Evil Geniuses (EG) is an American esports organization located in Seattle, Washington. Established in 1999, the organization has supported players in many video games, including fighting games, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Fortnite Battle Royale, Halo, League of Legends, Valorant, StarCraft II, Rocket League, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, and World of Warcraft.
In May 2019, EG was acquired by PEAK6, a Chicago-based investment company. At the time of the acquisition, EG was independently owned but had previously been a subsidiary of GoodGame Agency, which was owned by Amazon.com through its division, Twitch.
EG's Dota 2 team won The International 2015, which was the largest prize payout in esports history at that time. Their Call of Duty: WWII team won the 2018 Call of Duty Championship. Their Valorant team won the 2023 Valorant Champions.
History
Evil Geniuses was created in 1997 as a Quake clan in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The group started playing from the first cyber cafe in Victoria called the Underground Onramp. The original team included players named Dakine, MikeJ, Killboy, Zakath, Muppetman, Jello, and two women, Jasp and Mystique, who were featured in Wired Magazine. The Onramp and Evil Geniuses became popular in the early gaming scene because they were on the West Coast and had a fast T1 internet connection, while most other places still used slow dial-up internet.
New members from Seattle joined the clan and often practiced against players from the DR team, including Thresh, who was the first professional gamer in the world.
During the 1997 Gameworks Tournament, members from both the Canadian and American teams were present and could use the gaming lounge. At that time, Canadian players were not allowed to compete in the tournament because professional gaming was still new, but they could warm up with the competitors.
After the Underground Onramp closed, which happened around the time home broadband internet became available, most Canadian members left the clan and started new careers, some in game development. Meanwhile, the American team grew and became one of the most successful gaming clans in esports history.
In 2004, Alex Garfield, a native of Philadelphia who later became the CEO of Evil Geniuses, started working for the team.
In 2007, Evil Geniuses expanded into World of Warcraft (WoW) Arena by buying the team HukHukHukHukHuk. The team included players like Abdul "Bokas" Suleiman, Garett "Garett" Llorent, Jesse "Koorban" Ryan, John "Nuvas" Liao, Einar "Spinister" Galilea, Brian "Tyz" Gustafson, Cyrus "Morifen" Foroughi, Anthony "Neia" Krug, and Paul "Zsu" Coats. In 2008, the team added Isaac "Azeal" Cummings-Bentley, Conrad "Zyz" Lope, Dan "spoh" Street, Emerson "Woundman" Condon, Charles "Cdew" Dewland, and Tim "Kollektiv" Yen, forming a new 3v3 arena team after many players from the earlier team retired. The team won the 2007 US Arena Championship, placed 3rd at Blizzcon 2007 (World Arena Championship), won MLG San Diego 2008, placed 4th at Blizzcon 2012, and won the Intel Extreme Masters IV WoW World Championship in 2010.
In 2008, Evil Geniuses added a Defense of the Ancients (Dota) team made up of players from team eMg. The group also entered the StarCraft: Brood War scene in 2009 by hiring Geoff "iNcontroL" Robinson, Dan "Nyoken" Eidson, Eric "G5" Rothmuller, Jake "LzGaMeR" Winstead, and Bryce "Machine" Bates. However, the North American Dota team left in December 2009 after two months of little practice and few opportunities to play.
In 2010, Evil Geniuses expanded into StarCraft II by hiring Gregory "IdrA" Fields and Nick "Tasteless" Plott. The organization also acquired the brand of another team called Loaded, but the deal only included sponsors, the team owner, and their Heroes of Newerth squad.
In 2010, Evil Geniuses added fighting game players Justin Wong and Martin "Marn" Phan. Later that year, they added Ricki Ortiz, Ari "fLoE" Weintraub, Eduardo "PR Balrog" Perez-Frangie, Yusuke Momochi, and Yuka "Chocoblanka" Kusachi. Marn left in 2011 to start his own League of Legends team, Team MRN.
On March 31, 2011, long-time member Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen and StarCraft II manager Nick "Tasteless" Plott left the organization. In July 2011, the Heroes of Newerth squad left for SK Gaming due to sponsorship issues. Later that month, Korean player Ho Joon "PuMa" Lee joined Evil Geniuses, and Canadian player Chris "HuK" Loranger left Team Liquid to join EG. In October 2011, HuK, Fields, and Lee moved to South Korea to join SlayerS, a partnership between the two organizations. In 2012, former Dota players Clinton "Fear" Loomis and Jimmy "DeMoN" Ho returned with the first Dota 2 team.
