EG confirms rumors by releasing its entire Dota 2 roster

The long-anticipated move has finally happened. Evil Geniuses released its entire Dota 2 roster before moving to South America. We’ve known about this for almost a month but nobody was 100% that it was true. Now we do.

Valve’s apparent carelessness when it comes to Dota 2 and its professional scene has impacted a lot of teams. Outside of The International, it’s very hard to make money in Dota 2 right now. And even if you qualify for TI, without a top eight result, you will most likely have a negative balance sheet at the end of the season.

EG’s results in recent years

Evil Geniuses had the strongest Dota 2 team in North America. Regionally, they’ve always been relatively dominant. Only Quincy Crew (former Soniqs) and TSM have stood up to them. Other than that, there was no competition there. But there was no money to be made either. And the players were probably quite expensive.

It’s not easy to pay for the services of someone like Artour “Arteezy” Babaev, who could be making hundreds of thousands of dollars by streaming if he really wanted to. Back in the old days, Arteezy used to have 10.000–20.000 viewers for each live session, which can quickly result in a decent income if you do it regularly.

Nobody knows exactly how much Artour was being paid per season, but it’s clear that EG was losing money. Otherwise, their radical move makes no sense.

Why EG chose to move to South America

At The International 11, Evil Geniuses practically got eliminated by two South American teams: Thunder Awaken and beastcoast.

The players who represent these teams were probably being paid a fraction of what the members of EG were being paid. So the organization simply decided to start competing where it’s cheaper and the players are more motivated to win.

Time will tell if their decision was good, but for the next few years, EG will compete in South America. The competition will probably be almost inexistent after they buy all the top players from the region, and even a few good results at Majors and The International will cover their expenses under the new conditions.

To be fair, EG’s decision makes sense. Instead of just quitting Dota 2, why not minimize costs and continue to play the game? Who knows? Maybe in a year or 2, Valve will decide to bring back the $3 million Majors and give its professional teams some real opportunities to make money outside of TI.

Header: Evil Geniuses