IHC eliminate Evil Geniuses from ESL Pro League S17

IHC defeated Evil Geniuses 2-1 in the lower bracket game to send the North Americans home from ESL Pro League Season 17.

The action between the North American and the Mongolian team began on Inferno, where IHC came out of the gate swinging to build a comfortable 6-2 lead on the CT side. IHC, however, recovered from a slow start and took six consecutive rounds to close the first half with an 8-7 lead.

They looked comfortable throughout the second half and limited Evil Geniuses to just three more rounds in the second half, ending the map with a 16-10 victory and taking the lead in the elimination series.

EG came into their pick of Overpass looking to even out the series and steal back momentum from their opponents. They recovered from the early setback and took an impressive 5-2 lead on the second map Overpass.

As they continued to gain ground, EG won six more rounds while giving up just two to end the first half 11-4. Although IHC made valiant efforts to gain control, EG came back and secured the required five rounds to steal the map 16-11, and equalize the series 1-1.

The best-of-three series went to the final and deciding map Nuke, where IHC effortlessly ran away with a quick 10-5 lead. The Mongolian team, which had a 92% win rate over the previous three months only allowed one more round to the North American team, while claiming six for themselves to end the map 16-6 and the series 2-1.

EG on the downfall

On the other hand, this marks another dismal performance from Evil Geniuses, who have been playing in appalling shape since the new season began. The North American team finished last in the IEM Katowice 2023 Play-In and the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2023.

The team also appeared crumbling against underdogs teams in the B-tier and qualifiers event.  Carrying their dismissal form in CCT North Europe Series, they got eliminated from the event after losing to Illuminar in the first round of playoffs. 

After getting annihilated by the Polish team, EG returned to North America and competed at IEM Rio 2023 Closed Qualifiers. Although the team showed some promise with two consecutive victories, they failed to advance to the next round of the Brazillian event qualifying cycle. 

Evil Geniuses finished with a 3-2 record but fell to TeamOne in the tie-breaker at the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 closed qualifier, ruining all chances of making it to the Americas RMR. Now, IHC, one of the strongest teams in Asia, added a little more salt to the NA wounds by eliminating them from the Pro League.

Header: João Ferreira/ PGL