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Evil Geniuses reported to shutdown all their esports ventures by 2024
Evil Geniuses is one of the oldest organizations in the World. The North American organization has been around since 1999 and has legacies in multiple esports titles. The organization has also been a home for multiple esports legends.
But since 2014, the organization has failed to stay true to its name and former glory. In recent years, the organization has been plagued with multiple issues and controversies. Not too long ago, multiple reports of EG selling their LCS spot came to light. Their exit from the LCS was confirmed yesterday.
But Evil Geniuses' problems don't end here. Sources have told SBJ about Peak6’s intention to sell the EG esports property and exit esports entirely before the start of the next year. This doesn’t mean the end of EG brand but it might as well be. Let’s take a look at how we arrived here.
The start of the end:
The Evil Geniuses haven’t been the same for a while. In 2014, EG under Alex Garfield was acquired by Twitch along with a player management agency. Twitch, a primary streaming platform which is the backbone of the gaming and esports industry owning an organization and a management agency, can lead to multiple conflicts of interest.
Multiple organizations at that time, who had partnered with Twitch opposed the acquisition. Following the troubling road, the EG founder left Twitch and Twitch relinquished the control of EG to the former players. Twitch made the decision to avoid the potential conflict of interest.
This problematic phase with constant leadership limbo led to constant struggles for EG. Fortunately, in 2019, Peak6, a tech based investment firm acquired EG. With the financial backing of an investment firm, it seemed EG could finally return to its original glory.
The honeymoon phase:
Following the Peak6 acquisition, Evil Geniuses had multiple ambitious projects. Led by CEO Nicole LaPointe Jameson, EG sought to return to their former glory. The PR team painted a great picture of Nicole in the public's eye and made her to be a messiah that could save EG.
The first two years went pretty smooth. Their League of Legends division also won the LCS Spring Split 2022. EG launched some ambitious projects in 2022, with CS:GO division’s “The Blueprint Initiative”, signing 15 players to the CSGO roster.
The EG was also selected for Valorant’s partnership program. The organization announced an open trial and signed a total of 10 players. With a main roster and a reserve roster. 2022 was turning out to be a pretty successful year for EG.
The Downfall:
As the new year came around, Evil Geniuses started to crumble. Their League division faltered during the Summer Split 2022. One of the major reasons for it was underperforming Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki. In a report made by Richard Lewis in March 2023, a light was shed on EG management’s mistreatment of Danny. The neglect of Danny’s physical and mental health drove the player to take a break for active competition.
The troubles only escalated further when the news of Syed “SumaiL” Hassan’s legal battles against EG surfaced. The former had accused the new ownership of fraud and deceit.
In April, 2023, Richard Lewis wrote a series of articles talking about the fall of Evil Geniuses with anonymous statements from the former employees. The reports and personal accounts talk about the problems with Peak6 management and their lack of understanding of the esports scenes.
During the tumultuous times, EG’s Valorant squad was their silver lining. The EG Valorant squad made a Cinderella run to win the Valorant Champions 2023. Despite all that, following the tournament win, it was still reported that the EG players had been asked to take a big salary cut while still being under contract with the organization.
Soon after the EG’s triumph, Nicole LaPointe Jameson stepped down as the CEO.
The Fallout:
Of course the entire esports industry has been on a downward spiral. It, combined with the mismanagement at the helm of EG, had led to EG falling to the deepest depth of despair. Come 1st November 2023, EG started laying off multiple employees including the Senior Director of Gaming performance and the Vice President of Operation of studio amongst others.
The organization dropped their DOTA 2 Division soon after and reports swirled of the organization trying to sell their LCS spot and exiting the Counter-Strike scene completely.
The organization was heavily criticized by many members of the community for the treatment of its players. After the SBJ report broke out, multiple notable community members talked about EG and them being frauds.
If the reports and sources come to fruition, Evil Geniuses exit will mark the end of one of the oldest and most significant esports organization. EG’s Valorant Game Changers roster will play in the upcoming VCT Game Changers Championship in Sao Paulo.
As of now, EG has not confirmed their moves. It will be really interesting to see how the whole situation unfolds.
Follow the whole Evil Geniuses situation on Strafe.
Featured Image Credits: @EGCSGO on Twitter
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