Evil Geniuses has confirmed its starting Top Laner for the 2020 LCS Spring Split. Colin "Kumo" Zhao will join Jungler Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen, Bot Laner Bae "Bang" Jun-sik, and Support Tristan "Zeyzal" Stidham as confirmed members of the EG roster. 

A report by ESPN Esports' Jacob Wolf made the transfer between Cloud9 and Evil Geniuses public on November 9th.

EG acquired the contracts of Svenskeren and Zeyzal from C9, and it was later reported that Kumo and Bot Laner Matthew "Deftly" Chen were part of the deal.

Deftly's transfer has yet to be confirmed by EG or any other involved party, but Bang was confirmed by the team last week. EG may be looking to sell Deftly to another squad, or it is also possible that Deftly's contract ended up not being transferred by C9 with the other three confirmed players.

"I feel like I've been ready for a long time." 

Evil Geniuses believes Kumo is ready to start in the LCS, which is a belief the North American Top Laner has held himself for quite some time. Kumo made his LCS debut against Clutch Gaming in the 2018 Summer Split with the rest of the C9 Academy roster, who were started by Head Coach Bok "Reapered" Han-gyu. However, Kumo got his real start when Eric "Licorice" Ritchie needed time off for wrist soreness in the 2019 LCS Summer Split. 

Kumo joined Inven Global after his first game in the 2019 LCS — a victory over Team Liquid with a solo kill of  Jeong "Impact" Eon-young to boot  — for an interview, possessing an unusual amount of tranquility for a player of his experience.

Kumo assured that he was ready to start in the LCS, and Evil Geniuses is prepared to give him that chance. For all the recent discussion of North America's problems with developing talent, it's worth mentioning that Kumo was the 1st Draft Pick in the 2017 NA Scouting Grounds. It's time to see if his development within the Cloud9 organization will come to fruition for EG on the LCS stage.