neaLaN on EG Black: "I think they're the future of NA"

Matched up against the third highest-ranked team in the world, FaZe, very few had high expectations for Evil Geniuses as they kicked off their run at IEM Dallas. While the Geniuses did ultimately still fall short, the American side impressed by taking the match into overtime, showing that there is still some life in this squad.

Shortly after the loss, Evil Geniuses in-game leader Sanzhar "neaLaN" Iskhakov spoke with Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore regarding the match, the performance of the team and individual players like Jerric "wiz" Jiang", and what IEM Dallas means for the squad after a middling first half of 2023, among a wide range of other topics.

Please note that the full interview can be found below on YouTube, while the transcript has some key snippets from their conversation.

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This is one of the most competitive maps we've seen from Evil Geniuses in a long time. What went right that allowed you to take FaZe to overtime?

I mean, I think we threw this game. We felt pretty confident for this tournament; we were bootcamping for two and a half weeks, and we have a pretty good game right now. What happened this game, we were a little nervous at the start and weren't doing the stuff we're usually doing. We lost some clutches also.

One player that has had a lot of attention since joining the team is wiz. He didn't have a great performance this game, but do you think he has the potential to grow and maybe become the star AWPer the team needs?

wiz is try-harding, he's doing his best, he's just getting nervous in some of the games. For this match, he was nervous at the start, but he started to be more confident, saying "I'm going to do this, throw these flashes for me", and making some plays. He'll be a good AWPer in my opinion.

EG hasn't had a great season in 2023. How important is it to have a good result in Dallas to end the first half of the year with?

We're always trying our best, we're always trying to win the tournament, win the games, qualify, whatever. But I think this is the first tournament that we are prepared, because we had a really good bootcamp. Dallas is the last tournament for us, so we're going to try our best to qualify for the playoffs.

Has anyone impressed you on EG Black recently?

HexT has grown up and he's playing really good right now. Jeorge, junior, I think they're potentially really good. I think they're the future of NA basically.

Watch the full interview below:

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