The North American top team and Wilton “zews” Prado will no longer be associated, as the Brazilian is set to leave his coaching position, according to a report by HLTV.org. The report states that the two parties part ways in a mutual decision, owing to a “difference in opinion regarding the team’s direction”

zews was acquired by EG back in April last year, where he commenced his 14-month long tenure with 3 strong titles in BLAST Premier Spring NA, cs_summit 6 NA, ESL One Cologne NA. However, after that, a longer slump followed as they failed to present an adequate result. 

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"teams/EG/Copyright_-_Helena-Kristiansson_-_EG_rgdpzi","originalWidth":3840,"originalHeight":2160,"cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Helena Kristiansson ESL","alt":"CS:GO, Counter-Strike"}]

Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte and company will have to look after a new head coach if the rumours are true

The bad period and the disappointing results lead to a series of roster changes, as prominent figures like Ethan "Ethan" Arnold and Tarik "tarik" Celik was replaced with Owen "oBo" Schlatter and Michal "MICHU" Müller. And despite the roster changes, EG hasn't succeeded in 2021, where many of their result on European soil has been quite underwhelming. 

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[slugORMA:{"slug":"evil-geniuses-sign-michu-tarik-steps-down#","isNewTab":true}]

Ethan

Brehze

tarik

MICHU

Evil Geniuses

Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov. A name that, for many people, was completely unknown when brought into the professional Counter-Strike scene by NRG in 2017. However, shortly after his introduction, he made sure that every enthusiast around the world would remember his name. Drawing lines to a peak "kennyS" back in his glory days, "CeRq" was, with his explosive and risky style of AWP'ing a beast of uncertainty for his opponents.

With teammates such as Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte and Tarik "tarik" Celik to set him up and make him even better, "CeRq" managed to impress the Counter-Strike scene with a remarkable 2019 season for NRG, later Evil Geniuses. He even managed a place in the HLTV top 20 rankings of 2019, ranking in at 18th. in the world. Take a look at some of his impressive AWP'ing from 2019: 

However, the "CeRq" we all got to know in 2019 has experienced a fall from grace. Evil Geniuses have had a difficult start to their 2021 season with poor performances across the board. Only "Brehze" has managed to remain somewhat form. The 21-year-old Bulgarian AWP'er seems a shadow of his former self, only managing a 0.99 rating across 36 maps in 2021 so far. 

With the new roster change in bringing in Owen "oBo" Schlatter and removing Ethan "Ethan" Arnold from the lineup, Evil Geniuses seem hungry once again for a place in the upper end of the rankings. With the new signing of "oBo" and if the Bulgarian Assassin in "CeRq" awakes from his slumber once again, Evil Geniuses could be a real contender for the remaining season of 2021. 

You can watch more about "CeRq" and his journey to becoming one of the most interesting AWP'ers currently in the professional Counter-Strike scene right here: 

CeRq

The 20-year-old American is no longer a part of Evil Geniuses as he makes a career switch to VALORANT and joins 100 Thieves, he announced in a TwitLonger post.

“I will be leaving CS and officially moving over to VALORANT starting today. I’ve met many people through CS that I can now call friends and I’m extremely grateful for that. I’ve also made unforgettable memories that some people could only dream of experiencing. The one thing I ask is if you’ve supported me this long, you follow me into the next chapter of my career and I promise I will not let you down. I’m excited for this new challenge and I can’t wait to give it my all over.”

The American rifler has been a part of the Evil Geniuses since the North American organization acquired the NRG roster in September of 2019 and has now become the first player to leave. His departure comes after a string of poor results in the online tournaments as well as being eliminated from IEM Katowice 2021 in a 9-12th place.

Even though Ethan’s career in CS:GO didn’t last that long as it potentially could, the American managed to hit number #1 in the team rankings twice and become HLTV’s 20th best player of 2019. The 20-year-old was a part of the roster that won ESL One New York 2019, StarSeries i-League Season 8, BLAST Premier Spring 2020 Americas Finals, cs_summit 6 North America and ESL One Cologne 2020 North America.

In a superb display of Counter-Strike Evil Geniuses took home a surprising 2-0 victory against Gambit.

The North Americans were tipped as underdogs beforehand, and the map veto did not seem to do them any better by allowing Gambit to pick their favorite map, Overpass. Out of the last 21 competitive matches on Overpass, they had only lost one time on the Berlin-inspired map back in 2020 to NAVI.

