Evil Geniuses win 2018 Call of Duty World League Championship

After five days of heartbreak and joy, Evil Geniuses have emerged as the 2018 Call of Duty World League Championship winners.

The victory not only secured the team of Patrick “ACHES” Price, Bryan “Apathy” Zhelyazkov, Adam “Assault” Garcia, and Justin “SiLLY” Fargo-Palmer the $600,000 grand prize, but it also earns them the title of world champions.

This is the second world championship ring for ACHES and Apathy, who won the biggest tournament of the year in 2014 and 2016, respectively. SiLLY and Assault join the club after EG took out Team Kaliber in the second series of the grand finals.

EG had already defeated Team Kaliber in the winners bracket finals, but Team Kaliber earned a spot in the grand finals with an intense five-game win over FaZe Clan in the losers bracket.

To kick off the grand finals, Evil Geniuses took Gibraltar Hardpoint by 42 points behind a 31-kill performance from Assault. EG kept the momentum and series lead on their side with a game two victory, winning Ardennes Forest Search and Destroy 6-3.

With just one more map win to championship glory, EG looked to end the match on Flak Tower Capture the Flag, a map they won 3-1 in their initial Champs meeting. Unfortunately for ACHES and crew, Team Kaliber were able to get on the board first and surged to a 3-0 CTF victory.

Heading into game four, some believed that their game three victory would give Team Kaliber the momentum and confidence they’d need to come back. A strong London Docks Hardpoint showing from the Stage Two champions proved that theory right. Despite a valiant effort from EG, Team Kaliber forced a second best-of-five series with a 6-4 Sainte Marie du Mont Search and Destroy result.

After losing their first series since the Pool H loss to Elevate, Evil Geniuses were at risk of letting a world title slip away. The veterans of EG came back focused, however, and overcame Team Kaliber on London Docks Hardpoint to take the series lead.

In similar fashion to the first series, EG went up 2-0 after a convincing Search and Destroy victory. But just an hour before, EG’s two-game lead was nothing when Team Kaliber got things going. This wasn’t the same series, though.

Assault’s aggression and scorestreaks proved to be immense in EG’s Flak Tower CTF 2-0 win that earned them the CWL Championship. He also was awarded the Astro Gaming MVP of the tournament.