Evil Geniuses started at the bottom of the rankings in the VCT 2023 season and now they are the Valorant world champions.
The North American team secured their revenge against Paper Rex, the Pacific squad that had previously relegated them to the lower bracket when they lost 2-1 in the upper bracket final. PRX battled tooth and nail in the grand final, but it was EG that triumphed with a 3-1 victory in the final series of the tournament.
EG had a difficult start to the year, with the NA team struggling at VCT LOCK//IN, where they finished 9th-16th. When the VCT Americas League began, they fell in the standings with a 1-5 match record five weeks into the regular season.
But once they stabilized their roster with the addition of Max “Demon1” Mazanov, EG found their groove and never looked back. EG earned themselves the US$1 million grand prize, while PRX took home US$400,000 as runner-ups.
EG winning Champs 2023 is historic, with the team’s coach Christine “potter” Chi becoming the first female to win a Valorant world championship. It also marked as Demon1’s stellar rookie debut, winning the trophy in his first year in the VCT.
Evil Geniuses wins Valorant Champions 2023 on their home soil
Evil Geniuses makes a comeback on Split
PRX started the grand final match with their tried and tested aggressive attack side plays on their map pick, Split. Their site executes kept EG on the back foot as Wang “Jinggg” Jing Jie used Raze’s Blast Pack to get into deep parts of the map.
The Pacific League team took an 8-4 lead at halftime, but EG answered back once they were the ones on the attacker side. EG took their time and found PRX’s weak spots on the map. This significantly slowed the game’s pace, favoring EG.
Making superior mid-round calls, they methodically took control of areas of the map off of Demon1’s incredible first-blood kills. EG didn’t take long to erase PRX’s lead, and the NA squad eventually completed the comeback, winning 13-10.
Demon1 finished the first game with an impressive 27/14/1 KDA and 303 ACS.
PRX W-gaming wins on Ascent
PRX made the right adjustments at the start of Ascent, EG’s map pick, with the Pacific League team taking a quick 4-0 lead. Like on Split, EG exhibited a gradual resurgence, eliminating PRX’s advantage. This led to the first half finishing with a slight 7-5 lead in favor of the Pacific League team.
After the first half, the momentum swung back and forth as both teams delivered impressive plays to secure rounds. Nevertheless, PRX gained the upper hand when Ilya “something” Petrov’s Reyna and Jinggg’s Raze started winning pivotal aim duels.
Together, their double duelist comp secured 14 first-blood eliminations. PRX stopped EG’s second comeback from making another comeback to leveling the series at 1-1, securing a 13-11 victory on Ascent.
Evil Geniuses take a commanding victory on Bind
On the third map, Bind, selected by PRX, Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto returned to Yoru, an agent he dominated with at Masters Copenhagen. Despite the tried and tested comfort pick, EG managed to take a commanding 7-1 lead on defense by punishing PRX’s aggressive pushes on attack.
After a 9-3 half with EG in the driver’s seat, they eventually pulled together and continued to shut down f0rsaken’s Yoru to close out Bind 13-5.
Alexander “jawgemo” Mor and Corbin “C0M” Lee effectively stopped PRX’s teleport and flank plays with the duo combining for 45 kills on Bind.
EG closes it out on Lotus
The fourth map, Lotus, chosen by EG, PRX managed to take a slight 7-5 lead against EG at halftime. However, similar to game one on Split, it was Demon1 that willed EG to victory by winning crucial clutch rounds on Astra.
EG’s Raze main jawgemo broke the deadlock, securing the pivotal 10th round for his team. With both teams trading kills on B site, jawgemo pushed and killed each PRX player making their way to the spike to give them the momentum they needed.
Lotus went down to the wire, but EG managed to win four of the last five rounds to take home the Valorant Champions 2023 trophy on their home turf.
Demon1 and Jawgemo combined for 49 kills, securing the most kills on Lotus.
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