Evil Geniuses, is one of the oldest North American Esports Organizations. Founded back in 1999, EG competes in a vast array of games like Starcraft II, League of Legends, Halo, Call of Duty and numerous Fighting games. Their Dota 2 division was announced on October 24^th, 2011. EG won TI5 beating CDEC Gaming with a convincing 3-1.

Evil Geniuses’ current Dota 2 roster:

1. Arteezy
2. Suma1L
3. s4
4. Cr1t-
5. Fly

Fly and s4, shockingly left OG and joined EG on May 28^th, 2018 (Just two and a half months ago).

EG had a terrible season, winning only the GESC: Indonesia Minor. They played only one DPC tournament after s4 and Fly joined the team, which was the Chine Supermajor. Things looked really grim for EG as they performed terribly and ended up with a 9-12^th placement. Many speculated that EG might not even qualify for TI this year, which would be a huge upset.

EG seemed weak even in the group stages of the TI8 North American Qualifiers, losing to Optic Gaming, compLexity Gaming, and VGJ.Storm. But in the final playoffs, they proved themselves, by defeating both compLexity and Immortals with a convincing 2-0 performance, qualifying themselves for TI8.

About the Squad:

The Major Winners:

EG’s position 4 player Cr1t, is a Danish player who has played in numerous small-time teams until he got picked up by N0tail and Fly for their team Monkey Business which later on became OG. Fly was the captain of this team. It seemed as if Cr1t was just waiting for the limelight, as he won 4 Majors with Fly’s captaincy at his time in OG. After OG’s poor performance in early 2016, Cr1t decided to leave OG as he got a chance to be the new captain for EG. Fly stayed loyal to OG for two more years, but recently he decided to join Cr1t in the new EG roster.

A-God:

Arteezy is by far the most influential personality in the Dota scene. He occasionally streams on Twitch and gets an average of 17,000 viewers. Fans all over the world  try to mimic his playstyle and gave him the title “A-God”.

Arteezy was very young when he started his Dota career. In November 2013, he got the opportunity to stand-in for bone7 for Speed Gaming at MLG Columbus. Speed Gaming were the underdogs in the tournament and nobody expected them to win. Arteezy styled on some of the best mid-laners at the time, like Mushi and Dendi, carrying his team to victory. This is when he cemented himself as one of the best mid-laners of the world. Later he formed EG with the best NA players at the time, Fear and Universe. He got 3^rd place at TI4 with this team. Later he jumped between Team Secret and EG for a few years but got unsatisfactory results at every TI he attended. He’s back in EG now as the carry player, with some of the best talents in Dota 2, on his hopeful journey to win a TI.

The Young Prodigy:

When Arteezy switched from EG to Team Secret, Sumail got a chance to play for EG as their midlaner for DAC 2015. This was the first time he introduced his Shadowfiend Eul’s Scepter build which instantly became the new meta of that patch. In the last game of the finals against Vici Gaming, Sumail was playing Storm Spirit and he got ganked 3 times in the middle lane, giving him a very poor start. This did not faze Sumail though, as he came back from a 0-3-0 score to a 17-7-11 finish. His plays in that game cemented him as the best Storm Spirit player in the world. This also established EG as one of the most dominant teams in the world at that point. Sumail went on to win TI5 with that roster. Now he is on his journey to win a second TI with the new EG roster.

The TI Winner:

EG’s offlaner s4 was originally a Solo Mid player. Everyone remembers s4’s TI3 victory with Alliance. In the final game against Na’Vi, s4 was playing Puck. The odds were completely stacked against them as Na’Vi had a huge lead. When Na’Vi was coming for the final push, s4’s team was split-pushing from both top and bottom. S4 managed to cancel 3 TP scrolls with dream coil and Scythe of Vyse. This allowed his team to split-push and secured their TI3 win. This was dubbed by the fans as the “Million Dollar Dream Coil”. After his time in Alliance, he switched to the offlane role and joined team OG. He won 2 majors with OG. Currently, he shifted to EG, trying to secure his second TI win.

Even though things started out really bad for EG, they managed to pull themselves up and make it to TI8. They may seem like the underdogs, but let’s not forget the fact that the team consists of some of the most legendary players in the Dota scene. Will EG be able to beat the odds and win TI8? Will punks be satisfied? Only time will tell.