoozefest because FBI is probably regarded as one of the best ADCs in the LCS currently, so I don’t really have to do anything special. I just have to make sure that he doesn’t take over the game.

First #LCS Playoff series WIN 🤍❤️

— Danny (@EG_Danny) August 8, 2021

Of course you guys have this series first, but Evil Geniuses is only one series away from making Worlds. Is this something that is currently in the back of the team’s mind right now?

Danny: Oh for sure. I think that every LCS team should strive for Worlds and if they make it, of course they’re obviously super happy. Worlds is just Worlds, I think that winning the title is very important to us all too, because there’s this very straightforward path we have right now where we just won our first series against Dignitas and if we win this next one we go to the Worlds play-in stage.

If we win versus TSM or Cloud9 theoretically we get the top two. Top two is what we’re striving for, but first place is obviously nice, winning the title is always nice.

Thanks for the interview Danny, and good luck in your playoffs run!

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Image credit: LCS (Twitter)