In their debut match as the organisation’s main team, Evil Geniuses couldn’t have asked for a harder opponent than Vitality. A game that went exactly how everyone would have expected it to, the North American squadron failed to contain the might of the reigning Major champions.
A result no one will criticise the former academy team for, it was a baptism of fire in tier one for Evil Geniuses, so while we won’t attempt to analyse their play, let’s take a look at how they lined up on the maps they played.
Although Evil Geniuses may have struggled on their T side in map one, Overpass is a great indication of playstyle.
On a default, autimatic was of course found lurking towards B, looking to find impact in the late round and capitalise upon mistakes made by rotating CTs. As for junior and Jeorge, the two other stars of the team, could often be found towards the A side of the map, looking to take map control through the bathrooms.
The aggressive rifle star of the team, when EG set up in a 3-1-1 default, Jeorge would also be given his captain to bait. Walco himself acted as more of a Roamer, helping the other members of his squad take map control on their various defaults.
The final piece, HexT, could most often be found in Connector. The link between the aggressive and passive elements in the team, it suggests he will often be found lurking in important auxiliary areas of maps.
On Vertigo, it was much the same for Evil Geniuses. HexT was operating towards Mid on a default, with junior and Walco both being found in the pack.
One big change, however, was that instead of Jeorge also operating within the pack, he was shifted to the B Lurk position, while autimatic instead played as the main rifle star of the pack. Roles that will allow both autimatic and Jeorge to have success while lurking, the threat of those two players is something teams will have to focus on in the future.
Despite EG not getting to play much of a CT side on Overpass, there is still enough for us to figure out their spots and some future concerns.
Typically an A rifler, autimatic keeps his spot as the main rifle star of the team in this new roster. The other candidate, Jeorge, will instead be found in the secondary star role, the Rotator spot. For the uninitiated, that means Jeorge will be the first player to rotate from B to A and vice versa, providing backup for his teammates on whichever site the T side appears to be leaning towards.
The big concern, however, is the strength of the team’s B defence. While it might be an issue that fixes itself as the players adapt to tier one, HexT and Walco don’t overly provide a massive amount of firepower to defend the B site with. Chemistry on the site could be a big factor to aid them, but they could easily find themselves targeted by the stronger teams.
Vertigo comes with the same concerns. With Jeorge and autimatic both playing towards the A side of the map, having Walco and HexT towards Mid and B could quickly be exposed as detrimental. Success rests a lot upon HexT’s ability to step us a star in tier one, and if history is anything to go by, he has a long way to go to realise that potential.
While we may have raised concerns, it’s hard to judge just how concerning these elements will be given the strength of the opponent they faced in this debut match. Against weaker opposition, these concerns could be non-factors, and based on the fact this team isn’t expected to be winning tournaments anytime soon, it isn’t a problem that weaker opposition may need to be a factor for its success in the short term.
The road to truly becoming a tier one team will be a long and hard one. Simply playing at tier one events doesn’t mean you are tier one calibre, and that is a lesson Evil Geniuses will learn as they attempt to become a team their region can be proud of. Having such a difficult first game could be a blessing in disguise, a marker of the lengths they will have to go in order to achieve greatness. It will take time, and potentially not everyone currently on the team will make it there, but it’s possible, and this is only the beginning.
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