In January 2012, Evil Geniuses ended its Counter-Strike team, though star player Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert stayed to make content about the game. In September 2012, Bulba and xHobbzeEx left the Dota 2 team due to personal issues and were replaced by Jio "Jeyo" Madayag and Robert "bdiz" Tinnes. In December 2012, EG signed StarCraft: Brood War player Lee Jae-Dong. In January 2013, EG expanded into League of Legends by hiring the former Counter Logic Gaming European team, but the team disbanded after poor results.
In April 2014, EG signed fighting game player Kenneth "K-Brad" Bradley. Earlier, Ari "fLoE" Weintraub left the team.
In October 2014, three players from the Call of Duty team—Patrick "Aches" Price, Ian "Crimsix" Porter, and Ken Dedo—left EG to join OpTic Gaming. The CEO, Alex Garfield, confirmed this move through Reddit.
In November 2014, EG started its first Halo team with players Jason "Lunchbox" Brown, Justin "Roy" Brown, Justin "iGotUrPistola" Deese, and Eric "Snip3down" Wrona. The team won three online cups in the Halo Championship Series Season 1. In December 2014, iGotUrPistola left due to injury and was replaced by Tony "LxthuL" Campbell.
On December 9, 2014, EG’s parent company, GoodGame Agency, was bought by Twitch.
On December 16, 2014, Yusuke Momochi won a Fortnite competition.
In late August 2019, Peter Chau, Troy "Canadian" Jaroslawski, and Aar (the text ends here).
Current divisions
On January 27, 2021, Evil Geniuses joined the game Valorant with their first team, which included players named Temperature, aleksandar, Osias, clawdia, and Potter.
On September 21, 2022, Evil Geniuses became a partner to compete in the Valorant Champions Tour Americas League. The starting team at that time was made up of Alexander "jawgemo" Mor, Corbin "C0M" Lee, Ethan "Ethan" Arnold, Kelden "Boostio" Pupello, and Brendan "BcJ" Jensen, with Potter as the coach. Evil Geniuses also had a "reserve" team that included Vincent "Apoth" Le, Jeffrey "reformed" Lu, Max "Demon1" Mazanov, Kyle "ScrewFace" Jensen, and Jacob "icy" Lange.
During the 2023 Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) season, Evil Geniuses faced many challenges that made it difficult for them to perform well. They started the season with a 1–4 record, which made it hard for them to gain momentum. After their poor start, the team changed its roster by moving BcJ to the reserve team and adding Demon1 to the starting team. Despite these difficulties, including a 0–13 loss on one map against LOUD, Evil Geniuses managed to earn a spot in the Americas League playoffs. They performed well enough in the playoffs to qualify for Masters Tokyo and the 2023 Valorant Champions later that year. At Masters Tokyo, Evil Geniuses did better than expected, defeating both the Americas League champions LOUD and the Pacific League champions Paper Rex. They finished second in the event, losing only to Fnatic in the Grand Finals.
During the 2023 Valorant Champions event, Evil Geniuses, now strong competitors, played without losing until the Upper Finals, where they faced Paper Rex again. After a close match that ended in overtime, they moved to the lower finals, where they defeated defending champions LOUD with a 3–2 score, advancing to the Grand Finals once more against Paper Rex. Evil Geniuses won the series with a 3–1 score, completing a surprising journey and becoming the first North American team to win Valorant Champions.
After an announcement that players had to choose between leaving or accepting pay cuts, the championship-winning team eventually split up. Only Jawgemo and Potter decided to stay with Evil Geniuses. The rest of the team joined other organizations, including NRG, 100 Thieves, and LEVIATÁN. On January 26, 2024, Evil Geniuses announced their new team, which included jawgemo, Apoth, Derrek, supamen, and NaturE, with Potter as the head coach and Mike "pho" Panza as the assistant coach.
After finishing 9th in Stage 2 of the 2024 VCT season and failing to qualify for any international tournaments that year, Evil Geniuses let go of jawgemo and Apoth. Jawgemo joined G2 Esports. In their place, Evil Geniuses signed Jacob "icy" Lange from G2 Esports and Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker, who had previously played for Envy and OpTic Gaming, for the 2025 season.
Going into the 2026 VCT season, after finishing 7th–8th in Stage 2 of the 2025 season, Evil Geniuses let go of all their players except Supamen. The organization then signed C0M, Okeanos, and assistant coach meco1e, who had been released from Leviatán. This marked C0M’s return to Evil Geniuses after winning Champions in 2023. They also signed bao and dgzin, who had played in regional Challengers leagues the year before. Evil Geniuses also signed an Academy team for the 2026 Challengers North America season, including players named jakee, mitch, Paincakes, stunna, and zerona, with Faded as the head coach.
