Evil Geniuses struggle in leadup to Dallas
Much has been said about the Evil Geniuses roster, but their latest losses are casting further doubts on the team's ability in the leadup to their final event of the season, IEM Dallas.
In recent weeks, following elimination from the BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR, the team underwent changes as they moved Jadan "HexT" Postma back to the EG Black roster while importing Ismail "refrezh" Ali. The Dane was formerly part of Heroic and Sprout, trying briefly to be an IGL on the latter team.
The recruitment of refrezh was supposed to bring in a more supportive voice that could emotionally lead the team while American stars Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte and Timothy "autimatic" Ta would be the fragging stars. However, the last few weeks have already put this plan under serious scrutiny.
After publication of the article, Dust2.us was notified that refrezh has had to play from Denmark due to visa complications, which has continued to hamper the team development and his own performance.
On Tuesday, Evil Geniuses took part in the Gamers8 2023 North American Open Qualifier in hopes of competing at the main event in Saudi Arabia last this summer. After defeating Cartel Terraza 16-9, the team fell to Nouns in a relatively one-sided 16-8 loss on Mirage.
NounsEvil Geniuses| Nouns |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 David 'cynic' Polster |
23 - 18 | +5 | 115.4 | 70.8% | 1.57 |
| Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly |
23 - 16 | +7 | 95.0 | 87.5% | 1.43 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
15 - 14 | +1 | 76.0 | 70.8% | 1.13 |
| Brendan 'Bwills' Williams |
18 - 18 | +0 | 70.0 | 70.8% | 1.07 |
| Christopher 'cJ dA K1nG' Jones |
15 - 16 | -1 | 59.2 | 66.7% | 1.04 |
| Evil Geniuses |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
25 - 22 | +3 | 113.2 | 70.8% | 1.25 |
| Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
20 - 18 | +2 | 98.5 | 79.2% | 1.23 |
| Jerric 'wiz' Jiang |
14 - 18 | -4 | 59.8 | 66.7% | 0.94 |
 Ismail 'refrezh' Ali |
12 - 18 | -6 | 58.7 | 62.5% | 0.72 |
 Sanzhar 'neaLaN' Iskhakov |
10 - 19 | -9 | 48.6 | 45.8% | 0.48 |
While the loss to Nouns isn't necessarily notable on it's own, considering the American team's dominance in the region and Evil Geniuses continued struggles to find consistency, the following loss should be cause for concern. The team participated in the ESEA Cash Cup Circuit Season 1 Cup 7, presumably for additional practice as IEM Dallas begins in just over a week. However, after concerningly close wins over Advanced squad Classless and mixteam puggers, EG found themselves on the receiving end of a relatively compressive defeat to ESEA Advanced team Eros.
Evil GeniusesEros| Evil Geniuses |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
20 - 17 | +3 | 92.0 | 60.0% | 1.19 |
| Sanzhar 'neaLaN' Iskhakov |
15 - 14 | +1 | 75.6 | 88.0% | 1.15 |
| Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
17 - 20 | -3 | 73.4 | 60.0% | 0.90 |
| Ismail 'refrezh' Ali |
12 - 20 | -8 | 50.8 | 76.0% | 0.68 |
| Jerric 'wiz' Jiang |
10 - 16 | -6 | 35.2 | 60.0% | 0.67 |
| Eros |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin 'AJaxz' Janocha |
24 - 17 | +7 | 99.2 | 76.0% | 1.48 |
 Rudy 'PALADIN' Rokin |
19 - 13 | +6 | 75.0 | 80.0% | 1.25 |
| Darius 'PNDLM' Bandali |
17 - 14 | +3 | 74.1 | 80.0% | 1.19 |
 Cory 'shutout' Frymark |
16 - 18 | -2 | 76.1 | 68.0% | 0.98 |
 Nelvin 'nooz' Gonzalez |
11 - 15 | -4 | 61.8 | 60.0% | 0.86 |
The Seattle-based organization were able to receive an invite to IEM Dallas as a "hometown hero," while Liquid and Complexity earned their spots through their world rankings and statues as ESL partner teams. At the time of the invites being announced, Evil Geniuses clinched their invite due to the being the highest-ranked majority American lineup, something that drew some degree of consternation from the more internationally-oriented but higher-ranked ATK squad.
It is concerning for North American fans that Evil Geniuses has not improved at the current time, despite the amount of resources that have been poured into the team. Should the organization not perform, or at least slightly impress at the international stage in Dallas, more questions are going to be raised about the future of this team and if refrezh was the only change that needed to happen.
