After a turbulent offseason and only two returning players, Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #17 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le debuted in the Group C Winners match with a 2-0 victory over G2 Esports G2 Esports Inactive .

G2 will have a rematch with KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete mta Nicolás González Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro in the decider match, where the winner will go on to the play-ins stage.

The series kicked off on G2's pick of Sunset. G2 looked poised for an early victory after a resounding 7-0 start in their attacking half. Using both of their timeouts, Evil Geniuses rallied back their half 8-4 with solid teamwork and a lifeline to bring the game back.

EG opened the second half with wins on pistol, anti-eco, and the post-bonus gun rounds, but G2 climbed to an 11-7 lead, two rounds from certain victory.

Round 19 was when the scales started to favor Evil Geniuses, beginning with a 1v2 clutch from in-game leader NaturE . The following rounds were a display of unity amongst the new Evil Geniuses, as they left G2 confused, especially after a 2v5 from Derrek and NaturE in round 22, tying the game 11-11. Two more rounds later, the game went on to overtime.

The clutch that set the comeback in motion.

An ice-cold outplay-defuse from NaturE gave EG an edge in overtime, but a solid retake by G2 tied the game once more. Evil Geniuses then closed out the map and earned their first win in 2024.

Despite being on the losing side, leaf had a solid performance – racking up a 24-21 KD and 264 ACS. The rest of Evil Geniuses all had a greater FK-FD ratio than all the G2 players, aside from valyn .

Evil Geniuses entered their pick of Icebox with a rather unusual composition: a zero duelist Deadlock and Gekko comp, with jawgemo on the former. The comp seemed effective as EG opened the first half 4-1. After a timeout, G2 relented with back-and-forth rounds, but their opponents got the 7-5 lead at halftime.

G2 stormed out the gates in the final half and won five out of six rounds, bringing the game 10-8. Round 19 once again let Evil Geniuses regain momentum as Apoth started to light up the kill feed. Following a clever postplant setup from Jawgemo and NaturE, G2's JonahP gave his team a fighting chance, ending round 21 with an ace.

With nailbiting series on their hands, potter rallied her troops back with a timeout and set them up for success as the young returnee Apoth continued to break G2's defenses lurk after lurk.

One round away from victory, Evil Geniuses took their time in deciding which site was clear. With 20 seconds left, Apoth's Lockdown let EG push onto A site, but valyn's early kill onto the Killjoy and his Incendiary left only seven seconds on the board. A tense 1v2 ensued as supamen activated his Viper's Pit, and his Snakebites left G2 in the dust and secured the 2-0 victory.

Seconds to spare, and 1v2 to dare.

New kids on the block Apoth and supamen dismantled G2 with incredible lurks. Each had 13 kills in their attack half, and more than anyone on G2 individually. Once again, leaf shone through as the only positive player in KDA and had a higher rating than everyone but supamen.

When asked about the new core's synergy and restructuring, jawgemo basically summed up Evil Geniuses' "downfall".

"We have nothing to lose, you know, people praying on our downfall, this is just another year of EG getting a downfall. Me and potter knew whatever team we could pull together, we can make it work."

The confidence was another factor for EG's victory, and jawgemo knew how to set his boys up.

"We're just gonna play as confident as we can, 'cause you guys can see the shooters on our team now."

Evil Geniuses move on to the playoffs, where they await NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #2 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh Verno Andrew Maust mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold , LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #2 dgzin Douglas Silva v1nny Vínicius Gonçalves pANcada Bryan Luna tuyz Arthur Andrade cauanzin Cauan Pereira , or the play-in winner.