Judging by the results obtained during the Dota Pro Circuit and at The International over the last several years, Europe is without a doubt the best Dota 2 region in the world. There are at least five outstanding teams full of top players here, and all of them are among the world’s best. So why, you might ask, has EG decided to move to Europe and what chance does it have to win something significant?
Reasons Why Evil Geniuses Came to Europe
The reasons why the organization moved from North America to Europe are quite intuitive in my opinion. After the global crisis went into full gear, EG lost both of its recently transferred players. Abed and RAMZES got trapped in their native countries and Fly was left with just two teammates to rely upon. It doesn’t take much effort to imagine what happened next. EG survived at the top of the North American region for a while, but then the other competitors started to read their highly improvised game and it was all over for them.
Competing tournament after tournament with just a stable trio and two much weaker stand-ins is not a recipe for success. So what did Fly do? He decided to bring the team to Europe, in order to have a better squad under his command. It may not seem much, but given how good RAMZES is and the fact that EG only has one stand-in to worry about instead of two, the move is definitely worth it.
What Can EG Do in Europe
Initially, for the first month or so, I don’t expect much from Evil Geniuses, even in this new and improved formula. And that’s because the competition in Europe is off the scale. Team Secret is unbeatable. That goes without saying. Nigma is amazing, even though they lost their captain for a few months. KuroKy had an arm injury and will probably be back by late Autumn. But even without him, the team is great. Then we have Alliance. With s4 back and fng joining for good, this team will soon be a formidable force. They already are in a way, but I think they can actually win some titles. Then you have OG and Team Liquid, two other teams that need very little effort to climb back to the top.
If Evil Geniuses is to succeed in Europe, I think their training has to be intensive and their 5th member has to do some heavy lifting. He’s only 18 years old, got transferred from Gambit Esports and has had some decent successes in his career, but nothing spectacular. I’m pretty sure that RAMZES proposed him as the new midlaner, as he is from his own country. And in that sense, the whole move made by the club makes sense.
Right now, EG is waiting to compete against 5men tomorrow. This is a newly formed team, but don’t get fooled. Just look at the names: Ace, Misery, PieLieDie. You get the idea.
Photo credit: Valve
