#LIVEEVIL is the best org hashtag in the Americas region and any other opinion is wrong
I'm starting a new series of articles where I'll be going over the history and rosters of all the orgs that made the partnered league, first starting with the Americas, then EMEA, and lastly Pacific. I'll try and do 2 every day, any and all feedback is welcome!
ORG HISTORY
-Evil Geniuses is one of the oldest organizations in esports, being founded in 1999. They experienced steady growth from 2004 onwards, acquiring new rosters in many different games.
-EG currently have rosters in Dota 2, CSGO, Rocket League, League of Legends, and VALORANT, as well as previously having rosters in PUBG, Fortnite, Overwatch, and Rainbow 6 Siege.
-To go further into their divisions, they have 3 CSGO rosters, a main and academy league team, and a main and game changers VALORANT team.
-Evil Geniuses are owned by a parent company, delusional_potter_fan PEAK6 Investments. As such, many of their financials are not public, but their 2021 revenue was estimated to be 25 million USD
ROSTER HISTORY
2021
-EG entered VALORANT at the beginning of the first VCT season in 2021, and signed clawdia, ALEKSANDER, potter, osias, and temperature. They were the only mixed male/female roster signed by a Tier 1 organization in Valorant. The roster for the first 6 months of the 2021 season would be:
-clawdia
-ALEKSANDER
-potter
-osias
-Temperature
-The roster found little success, unable to make it past the Ro32 in the open bracket in both stage 1 and stage 2. They also struggled in other tournaments like NSG weeklies and even VCS
-Going into stage 3, the roster changed their core, dropping clawdia, ALEKSANDER, and osias, and replacing them with roca, BRANTED, and pho. However, this new roster would still not make it past the Ro32, ending EG's 2021 VCT season very early.
-After this loss, Boostio would be brought on as a trial jett player, and potter would move to a coaching role. The new roster going into the NSG summer championship would be:
-BRANTED
-Boostio
-pho
-Temperature
-roca
-The team would go on to place 3rd-4th in the NSG summer championship after a loss to the eventual winners Cloud9, and marked their best placement at a B-tier tournament (per liquipedia)
-EG would continue to work with this roster through the end of the year, playing a total of 8 more smaller tournaments. Temperature would get loaned to GenG for LCQ and then move to the bench, with Reformed taking his place on a trial basis starting in October
2022
-The EG front office had big plans for the 2022 season, starting wit the release of BRANTED, Temperature, and roca. Reformed would be made an official player, and the roster would be rounded out with YaBoiDre and jawgemo. The roster going into the first stage of VCT would be:
-Boostio
-jawgemo
-pho
-Reformed
-YaBoiDre
-Evil Geniuses would fall in the first lower round to Bait Academy in the first VCT open qualifier, but would make a strong run in the second qualifier, taking down Ghost and Rise to secure a spot in the group stage of Stage 1.
-Unfortunately, the roster would go out 0-5, not winning a single match in groups, and only winning 2 maps of 12 played. EG would again make 2 more roster moves after their first group stage, dropping YaBoiDre and pho for C0M and Apoth, which gives us the current roster we have today. The finalized and current roster is:
-Apoth
-Boostio
-C0M
-jawgemo
-reformed
-This iteration of the roster would see much more success. After again falling in the first open qualifier, the squad would rally in their second and final run, beating Ghost (again) and Knights to qualify for the second stage of Groups.
-In this group stage, the roster proved themselves quickly, with 3 consecutive wins against Sentinels, Luminosity, and reigning international champions, OpTic. Despite a week 5 loss to Faze, EG would end the group stage 3-2, with a guaranteed spot in playoffs and LCQ. After winning their opening match to Ghost, they would lose their rematch to OpTic, and a tight final map to NRG that would end their playoff hopes in 5th-6th place.
-At LCQ, EG suffered consecutive losses to FaZe and NRG, causing them to exit in 7th-8th place, and ending their VCT season.
PLACEMENTS AND TOURNAMENTS
-3rd-4th at NSG Summer Champs (2021)
-5th-8th at Valorant Elite Showdown (2021)
-11th-12th at Challengers 1 (2022)
-5th-6th at Challengers 2 (2022)
-7th-8th at LCQ (2022)
-4th at BoomTV Proving Grounds (2022)
RUMORED ROSTER MOVES
-There are currently no leaked roster moves or changes for EG from any credible source, leading some to believe they are sticking with their current roster. Others think management and scouting is waiting for some of the larger deals (i.e C9 yay, NRG optic core) to go through before looking for talent. The current EG roster is:
-Apoth
-Boostio
-C0M
-jawgemo
-reformed
ADDITIONAL THREADS
-Champions matches thread: https://www.vlr.gg/143692/champs-analysis-megathread
-C9: https://www.vlr.gg/148561/cloud9-org-overview
-100T: https://www.vlr.gg/148653/100t-org-overview
-my twitter: https://twitter.com/RyanG2B