Evil Geniuses edge past FURIA as fight for top two tenses up

Evil Geniuses came back from behind to beat FURIA in a nail-biting finish to the three-map series, joining the fight for a top-two placing.

With the triumph against the Brazilians, the North American side have secured a second consecutive victory out of three matches. That puts them in provisional first place among four teams who have two wins on the board, ahead of FURIA, who have also played three matches, as well as Liquid and 100 Thieves, both of whom went 2-2 thus far.

Evil Geniuses had to fight from behind at multiple points of the series, as they were down 0-1 in the best-of-three after a convincing loss on Mirage and got off to slow starts on both Train and Nuke, pulling out late-game comebacks each time to clinch a hard-earned triumph.

Mirage began as a rather one-sided affair when FURIA, despite conceding the opening pistol round and later a 5v2 advantage as well as an anti-halfbuy, mounted a dominant run on the offense. Late-half efforts earned Evil Geniuses a chance as they lowered the deficit to just three rounds, but when sides switched the Brazilians were back in the driving seat and rallied to a 16-8 victory without breaking much of a sweat.

Brehze's heroics late on Train spearheaded EG's comeback

Train looked just as dire for the North American side at the beginning after they were unable to convert the second round once again. This time, they stopped FURIA's onslaught earlier, but Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles's side still made it to the Terrorist side with a 9-6 lead.

Although FURIA looked like they would be able to close things out after securing the second pistol round, Evil Geniuses still held on and made the map go the full distance on the back of a strong defense. When it came down to the wire, Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte stepped up with three big multikills with the AWP, single-handedly turning things around from a 12-14 deficit to force the decider.

Slow starts were very much a theme for Evil Geniuses, who started Nuke down 0-6 on the CT side but still managed to fight back with Brehze and Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov leading the way, going on an 11-1 streak to take back the control. The tide turned again when FURIA got a hold of weapons on the defense, but a 1v1 clutch from the Bulgarian AWPer at 11-13 ensured that EG stayed in contention and allowed them to clinch a 16-13, 2-1 victory.

ESL Pro League Season 11 North AmericaBest of 3 Evil GeniusesMatchpage 2 1 1st April 2020 FURIA 8Mirage 16 16Train 14 16Nuke 13

Evil Geniuses	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Vincent 'Brehze' CayonteBrehze	71 - 61	+10	86.6	1.18
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovCeRq	53 - 51	+2	68.1	1.05
Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik	53 - 55	-2	66.7	1.02
Ethan 'Ethan' ArnoldEthan	47 - 57	-10	69.7	0.95
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguzstanislaw	41 - 59	-18	59.8	0.81

FURIA	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Yuri 'yuurih' Santosyuurih	68 - 51	+17	87.9	1.29
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoKSCERATO	61 - 47	+14	72.5	1.15
Vinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoVINI	56 - 58	-2	74.8	1.06
Andrei 'arT' PiovezanarT	53 - 66	-13	74.5	0.96
Henrique 'HEN1' TelesHEN1	44 - 43	+1	58.6	0.95

With five matches to go, here are the standings of ESL Pro League Season 11 North America:

Group A TEAM M P FURIA 3 6 Evil Geniuses 3 6 Liquid 4 6 100 Thieves 4 6 Swole Patrol 3 3 MIBR 3 3 Evil Geniuses #7 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Chet 'Chet' Singh Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte Age: 21 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 887 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.67 MIBR #24 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoVito 'kNgV-' GiuseppeFernando 'fer' AlvarengaEpitacio 'TACO' de MeloIgnacio 'meyern' Meyer 100 Thieves #8 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas Aleksandar 'kassad' Trifunović Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Age: 20 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.14 Maps played: 919 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.62 FURIA #11 Henrique 'HEN1' TelesAndrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato Nicholas 'guerri' Nogueira Evil Geniuses #7 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Henrique 'HEN1' Teles Age: 24 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 814 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.58 100 Thieves #8 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas Liquid #6 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Swole Patrol #39 Ryan 'freakazoid' AbadirVictor 'food' WongEdgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoJordan 'Zellsis' MontemurroAustin 'Cooper' Abadir FURIA #11 Henrique 'HEN1' TelesAndrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato Liquid #6 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Eric 'adreN' Hoag