Evil Geniuses is the latest team to join the South American Dota 2 craze for the next Dota Pro Circuit 2023 (DPC 2023). While SA talents are generally beloved by fans due to their noteworthy strength at the International 11 (TI11), the EG fans, unfortunately, do not share the same sentiment.
Let’s dig into EG’s new roster, and set our expectations early.
Evil Geniuses’ South American roster
We anticipated EG’s announcement way ahead of time, particularly after North America’s poor showcase of performance at TI11. Then, EG’s CEO, Nicole LaPointe Jameson announced the disbandment of their NA roster, while also suggesting they have their eyes set on the rival region, South America instead.
Fast forward to last week, EG broke the news about their SA team, featuring prominent players from beastcoast and Thunder Awaken.
Hailing from beastcoast, Adrián “Wisper” Dobles and Jean “Chris Luck” Salazar are veterans from the SA region. Prior to beastcoast, the two players played for Infamous at TI9, where they surpassed the expectations of a SA team at TI Championship. Seventh place at TI9 rewarded the SA underdog with $858K, the most winnings won by anyone from their region.
Then came Thunder Awaken in TI11, which once again surpassed its predecessors with an outstanding fifth-place victory. Although TI11 does not boast a massive prize pool, it was the fifth-place finish that matters. Hence, EG did not miss the opportunity to recruit three TA players to join the fray, featuring Crhistian “Pakazs” Casanova, Farith “Matthew” Huamancaja, and Jose “Pandaboo” Hernandez.
Where is the rest of Thunder Awaken and beastcoast?
Considering the incredible success of TA’ unicorn line-up, earlier speculations were that EG would sign the whole TA roster. However, since that’s not the case, this begs the question of why EG decided to split the successful squad.
While not mentioned, we speculate that EG wants a roster that surpasses its former glory, the SA team’s that is. By cherry-picking the best of both SA powerhouses, EG might just have the ideal roster they hoped to build. Beastcoast’s mid-player and offlaner are seasoned players, highly regarded for their exceptional execution in-game. Sure, TA’s similar counterparts weren’t bad by any means, but their downfall against Team Liquid during TI11 might have revealed a flaw in Rafael “Sacred” Yonatan’s decisions.
To top off the rest of EG’s brand new roster, it’s generally a good idea to pick up a talented captain for your team if redefining the team playstyle is their goal. This becomes even more effective with PandaMoo, the other support player from TA. We saw how Pandaboo played around strategic vision to give his team the best scenarios in fights. Hence, he might just be the best wingman and playmaker for Matthew’s mastermind drafts.
Pakazs, the young hard carry prodigy is efficient at his farming skills, securing the highest average kills per game at ESL One Stockholm and PGL Arlington 2022 Majors. The stats speak for themselves in this case, because that will surely rival Artour “Arteezy” Babaev.
North Americans no longer
With a full-fledged SA squad, EG is off to make a scene in South America instead of its home region. That means EG is looking at new rivals, especially beastcoast, who are technically still the the same rivals. Meanwhile, TA essentially sold all their players, so unless they manage to build another SA all-star squad. We aren’t expecting much from TA to give EG a run for their money. Unfortunately, even other DPC SA Division 1 staples are likely to pose no threat to EG.
For instance, Infamous dropped their roster despite placing third last DPC Tour, while SG esports, the fifth-place winner of Division 1, disbanded for good. Nevertheless, we will count on Tempest, which last won fourth, to hopefully give EG a warm welcome in DPC 2023.
Overall, EG is now considered the first or second seed team in South America by power rankings, and will likely easy mode their qualification into main events. Not that it was hard to do it from North America before.
