Evil Geniuses, Heroic win IEM Summer Group B opening matches

Evil Geniuses broke a five match losing streak with their victory against Spirit.

Evil Geniuses and HEROIC came out victorious in their opening best-of-ones at IEM Summer, securing their spots in the Group B upper bracket semi-finals.

HEROIC’s win came against the Brazilians of Imperial, played on the newest addition to the map pool, Ancient, whereas Evil Geniuses took out Spirit in their first match since coach Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado stepped down from the team, sending the Russians down to the lower bracket.

This Evil Geniuses victory is the first since the team brought on Michał "⁠MICHU⁠" Müller, ending a four match losing streak since the Pole joined the team and a five match losing streak dating back to when Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik was still in the starting lineup.

Spirit and Evil Geniuses brawled early on to gain control of the economy, with the Russians on the defense and the North American-European squad on the attack, and it was Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz and company who were able to run away early on with an 8-3 lead before reaching double digits at the switch, 10-5. Spirit made a push to bring things close early in the second half, but Evil Geniuses did not let their lead slip and ran away to take the map 16-9.

Gustavo "⁠SHOOWTiME⁠" Gonçalves downed four players in the first round to give his team the lead on the CT side of Ancient. HEROIC got on the board for the first time in the fourth round, but fell behind 1-5 in the following two rounds. It was then that the Danes were able to pick up the pace to turn the half around, getting ahead 9-6. After the half it was all HEROIC on the defense, as they gave up just two rounds on the way to a 16-8 victory.

The winners and losers of this opening round of Group B matches will now face each other in the upper and lower brackets, respectively. The final set of best-of-one openers, featuring Ninjas in Pyjamas fighting OG and fnatic going up against Virtus.pro, will usher in the best-of-three series upon conclusion.