No brakes on EG’s Cinderella story as VALORANT hopefuls book Masters Tokyo date

After just squeaking by into the VCT Americas playoffs, Evil Geniuses have begun one of VALORANT’s best underdog runs of the year.

First, they sent NRG to the lower bracket in a huge upset on May 23. Now, with their second playoff win over Cloud9, EG will face LOUD in the upper bracket finals, confirming their top-three finish and Masters Tokyo qualification.

The May 24 clash looked great on paper, as both second-seed C9 and sixth-seed EG have proven pundits wrong so far in 2023, each for entirely different reasons.

For C9, their roster changes just before the regular season felt like the start of a decline, when it turned out to be the best way forward⁠—they eventually ended with an 8-1 record. 

As for Evil Geniuses, after sliding to a 1-4 record early into the regular season, they won three of their next four to just squeak into playoffs.

Related: ‘We needed change’: How EG turned around its 2023 VCT season

Today, high off of their upset win over NRG, the EG squad delivered another upset. They got the map choice for map one, picked Fracture, and proceeded to stomp  13-5. While Demon1 was their key to victory, playing Brimstone instead of his trademark Jett, Alexander “jawgemo” Mor and his Raze felt unleashed in this series. 

EG read each of C9’s executes, going for quick flanks and using well-coordinated utility from Raze and Sova to counter everything C9 threw at them. The map was over quickly, leading to Bind, which was somehow even quicker. EG won Bind 13-2, with Kelden “Boostio” Pupello leading his team with 21 kills. Over the course of Bind, EG showed decisiveness, only losing three first-kill duels over 15 maps. In comparison, C9 lost 12.

With this win, EG is now officially locked into playing two international VALORANT tournaments: Masters Tokyo, and by extension, Champions 2023.

Out of all the positives that have come out of this win for the VALORANT team and NA organization, there is a bittersweet feeling to it; their breakthrough player Demon1 will not be able to fly to Tokyo to compete.

EG has the roster to replace him on paper, but he has been key in their improvements. We’ll see if one of their many roster players can fill in his big shoes.