Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses
North America
Rank #21
Derrek
Derrek Ha
NaturE
Nicholas Garrison
supamen
Phat Le
defeated
FunPlus Phoenix
FunPlus Phoenix
China
Rank #5
Autumn
Kale Dunne
Life
Qu Donghao (瞿东豪)
AAAAY
Zhang Yang (张杨)
BerLIN
Zhang Bolin (張柏霖)
yosemite
Wang Lei (王磊)
2-0 in the group stages on the second day of Champions 2023. EG will face off against
FUT Esports
FUT Esports
Europe
Rank #7
xeus
Doğan Gözgen
MrFaliN
Furkan Yeğen
yetujey
Eray Budak
AtaKaptan
Ata Tan
cNed
Mehmet Yağız İpek
qRaxs
Doğukan Balaban
in the winner's match of Group B on Tuesday to see which team will be the first to qualify for playoffs in their group.
Despite losing Ascent 13-8, FPX displayed signs of competitiveness while EG revealed some sloppiness in their play. EG held onto the series on Pearl, winning 13-8 once again, but FPX made them work for the win.
(L-R) Zhang "BerLIN" Bo-lin and coach Deng "NaThanD" Senqiao of FunPlus Phoenix fistbump coach Christine "potter" Chi and Kelden "Boostio" Pupello of Evil Geniuses (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)
FPX certainly put up more of a fight than some EG players were expecting. The North American team went into the match brimming with confidence. When asked how many rounds they would drop in the series, Boostio claimed, “To be humble, I think we'll give them eight. 13-4, 13-4.”
On the other side, FPX's BerLIN said, “We have some secret weapons prepared, so we are going to surprise EG for this game.”
FPX's surprise produced an impressive performance right out the gate, keeping the opening map tied 6-6 after attacking Valorant's most defense-sided map, Ascent. But EG warmed up in the second half. The North American team rushed into A-site to secure the pistol round, then won a flawless anti-eco round to keep their confidence going. They ran away with the map on their own attacker's side, dropping only two rounds to take Ascent 13-8.
On Ascent, FPX were constantly playing with a player disadvantage. EG drew 17 first bloods compared to FPX's measly four. And while slowing the mid-game down worked for the Chinese team on offense, they couldn't overcome the man disadvantage on their defense.
“It was definitely a slow start,” potter said. “But you know what, we have Pearl coming up in map two. It was one of the maps that we wanted to punish-pick in Tokyo. I think in Champions we're ready. We're about to prove it, right now in the server.”
At first, it looked like the EG players were primed to make good on Potter's words. The North American team's engines were oiled and running in the first half, and they dominated their defense 9-3. FPX were only able to scrounge up a couple of hero rounds in the end with a 3K by AAAAY and a 1v3 clutch by nizhaoTZH .
It looked over for FPX when jawgemo won a clutch of his own after halftime, bringing EG up to an overwhelming 11-3 scoreline. On round 25, FPX flattened the mid approach on EG's bonus round, leaving C0M alone in an impossible 1v4 situation. But C0M took the opportunity to go out with a bang, knifing AAAAY in the back to the cheers of the crowd.
Despite the embarrassment, FPX came back with fury. The Chinese team took four rounds in a row against the Americas first seed, tightening EG's lead to 11-8 and forcing Potter to call a timeout. After the timeout, EG and FPX played an important swing round that came down to a 1v1 between Demon1 and AAAY. Demon1 narrowly won the duel on B Heaven with 30 HP remaining. EG closed out the game in the very next round.
Boostio was a good sport in his post-match interview. He admitted that “a whole lot” of egg was on his face after FPX took twice the amount of rounds he predicted.
“I think I played pretty bad overall, but my teammates hard-carried me,” he said afterward. “They all played amazing, and I'm just happy we got the dub.”
FPX now drop down to Thursday's elimination match against
T1
T1
Korea
Rank #2
stax
Kim Gu-taek (김구택)
Meteor
Kim Tae-oh (김태오)
Sylvan
Go Young-sup (고영섭)
BuZz
Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철)
iZu
Ham Woo-ju (함우주)
, where they will fight for their life in the tournament. Considering that the Korean team just received an unflattering flattening by the hands of FUT, the jury's out on whether FPX or T1 will come out victorious
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