JACKZ to join Evil Geniuses

With the imminent arrival of Counter-Strike 2, many organizations are looking to completely revamp their rosters as soon as possible to make the transition to the new game much easier. Evil Geniuses, one of the most important organizations in North America, is one of them. Several reports highlight that one of the players joining the team is Audric “JACKZ” Jug.

It’s no secret to anyone that Evil Geniuses failed in their 15-player CS:GO roster model, and now, the team needs a roster to revamp if they want to become a competitive squad again. On the other hand, including a veteran player with much experience in the scene, like JACKZ, can greatly help.

Evil Geniuses to sign JACKZ for the transition to CS2

According to a report published by Dust2.us, the North American organization Evil Geniuses would be very close to signing JACKZ to bolster its CS:GO lineup ahead of the imminent arrival of CS2.

.@EGCSGO targeting JACKZhttps://t.co/hMbwts0UMl

— Dust2.us (@dust2us) June 16, 2023

According to published reports, Evil Geniuses and JACKZ have been in talks recently to finalize his signing for the team.

JACKZ is an experienced French rifler who has not been actively playing in the professional CS:GO scene since January 2023, when he decided to leave his former team, HEET. However, the 30-year-old proved that he still had plenty of powder left in the cartridge when he played for Team Vitality in ESL Pro League S17 to replace Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen.

According to Vitality’s IGL, Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, JACKZ had an extremely positive impact on the team even though he was there for a very short time. Furthermore, apEX mentioned in an interview after winning the Paris Major that JACKZ helped Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen improve his team play.

Evil Geniuses needs an urgent clean slate

As we mentioned, in the first half of 2023, Evil Geniuses has a terrible run in all the tournaments it participated in. So far this year, EG’s lineup has managed to win only three BO3s out of 17 they have played, and, most seriously, for this team, they are behind EG Black (the organization’s secondary team) in the HLTV World Rankings.

If this signing is confirmed, Evil Geniuses will have to make an immediate decision, as the team currently has four riflers in their lineup, and one of them will have to leave the team for JACKZ to take his place.

Evil Geniuses is one of the three organizations, along with Team Liquid and Complexity, that are currently staying afloat in the NA region. However, the signing of the 30-year-old Frenchman could mean that the team would have to relocate to Europe, as their lineup would have most European players. As a result, EG would have to play qualifiers for the next Major (in March 2024 in CS2) against European teams.

Header: Adela Sznajder | ESL