Evil Geniuses bomb out of Pinnacle Cup
As the lowest-ranked team in Group B, Evil Geniuses' opening match was always going to be a tough one, getting matched up against the Danish powerhouse of Astralis. After six vetos, both teams ended up on the level playing ground of Overpass, known for its mind-twisting levels of rotations and gamble stacks. Our fateful Americans started on the attacking side, but barely made a dent in the Danish defense.
After Astralis won the pistol and conversion, EG scraped by the first gun round, but it was only downhill from there as they scampered together with only one round for the rest of the half, facing an eleven-round deficit coming into the second half. Evil Geniuses started their comeback nicely, taking the pistol and the following three, but sadly their disastrous T-side didn't leave them much room for error. Astralis eventually put together the required three to finish up Overpass, winning the opening match 16-6.
AstralisEG White| Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer |
29 - 11 | +18 | 131.8 | 81.8% | 2.06 |
| Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth |
21 - 11 | +10 | 100.1 | 77.3% | 1.44 |
| Asger 'Farlig' Jensen |
15 - 10 | +5 | 75.7 | 77.3% | 1.18 |
| Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander |
13 - 14 | -1 | 63.0 | 77.3% | 1.09 |
| Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke |
13 - 12 | +1 | 60.0 | 77.3% | 0.96 |
| EG White |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'djay' Dallal |
13 - 15 | -2 | 63.9 | 59.1% | 0.86 |
 Wesley 'viz' Harris |
13 - 19 | -6 | 79.6 | 59.1% | 0.82 |
| Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
15 - 21 | -6 | 66.8 | 54.5% | 0.75 |
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
11 - 18 | -7 | 51.5 | 50.0% | 0.61 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
6 - 19 | -13 | 45.8 | 45.5% | 0.48 |
The second match of the day saw EG against the other losers of Group B, Finest, who had just lost to Imperial. The first map was Dust2, an Evil Geniuses' pick, and a favorite map here at this website. Finest won the pistol and conversion on their CT-side, but unlike against Astralis, EG mustered up an attack of their own, swinging three back in their own direction to take a lead for the first time this tournament. The game was back and forth for quite a while until a late half string of rounds for Finest saw EG finish their T-side 6-9, a deficit for sure but not an insurmountable one.
Sadly for our Americans, their defense fell apart like a wet paper towel, allowing Finest to pick up six rounds and get on map point before EG responded with any sort of noise. A weak, late rejuvenation put three rounds back in the favor of Evil Geniuses but at that point, it was too far gone, as Finest secured the one round to take EGs pick of Dust2 16-9.
Facing a map deficit, Evil Geniuses would need to take Finest's map pick of Inferno to have any say in the Pinnacle Cup. That map didn't start in their favor either, though. Finest got off to a roaring 5-0 attacking start, and while after that it was back and forth, Evil Geniuses weren't able to secure back-to-back rounds until rounds 13 and 14, ending the first half with only six to their name. Finest also started their CT-side with breakneck speed again securing a 5-0 run to demoralize EG. Just a few short rounds later, Finest closed out Inferno 16-8, ending EG's run at Pinnacle before it even started.
EG WhiteFinest| EG White |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
35 - 38 | -3 | 78.4 | 65.3% | 1.05 |
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
28 - 37 | -9 | 66.2 | 59.2% | 0.86 |
| Wesley 'viz' Harris |
26 - 34 | -8 | 56.9 | 65.3% | 0.82 |
| Jonathan 'djay' Dallal |
24 - 38 | -14 | 62.7 | 57.1% | 0.72 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
21 - 39 | -18 | 53.9 | 46.9% | 0.53 |
| Finest |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Guy 'anarkez' Trachtman |
53 - 22 | +31 | 99.2 | 79.6% | 1.64 |
 Niclas 'PlesseN' Plessen |
39 - 30 | +9 | 85.0 | 73.5% | 1.29 |
 Kristjan 'shokz' Jakobson |
31 - 24 | +7 | 72.1 | 85.7% | 1.15 |
| Simon 'twist' Eliasson |
31 - 28 | +3 | 68.6 | 71.4% | 1.14 |
| Rasmus 'kreaz' Johansson |
32 - 31 | +1 | 81.0 | 67.3% | 1.05 |
These two matches conclude Evil Geniuses' time in Lund, but considering this is many of the players' second time in Europe, the results aren't anything too unexpected. The point of Evil Geniuses' Blueprint project is to give these players the experience to succeed by playing in EU tier 2 events. With time, they will get better, so hope is not even close to being lost.
