We've known for a while that Dota 2 team Evil Geniuses would be joining the post-TI roster shuffle. A lot of people were expecting that two or three members would be released, and the roster would be rebuilt based on the remaining ones. Thus, it probably came as a surprise to some when the entire roster and the coach were released.
That means saying goodbye to Artour "Arteezy" Babaev, Abed "Abed" Yusop, Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko, Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen, and Tal "Fly" Aizik. Leaving the team as well is coach Kanishka "BuLba" Sosale.
Regarding this move, EG said: "It’s never easy to say goodbye, especially with a history as long as ours." This is indeed true, especially for Arteezy and Cr1t- who joined the team in 2016. BuLba had also been with the team for quite some time, being their coach since 2017. Meanwhile, Abed was signed in 2019 and Fly had been with EG since 2018 before leaving in 2021 and then signing back in May of this year.
What happens now? Rumors in the Dota 2 community suggested that EG was moving to a different region, and the rumors are true as EG moves to South America. This was confirmed by none other than EG CEO Nicole LaPointe Jameson through a video posted on Twitter.
In that short video, Jameson assured fans that they'll continue to be part of the Dota 2 competitive scene and they're looking to build a super team in South America. Besides EG, a lot of roster movement is also happening in the region, particularly with Thunder Awaken and Beastcoast.
The move to South America is a bit expected. EG would have a hard time if it decided to move to Western Europe given how many strong teams are in there and more expensive given that a lot of players there have superstar status.
A lot of eyes have been focusing on South America ever since Valve gave it its own qualifiers for The International 2017. Since then, the region has grown and it could even be argued that the teams in South America have more than surpassed their counterparts in North America.
It’s going to be exciting to see how EG moves forward and how they fare in South America. We’ll also be keeping a close watch on where the former members are going.
What about you? Do you think it’s a good move to release the entire roster?