Former divisions
In September 2021, Evil Geniuses returned to the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS). On October 5, they signed a team called "German Amigos," which included players Leonardo “Catalysm” Crist Ramos, Ivan “ivn” Sabri, Riccardo “Rizex45” Mazzotta, and coach Kuno “Mumen” Hildebrandt. On September 30, Rizex45 and Mumen left the team. On October 3, Damian "Tox" Schäfer joined as a player, and John "Virge" Willis became the coach.
On January 26, 2023, Evil Geniuses announced they would leave Rocket League.
After the International 2011, Evil Geniuses created a new Dota 2 team in October 2011. This team included Clinton "Fear" Loomis, Rasmus Berth "MiSeRy" Filipsen, Jimmy "DeMoN" Ho, Amel "PlaymatE" Barudzija, and Pers Anders Olsson "Pajkatt" Lille.
In December 2014, Evil Geniuses hired Kurtis "Aui_2000" Ling from Cloud9 and Sumail from Pakistan. On August 8, 2015, Evil Geniuses won The International 2015, defeating CDEC Gaming. This victory earned them $6,616,014, one of the largest prize amounts in esports history. They were the first American team to win the event. A week later, Aui_2000 left the team, and Arteezy joined as a replacement.
Evil Geniuses placed third in the Frankfurt Major 2015 and the Shanghai Major 2016. On March 22, 2016, Arteezy and UNiVeRsE left to join Team Secret. On March 25, Aui_2000 and Bulba returned to fill their roles.
Evil Geniuses finished third at The International 2016. After the tournament, ppd and Fear left the team to retire from playing. They were replaced by Andreas Franck "Cr1t-" Nielsen and Arteezy, with Cr1t- becoming the new captain.
Following their loss at The International 2017 in August, Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg left Evil Geniuses. Later, Peter "ppd" Dager stepped down as CEO and was replaced by Philip Aram. In September, Fear returned to the team as a player.
In December 2017, Evil Geniuses released UNiVeRsE and their head coach, SVG. They hired Rasmus "Misery" Filipsen and Sam "Bulba" Sosale to replace them. In May 2018, Evil Geniuses acquired s4 and Fly from OG after releasing Fear and Misery. Shannon Larkin became the team’s manager in June 2018, ahead of their participation in Dota Summit 9, which they won.
At The International 2018 in Vancouver, Canada, Evil Geniuses had a strong group stage with a 13–3 record. They defeated Team Secret 2–0 in the upper bracket and faced OG in a best-of-five series. After losing the first three games, they won the next two but eventually fell to the lower bracket. They later defeated Virtus.pro and Team Liquid before losing to PSG.LGD and finishing third, earning over $2.6 million in prize money.
As of November 15, 2022, Evil Geniuses stopped operating in the North American Dota 2 scene and shifted to South America, according to a statement by CEO Nicole LaPointe.
As of November 1, 2023, Evil Geniuses released its Dota 2 roster.
Evil Geniuses had multiple Counter-Strike: Source teams in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
In September 2019, Evil Geniuses bought the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) team from NRG Esports before ESL One New York 2019. The team included players Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz, Tarik "tarik" Celik, Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte, Ethan "Ethan" Arnold, Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov, and coach Chet "ImAPet" Singh. At ESL One New York, Evil Geniuses won their group and defeated Astralis and G2 Esports to reach the Grand Final. They lost to Astralis in a best-of-five series but won the next map to take the series 3–1. Brehze was named MVP of the event. At StarSeries i-League CS:GO Season 8, Evil Geniuses faced 5Power Gaming and NiP, eventually winning the tournament after a comeback in the Grand Final. Ethan was named MVP of that event.
On January 12, 2024, Evil Geniuses announced they would leave Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
In September 2019, Evil Geniuses reentered League of Legends by buying the LCS slot left by Echo Fox. In November, they signed Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen, Tristan "Zeyzal" Stidam, Colin "Kumo" Zhao from Cloud9, Bae "Bang" Jun-sik from 100 Thieves, Daniele "Jiizuke" di Mauro from Team Vitality, and Heo "Irean" Yeong-chol from Counter Logic Gaming as head coach. They finished third in the Spring Split, losing to FlyQuest in the playoffs.
In the 2022 Spring Split, Evil Geniuses placed fourth in the regular season with a 9–9 record. They lost to Team Liquid in the first round of the playoffs but later defeated Team Liquid again in the lower bracket. In the Grand Finals, they beat 100 Thieves 3–0 to win their first LCS Championship. They finished 3–4th at the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational.
After the 2022 season, Evil Geniuses released coaches Peter Dun, Artemis, Rigby, and academy head coach ZzLegendary. Impact also left the team.
On November 20, 2023, Evil Geniuses announced they would leave League of Legends and not compete in the 2024 LCS season.
In early 2019, Evil Geniuses acquired a Fortnite Battle Royale team