Evil Geniuses’ active roster now features four 10,000 MMR players. However, with the recent global events threatening the likelihood of Valve-sponsored tournaments, it is bad news for the striving team. Fans will need to wait potentially weeks before they get to watch a team of this caliber in action.
EG’s days in the DOTA2 pro scene dates back all the way to 2011. After several mediocre seasons, they became the International 2016 Champions. While the current roster consists none of the former champions, EG is still doing well and perhaps better. After the resignation of their star mid player, Sumail, aka the King. The former TI3 champion, s4 took his leave too.
Although Evil Geniuses fans miss the two champions, the newcomers are no pushovers. Featuring Abed and RAMZES666, the two prodigies are the best from their respective regions, SE Asia and CIS. Recently, the new roster showed off their strength in the previous Leipzig major as they face Team Secret in the grand finals. Unfortunately, Team Secret had the last laugh as they lift the trophy after a nail-biting 3-2 victory.
After uplifting recent performances by EG, fans were looking forward for the next Los Angeles major. However, the event was postponed due to the US travel ban, leaving fans wanting.
No thanks to the pandemic, teams such as Evil Geniuses participating in the official Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) are laid off as offline tournaments are cancelled inevitably. To make matters worse, countries undergoing lockdowns are banning oversea travels in and out of their country. Thus, forcing many non-US pro players return to their homes. In EG’s case, both Abed and RAMZES666 are not available for play currently.
Credit: Oliver Ludlow / ESPN
While LAN tournaments were called off, online tournaments and leagues make an uprising to fill the void of empty schedules. For instance, WePlay organized the WeSave! Charity Play last week and ESL One is also organizing their own online tournament right now. Although EG is invited to both online tournaments, they are playing with 2 stand-ins, Ryoya and Bulba (EG coach). Let’s just say EG without their star players are nothing to brag about.
Perhaps the most iconic pro player in the region, Arteezy, is EG’s finest hard carry player. While he delivers consistent performance and insane plays in most games, there are times he fails hilariously too. Nicknamed “Cliffteezy”, viewers watching EG play, will spam his nickname in chats when Arteezy gets “cliffed”. Being “cliffed” means a player gets placed on a high cliff helplessly.
Besides that, Arteezy is often associated with bringing the “third place curse” to whichever team he plays for. He holds the world record of placing third in 9 majors and 2 Internationals in his career. Frankly, that sounds more of a blessing than a curse though.
Meanwhile, EG’s duo support players, Fly and Cr1t, hold a vengeful rivalry with the two-time International champion, team OG. The two players were former OG players themselves. Although OG won tournaments often, they get upset in the Internationals when the duo supports were in OG. Eventually, the two players left OG only to have the team they abandoned, win the Internationals without them. These days, there are still a strong rivalry between these two EG players and Notail, team OG captain. Notail often sends his regards to his former teammate, Fly.
Although the Esports scene took a painful hit from the pandemic, EG like many teams are still looking forward to the main event of the year, the International 2020. Whether it’s an online tournament or a LAN tournament without live audience, let’s hope that the DOTA2 community can celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Internationals.
If we look for a squad that can upset OG’s run for a three-peat, than EG is one of our likely contenders.
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