EG.Cr1t: «It was Suma1L idea to move to the offlane position»

Let’s start with this tournament. You went 3:0. Did you expect that result?

I wouldn’t say we expected that. Obviously, we aimed towards getting it. I think everyone tried to get 3:0. I think we had a good start against paiN Gaming. We had been kinda unsure how everything would be before we went to this tournament. So we were happy to get over the first bo1 and the first day. We got Liquid in the second round which was obviously an exciting match for us. We knew it was going to be hard. When we won we were pretty happy about it, since we haven't beaten them in a while. The last game was against NewBee, in which we had a lot of confidence against them since there had been a pretty easy bo3 for us in Katowice. So it was a pretty fast group stage for us. How I said, we were pretty confident.

What about your quarterfinal match? Should it be an easy match for EG?

I don’t think that’s going to be an easy victory. I think we are in a bit better spot than we were against Liquid last time and they are probably not in a good spot. So I think it’s hard to say. We are going to go into it, we are going to do our best. Hopefully, it will be enough to win this time. At least, make some good games out of it. That's the goal. And I think for us it’s a good thing to play against Liquid in the first round, we will get some confidence from it. It will be a big game. I think it’s a team that we can play now but we can also meet them in the finals, if we made it there. It’s a pretty big challenge to overcome, if we do it, it will help us to move on through the tournament.

Let's move back to Katowice. Evil Geniuses lost for the first time against Virtus.pro over the last few years. What went wrong?

We didn't have a good day. It's an easy way to say. We didn't really execute our game plan. It was close games too. We could win game 1 and 3, also VP could win game 3 as well. So I think it just didn't go our way, we didn’t really perform best and VP were just better on that day. I think it’s the easiest way to say it. It was a very close series and they went down to win the tournament. So it wasn’t a really big disappointment, hopefully, we will be better next time.

In your opinion, what format is better? The one that was in Katowice or the format of this tournament?

I think this format is better if they optimize it, but the way is it now... I don’t know. I just don’t like the way they made the playoffs. I think this format has more potential. If it’s bo3 in the group stage and there is a more refined definition on what happens in the playoffs like you can’t play teams that you have played against in the group stage or if you have 3:0 you can pick your opponent or make a veto or something like. But now I think the Katowice system is also okay, but I think both tournaments would also benefit from a Double Elimination bracket in the playoffs. There is a lot of ways how these formats can do better, to be honest. But considering the way they are right now, the Swiss format is probably better.

Why did you have changes on your roster and why did you pick Misery?

It’s pretty simple. A lot of team did the same thing recently. Sometimes you just need to change something, you need some new ideas. It was basically that, at least for me. I thought we needed something new, because we were in the stagnation. I know LFY did the same, they changed the roster, they said that was basically because they needed to be not so comfortable to each other, they needed to change their mindset of it. And I think it was pretty much the same for us. UNiVeRsE isn’t a bad player, everybody knows it, he wasn’t the worst player in the team. We had to do something that made people want to play. And it made the team work better, so it was the best option what we found.

Who did come up with the idea to move Suma1L to the offlane position?

It was his own idea. I mean, nobody forced him to do anything. I think, it was mainly done to get more motivation for him and it worked out. We needed Fear to try to be a core player. Now it’s more natural for us.

What can you say about your coach BuLba? Does he help a lot? Or do you have an analyst?

No, we don’t have an analyst. BuLba does everything for us. He is just a good coach, there is not much to say. He is a smart guy, he is one of the smartest guys in Dota 2. he has a good mind. And I think the same thing about SVG, it honestly applies to Universe. He is not a bad coach or anything like that but he didn’t really get a chance to get us ideas. BuLba is a bit more well known for everybody on the team, everybody knows BuLba and knows that his ideas are so good, because he won TI as a coach. So I think, it’s easy for everyone in the team to respect them. He also brought some new ideas from his work with Misery before, so he was as just very straightforward.

What do you think about the NA scene right now? There are a lot of good teams right now, like you, compLexity, OpTiC?

It’s annoying to have to play qualifiers all the time, to be honest. I don’t feel that it’s justified. We have to play qualifiers for all these tournaments. I don’t know, there is always some regional undeserved invite for these tournaments, which I think is kinda bullsh*t because we are missing up. For example, there are no NA invites on EPICENTER XL. I think it’s completely unjustified. And I think if you look on it now, it’s even more unjustified. I don’t think it is going to change recently, not in upcoming tournaments. But I don’t think if some teams are not invites, we will perform better. I mean we just have to wait for a better time. We qualified for DAC2018, we didn’t qualify for EPICENTER XL, we might play Madness qualifiers, but anyway it’s not optimal. I think it’s annoying, the North American region doesn’t deserve to not have invites to the tournaments because the teams are pretty close to each other.

In the near future, where will viewers be able to cheer for Evil Geniuses?

We are playing at GESG: Indonesia straight after Bucharest. After that, we are going to a bootcamp, then we are going to DAC, I think. After that we have no tournaments. We will have to play qualifiers. I think there are not announced yet, but there are a couple of Majors we need to play qualifiers for as far as I know. I don’t know exactly when an information about invites will emerge. At least, there will one Major in China that we need to play qualifiers for. And I think we might be invited to another DAC tournament.