Evil Geniuses Win BTS Pro Series 13

As The International 11 concluded, the DOTA 2 community was keen on keeping an eye out for roster shuffles, transfer rumours, and teams announcing their plans going into the new season. So it came as a surprise when Beyond The Summit announced on Twitter that they will hold an off-season online tournament with a $40,000 prize pool before going into this new DPC season.

The tournament concluded last Saturday with the revamped Evil Geniuses roster crowned as the champion, taking home $16,000.

End of drought for EG

Evil Geniuses faced TSM in the Grand Final. The match marked the last match as a player for TSM’s IGL David “Moonmeander” Tan, as he will be switching to the role of the team’s coach going into the new season. Prior to the Grand Final series, both teams faced off in the upper bracket final of the tournament. 

During their first encounter, EG took a swift 2-0 victory against their regional rivals, sending them into lower bracket finals. There, TSM took a clean 2-0 victory against Beastcoast, claiming their Grand Final ticket to avenge their loss.

During the first two Grand Final matches, it looked like TSM were destined to get their revenge, as both of their core players Jonathan “Bryle” Guia and  Enzo “Timado” Gianoli performed brilliantly in their roles. In game three, to everyone’s surprise, EG stepped up their game and started their road to a reverse sweep. In game four, EG had a couple of hiccups, but in the end, they managed to close out the game to take it into a decider.

These two games put out TSM’s momentum going into game five, where EG took a swift victory in 24 minutes. 

Superstitious history 

Evil Geniuses are regarded as one of the top Dota 2 teams in North America. Having won The International 2015, the organisation’s name has already been immortalised on the prestigious Aegis Of Champions. 

However, ever since their former player Artour “Arteezy” Babaev rejoined the team back in 2016, they haven’t been successful when it comes to official Valve-sponsored tournaments, even though they always manage to find wins and secure top spots in various tournaments. 

The community has nicknamed this superstition “the curse of RTZ” and in the 2019-2020 season, due to the team consistently getting third places, the superstition was briefly changed into “Thirdteezy”.

The most hilarious example of this was at One Esports Singapore major back in 2021, EG got reversed sweeped by Invictus Gaming in the Grand Final. Even though the org has tried a lot of things to prove this superstition wrong, it always somehow backfired.

However, with the new roster consisting of South American players, EG had possibly found a solution to the superstition. Moreover, the BTS Pro Series also highlighted the potential of the revamped EG roster regionally, potentially giving EG momentum along with a newfound confidence into the new DPC season. 

Header: Twitter/ Evil Geniuses