Evil Geniuses have come out victorious at ESL One New York - the lineup’s first appearance under their new organization. This victory marks the roster’s first premier CS:GO event win. EG cruised past their opposition, dropping only one map throughout the entire event.
Evil Geniuses came into the New York event as one of three favorites, along with reigning Major champions Astralis and fellow North Americans Liquid. EG started their group stage off on the right foot, taking down a new-look FaZe Clan on day one. They followed up on day two with a close win over Astralis, topping group B and sending them straight into the play-offs. The NA roster was already showing off their immense skill, and doubling down on their promising Berlin Major performance.
The first semi-final of the day saw Astralis take a close win over Team Liquid. With the Danish powerhouse waiting for them in the Grand Final, Evil Geniuses prepared for their fight against G2. The French squad had displayed a hopeful performance in the group stage, taking down ENCE twice and taking a map off world number one Team Liquid. Despite G2’s earlier showings, Evil Geniuses outclassed them at every turn. The North Americans showed their prowess on both Dust2 and Nuke, beating G2 without breaking a sweat. With that, Evil Geniuses had secured their spot in the best-of-five Grand Final against Astralis. The newest iteration of Evil Geniuses holds a promising record against Astralis, having defeated them in three out of their last four meetings.
The Grand Final’s first map was Astralis’s pick of Inferno, where the North Americans kicked off the series at an unrelenting pace. EG ended their defensive half with a 13-2 scoreline, and only gave up one more round before closing out the map 16-3. The series then moved on to EG’s pick of Dust2. This map more closely contested than the last, Astralis won the first half 8-7. The Danes then won the first four rounds of their offensive side, though EG immediately found their footing. The NA side put up nine rounds in a row to take the map 16-12. Evil Geniuses now stood up 2-0 in the best-of-five series.
Map three was Train, Astralis’s pick. EG took an early lead, though the Danes rallied back to even up the halftime score. A back-and-forth slugfest ensued, with EG finding themselves up 15-11 - match point. Astralis once again made the comeback, and stole the map 22-20 in double overtime. Map four took us to Nuke, where Evil Geniuses again started off with a blinding pace. Though the NA side stood up 8-1, the Danes fought back to an 8-7 halftime score. Once on the defensive side, EG gave up only one round before closing out the map 16-8, and the series 3-1.
Evil Geniuses take home the $100,000 first-place prize, while Astralis are awarded $40,000 for second place. Both Astralis and EG will next appear at DreamHack Masters Malmö, starting on October 1st.