The North American Dota 2 scene was shaken by the news of Evil Geniuses fleeing their homeland to pursue a new strategy. While relocating a division is a common practice in esports, the way EG bid farewell to its iconic roster rubbed the community the wrong way.
EG’s legendary Dota 2 roster, featuring Arteezy, Cr1t, Fly, Abed, and Nightfall was released with a mere Twitter post. Considering the two members of the roster have been with the organization since 2016, EG’s goodbye looked nothing but disrespectful, even causing Alex Garfield, EG’s former CEO, to post a Medium post regarding the situation.
“There’s got to be a better goodbye than this,” Garfield said. “Because that’s what this really is – not just a goodbye to Dota 2 with EG as we knew it, but a goodbye to the final piece of what reminds a lot of us of EG as it once was.”
Garfield hasn’t been with EG since 2016, and the former CEO described EG’s latest roster update as “the final nail in the coffin for a legacy brand that seems hell-bent on forgetting its own history.”
In his blog, Garfield highlights how EG has been on a destructive path in terms of preserving its legacy ever since the infamous logo change, where the organization decided to change its 20-year brand. The decision was met with a community backlash, and EG later revisited its decision.
According to Garfield, the Dota 2 roster was the only remaining part of the history of the “old EG,” and the way they were pushed through the door wasn’t the way to go.
Garfield isn’t the only community figure that has expressed their feelings on the matter. Aui_2000, a member of the TI-winning EG roster and an ex-EG employee, also pointed out the dull farewell without highlights, videos, or fanfare.
Given that EG’s NA-Dota 2 division has been with the organization for more than a decade, the organization was home to many franchise names in the scene. Arteezy, SumaiL, PPD, Universe, and Fear are just some of the names that carried EG’s Dota 2 roster to great heights, and a low-effort farewell was also impolite to the history they’ve built in addition to the efforts of EG’s latest roster.
