Report: EG reverses course, plans for the Blueprint

Evil Geniuses intends to promote their EG Black roster to the main squad in time for the BLAST Fall Groups, the first event after the player break, sources have informed Dust2.us. The roster lock, which is later today at 1:00 PM ET, has been a looming deadline for many teams, with organizations attempting to finish their signings ahead of the day so that they can play with a rejuvenated roster for the event taking place on July 13th.

Evil Geniuses have been rumored to be making a number of changes this off-season, with the team reportedly in talks with at least Aleksandr "zorte" Zagodyrenko, Audric "JACKZ" Jug, Denis "electroNic" Sharipov, and Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski. However, within the last 18 hours, Dust2.us knows that these moves have become undone and are incredibly unlikely of being completed.

Sources informed Dust2.us that verbal agreements had been reached with the players, but factors on the Evil Geniuses side have caused these deals to fall apart. It is known that the targeted players were surprised to learn that the Seattle-based organization was not going to move forward with their signing.

Right now, Evil Geniuses appears to be intent on promoting their EG Black roster to the main team, if just for the upcoming BLAST Premier Fall Groups. The roster, while being a promotion of EG Black, will continue to feature Timothy "autimatic" Ta, who has always been considered a pillar of the Evil Geniuses roster, even when they considered the move to a European core.

For Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte, Sanzhar "neaLaN" Iskhakov, Ismail "refrezh" Ali, and Jerric "wiz" Jiang, they are not considered to be part of the main roster. However, sources have warned Dust2.us that the situation remains incredibly fluid and the final roster formation could change before the 12:00PM BLAST roster lock deadline.

The promoted roster should include a starting lineup of Colby "Walco" Walsh, Timothy "autimatic" Ta, Jeorge "Jeorge" Endicott, Paytyn "junior" Johnson, and Jadan "HexT" Postma. The status of Will "RUSH" Wierzba is unknown at this time.

Evil Geniuses have continued to have discussions with Jonathon "EliGE" Jablonowski at this time, despite the European-core roster project collapsing last night. The organization have pitched that EliGE would join autimatic alongside three EG Black members. The dramatic change in the roster plans is what has caused talks between the two sides to cool.

It is also known that Daniel "vorborg" Vorborg will not be at the helm of the main roster, with Damien "maLeK" Marcel taking charge. At present, it is unknown what will happen with EG Black coach Tommy "Axed" Ryan.

Evil Geniuses can still change their roster ahead of the main event, despite the roster lock. For BLAST, the penalty for an organization changing their team after the roster lock is to automatically give them the worst seeding of the event.

6.5.2.1. Should one (1) Team fail to submit their Submitted Roster to BLAST within the deadlines stated above, then that team shall be considered the lower seed in all given matchups.

Evil Geniuses, currently ranked 54th in the world by HLTV, are the lowest ranked team in the event. In the BLAST format, teams rank each other in terms of who they think is the best. So, the seeding of the event will not be known until the teams actually rank one another. Nonetheless, Evil Geniuses do not risk much by changing their team after the roster lock, since they would likely be on the lower end of the seeding ladder anyways, and the triple elimination format of the event is quite forgiving no matter the initial seeds.

With this development, Evil Geniuses' prospective roster for BLAST Fall Groups is:

• Timothy "autimatic" Ta

• Colby "Walco" Walsh

• Jeorge "Jeorge" Endicott

• Paytyn "junior" Johnson

• Jadan "HexT" Postma

• Damien "maLeK" Marcel (Coach)