Why EG can upset at the Major

EG will not win the Rio Major, most fans will even probably expect them to go out with a whimper in the opening stages. Whilst winning the whole thing might be a step too far, I think there is a good chance they can pull off an upset run and maybe take down a few big teams along the way.

After they became the laughing stock of the Counter-Strike community, with their failed Jake "Stewie2K" Yip led line-up, Evil Geniuses next project was always going to be received with extreme skepticism. So when they announced the promotion of Jadan "HexT" Postma from one of their secondary rosters (formerly known as Carpe Diem) and the importation of Sanzhar "neaLaN" Iskhakov from K23, its unsurprising that it failed to inspire confidence among fans.

HexT was an extremely obscure pick-up, despite his Carpe Diem team being part of the EG 'Blueprint' project, with most of his playing experience being at the North American ECL level. After spending three years on RBG/Carpe Diem, HexT's performances stepped up a notch numbers-wise at the start of 2022 including a 1.27 rating at Fragadelphia 16.

HexT has struggled to make the step up to tier-one competition so far with his only positive rating being at the open qualifiers for the North American RMR. However, it is important to note that HexT has stepped into the shoes of RUSH one of the most renowned role players in the world, and therefore currently his roles don't lend themselves to big numbers.

That being said it will be important for EG to get some more production out of the talented young rifler if they are to make a miracle run in Rio.

One of the biggest criticisms about the Stewie-led roster was the clear lack of leadership, a lack of direction in the server, and a losing culture outside of it. So when it came time for the EG hierarchy to shake things up it was obvious that they needed to shoot for a new IGL, someone who could install a winning culture and direction within the side.

They decided to pick neaLaN a player who had spent his entire career bouncing around the sub-top of the CIS region on teams like Syman and K23. At just 22 years old he hardly brought veteran experience and with very little game time at tier one himself, it was hard to believe he would be the guy to turn around the rotten culture that had festered in the team.

However within the space of a month EG managed to secure their first ESL Pro League match victories since March 2021, beat out favorites FURIA at the RMR and ran Liquid to overtimes in both maps in their battle for the legends spot at the Rio Major.

In both those match-ups neaLaN showed that EG had secured themselves a leader that could also frag. A massive bonus for a team that was accused of lacking firepower when first put together. neaLaN's addition has seen EG find an identity and a system that has already reaped rewards early into its inception.

We have talked about the new additions, but the real positive for the new look EG is the return to form of former star player Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov. He had only posted one 1.1+ rating at an event in a two-year period since IEM New York North America 2020, the AWPers decline has been a hot topic and many pundits and fans had called for his removal.

However, it seems the Bulgarian has found his confidence and is coming back to form posting a 1.12 rating at the RMR and, despite EG's upset loss in the event, a 1.26 rating in their BLAST Fall Showdown match.

If he can continue to find his way back to the form that saw him place #19 in HLTV's 2019 top 20 list then EG's firepower will no longer be a point of contention.

Timothy "autimatic" Ta is maybe the one good thing to come out of the EG Stewie run, the former Major winner had packed his bags for VALORANT after his Gen.G experiment. After two years out of the game his return was met with major pushback from the community, how can you expect a player to be out of the game for so long to jump straight back in on a top-30 team?

For autimatic it was like he never even left, the rifler almost instantly found his legs back in the game posting positive ratings in all but three of the events since his comeback, all of which came with the Stewie lineup. If autimatic can continue to be the teams reliable fragger, it will leave the team less reliant on former star Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte which in turn will hopefully unburden the player to help find some form.

So can this newly invigorated EG roster really win in Rio? No, of course they can't. If we are being realistic the team will be satisfied with making it through the Challengers Stage, however, if everything is clicking there's no reason why the team can't take it further and look at reaching playoffs. They will be underdogs in nearly every match, and with the firepower they have (who would of thought we would be saying that about an EG lineup at the start of the year) they can certainly turn some heads.

If I was to pick one win condition for EG at the Rio Major it would be Brehze's form. Sure they can win games without him, as they proved at the RMR and ESL Pro League (Brehze posted 0.99 and 1.04 ratings respectively) but if the former two-time top 20 player can regain even 80% of that form then EG becomes, dare I say, a genuine playoff contender.

Maybe that sounds crazy, but neaLaN has given the team a new lease of life with direction and a system, CeRq has begun to rediscover his form and in HexT and autimatic they have a reliable anchor and consistent fragger. With or without Brehze they will be a danger to any team that underestimates them, and with a in form Brehze I would not be shocked to see them on the playoff stage.