Experts react to EG shock exit
Evil Geniuses have been having a rough time as of late, after deciding to shake things up last year with the introduction of the blueprint project, the historic organization had placed their bets on being able to build a talent pipeline to funnel into their main roster. The acquisition of young IGL Sanzhar "nealaN" Iskhakov was seen as a move in the right direction and the promotion of Jadan "HexT" Postma was the first example of their blueprint in action.
There were promising early signs for the new look squad, such as being able to beat Eternal Fire and Movistar Riders in ESL Pro League Season 16 narrowly missing out on playoffs to fellow NA side and future finalists Liquid. They then destroyed the competition at the IEM Rio Americas RMR, going 3-0 including an impressive victory over FURIA. Despite these results, EG managed to win just one map at the IEM Rio Major, over the inexperienced Mongolian IHC team.
If their form was rocky at the end of 2022, it has been appalling in 2023. After deciding to switch out the consistently underperforming Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov who had been far off his 2019 top 20 form for the past few years, the EG roster once again turned to their blueprint to promote Jerric "wiz" Jiang from their EG Black squad.
wiz had been tearing up the domestic scene but the step-up has proved to be a struggle for the young AWPer, the team might have managed a shock win over Heroic in their opening match of the year but results have been poor ever since. EG have only won five of their fifteen matches played on HLTV so far this year, with three of those wins coming against NA ECL level competition and one against Advanced team REIGN. The latest blow to the roster has been their failure to make it through the BLAST Paris Closed qualifier to the Americas RMR, a fate that was sealed with their loss to oNe in the seventh place decider.
After their exit, some key figures in the scene took to social media to voice their opinion on the team's recent struggles. One of the team's most prominent critics in recent times has been former 100 Thieves coach Aleksandar "Kassad" Trifunovic who even placed a bounty on EG, which oNe Founder kakavEL confirmed he had recieved after the side knocked EG out.
Kassad made sure to mention that he believes the blame should be put on the higher-ups in the EG organization and not directed at the players themselves, following this tweet up with a reply saying he believes that the org has set the team up to fail.
Meanwhile Canadian caster Conner "Scrawny" Girvan focused on the team's upcoming events and demonstrated just how lackluster the team's season will be without making the BLAST Paris Major.
Other industry figures re-inforced the idea that the blame should be on the EG management and not the players. Davenport University coach Colin "Koi" Thor suggests that whilst the players are giving everything, there will need to be some big discussions at the top of the EG management structure.
Perhaps Alex "Mauisnake" Ellenberg summed up the scene's feelings on the matter best, as he drew comparisons between the pressure laid on the EG players and the situation with the Cloud9 colossus. Both of whom struggled to post results matching the unrealistic expectations set by their respective management, thus ramping up the pressure on the teams and cutting each team's lifespan drastically.
Evil Geniuses will have to recover swiftly from this major disappointment, as in just two days they will be starting their ESL Pro League Season 17 journey against Cloud9, a team that also has a point to prove after sub-par results.
