Evil Geniuses has acquired top laner Huni from Dignitas, according to an ESPN report. Huni spent one split with Dignitas after reportedly signing a two-year, $2.3 million contract.
Huni and EG will negotiate new terms, ESPN says, with the top laner receiving less compensation. If EG choose to start him, Huni would replace Colin “Kumo” Zhao, who signed with EG in November after two years in the Cloud9 organization.
Huni is the fourth import player in EG, joining mid laner Jiizuke, AD carry Bang, and Academy mid laner Ahmad “Giyuu” Charif. No LCS team can start more than two import players at one time, meaning the team would have to start Academy ADC Matthew “Deftly” Chen, an American, over Bang, a Korean, to abide by the rules.
Nonetheless, Huni’s time on Dignitas appears to have been short-lived. In his one split with the team, he finished second-to-last in KDA and kill share among LCS top laners, according to Leaguepedia. Additionaly, DIG missed the playoffs after losing to Golden Guardians in a sixth-place tiebreaker match. Dignitas played decently during the early stages of the season and found themselves in second place after two weeks. Their luck ran out past that point, however. Other teams started to build more synergy together and their firepower began to shine through.
Meanwhile, Dignitas’ shortcomings began to get picked on by better rosters. After week six, their jungler Grig was replaced by former TSM jungler Akaadian. Even with a new jungler in tow, Dignitas ended the 2020 LCS Spring Split in seventh place with an 8-10 record.
The team could, theoretically, also acquire an NA mid laner to keep Huni and Bang in the starting lineup together. Evil Geniuses’ support and jungler, Zeyzal and Svenskeren, are both NA residents.
Huni’s lone split with Dignitas concluded with the team losing a three-way tiebreaker for sixth place to Golden Guardians, who advanced to the playoffs over DIG. While preliminary reports had stated Huni’s deal with Dignitas was guaranteed, the organization’s CEO, Michael Prindiville, said it is not.
In their first split back in the LCS, EG earned the second seed in the Spring Split Playoffs after defeating 100 Thieves in a tiebreaker. The team lost to Cloud9 and FlyQuest in the playoffs, however, finishing with third place.
With the League Championship Series Spring Split over, we might get to see multiple roster swaps. The only confirmed one so far in LCS is Doublelift’s move from Team Liquid to Team Solo Mid. The unofficial one is Grig alongside Huni being released by Dignitas based on the global contract database data.
The LCS Summer Split begins on June 12 with Evil Geniuses facing off against 100 Thieves in the first Friday Night League broadcast.