But Evil Geniuses did not seem to care. They started by hanging on to the Russians in the first half, and then on their T-side, they broke the defense. And though Gambit statistically was the better team, it did not show on the scoreboard, where EG took home the map by 16-13.

A shock start to IEM Katowice for Gambit, who now had to make a reverse sweep to stay in the upper bracket. On Inferno, the momentum for EG continued. A strong showing from  

” Arnold was pivotal for the North Americans who managed to finish off the Russians with 16-10.

MVP:  Ethan “Ethan” Arnold - 1.37 rating / 49-37 K-D / 97.8 ADR

 [twitchVideo:esl_csgob/clip/SucculentTemperedPheasantShazBotstix-Z97xwIPSUOnVgY97]

Gambit Esports

BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 was set to be the first event of the 2021 season and was, therefore, an event that many people, during the break, have looked forward to. With the best teams from all over the world competing in the $1 million tournament it has not failed us one bit. 

The extremely high level of competition has brought us intense BO3-series, funny moments, and of course, eleven aces. And all of that is without the final day of play. Take a look at all eleven aces that this event has provided us with so far. 

Boombl4

honda

apEX

ZywOo

FalleN

Natus Vincere

Ethan "Ethan" Arnold didn't take long to find the rythm at BLAST Premier Global. The American made an ace in the first round in their match against Astralis.

[twitchVideo:blastpremier/clip/DepressedColorfulMinkKippa]

In this series, we take a look at the teams that finished 2020 in the Top 20 rankings. Today we take a look at number 16.

Evil Geniuses came into the year as one of the best teams and most winning teams, taking home big tournaments in late 2019. However, 2020 have been a strange year for Evil Geniuses. The American top team have once again topped the rankings and won huge tournaments but they have also felt the effects of a hectic and problematic “Online Era”.  

Evil Geniuses got their biggest win of 2020 when they dismantled the Brazilian legends from MIBR in the Grand Final at BLAST Premier Spring Americas. The Americans had lost to FalleN and the rest of MIBR in previous rounds, so it was a clearly motivated EG side that took down the Brazilians 2-0, by a monster performance by their Bulgarian AWPer Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitriov. The title brought them a stellar $160.000 prize earning. 

EG closed out the year in a true disastrous fashion, even after winning three tournaments in a row from June to August, clocking in over $200.000 worth of prize money. stanislaw and company didn’t manage to attain one single grand final for the remaining four events, despite all the events being against a decimated NA scene. Their 2020 season culminated in the decision to quit IEM Global Challenge, meaning that the 3-4th place at IEM Beijing concludes the last chapter of EG’s season.

The future of EG looks very bright because of their promising and powerful and their three lethal weapons in Ethan, CeRq and Brehze, mixed with the experience from Tarik and Stanislaw. 

They have already shown that they can compete at the very top of the game, and by already being qualified for BLAST Premier Global Finals and IEM Katowice in 2021, the American team can quickly climb the rankings once again. 

20: GODSENT [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/spotlight-top-20-godsent/"}]

19: Spirit [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/spotlight-top-20-spirit/"}]

18: CHAOS [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/spotlight-top-20-chaos/"}]

17: Ninjas in Pyjamas [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/spotlight-top-20-ninjas-pyjamas/"}]

stanislaw

Another day, another victory for Evil Geniuses. The American side is ready for the playoffs after a clear victory against Triumph.

On Dust2 and Nuke EG were the better team, and though Triumph tried to get momentum on both maps, there were never any doubts about the outcome. 

Ethan "Ethan" Arnold played really well on both maps ending with +17 K/D on the two maps.

Triumph will now face either Rebirth or TeamOne in an elimination match.

Triumph

Group A in BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020 was represented by some good individual players from OG, NAVI, NiP, and Evil Geniuses. We have seen some good plays in all of the matches and not a single one has disappointed. Especially Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev has impressed as he shines at the top of the stats ranking.

The top 5 performers at the event statistic-wise:

Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev 1.37 Rating

Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski 1.30 Rating

Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen 1.13 Rating

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	0	0
Maps count	0	0

Ethan

Player stats

Articles mentioning Ethan

Media: Renowned top coach leaves Evil Geniuses

CeRq: The Bulgarian Assassin

Evil Geniuses part ways with Ethan

Evil Geniuses destroys Russians in first round of IEM Katowice

VIDEO: All eleven ACES of BLAST Premier Global Final 2020

Video: Ethan destroys Astralis with an ace in the first round!

Spotlight on the Top 20: Evil Geniuses

Evil Geniuses ready for playoffs after another easy victory

Top performers at BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020 in Group A

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