Evil Geniuses vs Cloud9 post-match review

Returning to Europe to compete in Group A of ESL Pro League Season 17, Evil Geniuses stumbled in their opening match versus Cloud9, with the North American side failing to accrue cumulative double-digit rounds across both maps played.

Initial reactions

This result has done very little to ease the fears of many North American fans surrounding Evil Geniuses' recent performance, as the team were unable to present anything even resembling a glimmer of hope in the two maps played. Dominant 11-4 halves for Cloud9 on both Inferno and Mirage lent themselves to incredibly short second halves, with Evil Geniuses only securing a single round in the second half across both maps.

Speaking after the match versus Evil Geniuses, Cloud9 in-game leader Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov touched on the North American side's woes and provided useful insight into the Blueprint project from the perspective of a former academy player. While Evil Geniuses' performances have drawn ire from fans and detractors alike, nafany kicked off the post-match interview by stating that he "expect[ed] a more tough game", adding that new additions Jerric "wiz" Jiang and Jadan "HexT" Postma would need more time before being comfortable at the tier-one level.

nafany elaborated on this point by stating that one should not place high expectations on new players from North America for a year or two, citing the lack of competitive quality and opportunities in the region.

Stat takeaway

Not a single member of Evil Geniuses was able to come close to producing a positive rating throughout this series, highlighting the massive gap between them and Cloud9. The North Americans struggled to make early headway on both maps, only securing the opening pick in roughly one-third of rounds played, putting them at a distinct disadvantage throughout the series.

• Timothy "autimatic" Ta posted the squad's highest series rating (0.74)

• Jerric "wiz" Jiang brought up the rear with a 0.40 series rating, with 11 kills total

• Evil Geniuses secured the opening pick in roughly 34% of the 41 rounds played

• Cloud9 maintained a strong economy, with only 6 non-full buy rounds across the series

While this loss is unfortunate, this was not an unexpected outcome by any means. The North Americans will now have two more chances before they are entirely eliminated from their Pro League group, as a loss to Eternal Fire tomorrow would pit them against the loser of IHC and MIBR's game in the Group A Last Chance Stage.