After Team Liquid stunned Dota 2 fans with the break-up of their roster,
Evil Geniuses stole the post-TI9 shuffle headlines with the announcement of their new star-studded lineup, including RAMZES666 and Abed.
SumaiL and s4 make way as Evil Geniuses said they "elected to pursue players that have established themselves as some of the best that the world has to offer". The departure of the two TI winners mean that this would be the first time for the organization to have a roster without a single TI winner since EG's TI victory in 2015.
S4 is now a free agent, while SumaiL, who in August became the first player to record 1,000 kills at The International, remains under contract while EG listen to offers.
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Former Fnatic player and Filipino wunderkid Abed will play as the midlaner, while 5-time Major winning player RAMZES666 will play as the offlaner, having previously played hard carry for Virtus.pro.
In an official announcement, Evil Geniuses said: "Abed’s skill is undeniable, being the first player worldwide to reach 10,000 MMR. He also brings a much different hero pool to the mid lane than most people are used to — EG officially has a Meepo player!
"We have also acquired Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev from Virtus.pro, who will be moving from the hard carry/1 position to play off-lane/3. Familiar with the role from his earlier Dota 2 career, Roman comes from one of the monster teams of the last DPC season, winning The Kuala Lumpur Major and reaching the grand finals of the next two majors, as well.
"We look forward to what this new roster is capable of, and appreciate all your support."
Evil Geniuses' new Dota 2 roster
- Artour “Arteezy” Babaev
- Abed “Abed” Azel L. Yusop
- Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev
- Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen
- Tal “Fly” Aizik
Smart or foolish from EG?
That leaves the EG roster bursting with talent and the moves will be welcomed by many fans with open arms.
But will it work in practice? There are certainly some question marks over the balance of the team and only time will tell if this was a wise move for Evil Geniuses.
The role transition of RAMZES666, one of the world's best carry players, would be one of the main things to ponder, since this is his first official venture into this role in five years (although he has a notable past experience with playing offlane heroes in pro matches as part of VP's occassional "adventurous" drafts).
Add into the problem equation the factors that is Arteezy and Abed. Both are players with past rosters having been adjusted around them due to their specific preference of farm-intense heroes, thus the combination of these three players will undoubtedly strike a question on whether this team would be able to achieve the proper balance required or not.
And how will this apparent in-game approach crisis affect on Cr1t-, whose performance on greedier playmaking supports is one of the team's past highlighted driving force toward success? This all depends on whether EG's players would be able to adjust accordingly like other tier-one teams (Liquid, for example). Whether EG would be able to make this lineup work with these tricky combination of individuals or collapse under its on weight - we shall see.
Another interesting byproduct of this announcement will be the knock-on effect it has on other teams' rosters as they prepare for the DPC 2019-20 season.
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Picture: Evil Geniuses
