Evil Geniuses defeat forZe in Moscow

While using a stand-in for their star player Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte, Evil Geniuses secured a strong victory over FORZE to advance to the winners' match of group B at EPICENTER.

Just as the event in Moscow kicked off, it was announced that Brehze was unable to take part in his team's first matches due to visa issues, with Evil Geniuses opting to field HellRaisers player Igor "⁠crush⁠" Shevchenko as a stand-in. Things weren't looking too good initially as FORZE grabbed a 13-6 lead on Mirage and crush struggled individually, but the North American side managed to recover and take the series win after two dominant CT sides.

A 3-0 CT-side start for FORZE was quickly replied on by Evil Geniuses on their map pick of Mirage, but with more aggression coming out from the Russian team, they started to gain momentum. Andrey "⁠Jerry⁠" Mekhryakov and Bogdan "⁠xsepower⁠" Chernikov stood out with important frags, resulting in the score being 9-4 as the half came to a close. Then, Evil Geniuses stole away a low-buy round and finished the offense with six rounds.

Dmitriy "⁠facecrack⁠" Alekseyev claimed three kills on the pistol round push on A, which would soon see FORZE grab a 13-6 lead. Then, another mixed buy from Evil Geniuses worked out as Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz clutched out the final 1v1 on A. The North Americans gained momentum there, and with Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov shining on the AWP, brought back the game and secured a 16-14 victory.

CeRq kicked off Nuke with a triple kill on the defense and Evil Geniuses managed to hold off the second-round force buy to claim a strong early lead on the map, 6-0. The Russians managed just one bomb plant in that streak, and then Jerry's triple allowed them to get their first on the board. That would end up also being their only round of the half, as CeRq was once again exceptional, powering his team to a 14-1 lead.

After the switch, crush chimed in with a double to help Evil Geniuses claim the T-side pistol, but the defenders managed to hold them off for a moment by winning the following force buy. However, that was too little, too late, and Evil Geniuses eventually broke through to finish off the map 16-4 and claim the series 2-0.