The current Valorant World Champion Evil Geniuses has been under the microscope for many reasons. Most of their problems originated due to financial issues since they had to shut down most of their esports sectors; all except Valorant. However, they induced pay cuts for their former players which is why most of them left the organization. Despite all odds, EG Valorant has revealed their roster for the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2024 consisting some familiar faces seen in the pre-franchise era.
player001 // @jawgemo pic.twitter.com/HERnGaQoLJ
— Evil Geniuses (@EvilGeniuses) January 26, 2024
- Phat “supamen” Le
- Nicholas “NaturE” Garrison
- Derrek “Derrek” Ha
- Vincent “Apoth” Le
- Alexander “jawgemo” Mor
- Christine “potter” Chi (Head Coach)
jawgemo and Coach Potter are the only returning members from last year. The other teammates, supamen are from the FaZe Clan and Apoth was on the reserve EG roster that was in place even before the franchise league. Derrek transferred over from 100 Thieves. NaturE previously played for Team SoloMid and quite recently as a stand-in for 100 Thieves during the Red Bull Home Ground tournament.
This team has potential but they have little to no time to prepare for VCT 2024 kickoffs. However, they might have an advantage heading into the tournament since they need only 2 wins to qualify for Masters Madrid, which could potentially set them up for the entire year.
Why Does EG Only Need 2 Wins to Qualify for Masters Madrid?
Evil Geniuses were the crowned Champions from last year’s VCT. This gives them a huge advantage heading into the VCT Kickoff tournaments starting for each region in 2024. Quite recently, we got to see the seedings of the VCT 2024 Kickoff for the APAC region. Based on that, we could easily predict where EG can end up. According to the VCT 2024 Format, the best-performing team from last year will have an easier seeding in Group C.
The bracket/groups for the upcoming VCT Pacific Kick-Off tournament leaked on the VALORANT Esports site pic.twitter.com/DKAvPgjIes
— Valorant News (@ValorINTEL) January 26, 2024
In Group C, the region’s best performers might end up with a team that has comparatively lower performance than their peers from last year. That is why we see Paper Rex (PRX) with Gen.G and Rex Regum Qeon which were some of the lowest-performing teams last year. This can put EG at a huge advantage when it comes to acquiring a spot at VCT Masters Madrid. As you can tell by looking at the APAC Bracket for the Kickoff tournament, PRX only needs to win twice to qualify for Masters Madrid, one against the winner of RRQ vs Gen.G and one against their opponent in the Playoffs Semi-Finals.
Now, in the playoffs, one must win two matches again, the Semi-Finals and Finals to win the Kickoff tournament. EG needs to win just two matches to make it to Masters Madrid. One in the Groups stage and one in the Semi-Finals of the playoffs. However, winning the Finals will grant the team VCT Points which can be useful in case they fail to win matches in the future. However, EG’s performance solely depends on their own efforts.
