BIG eliminate new EG squad from BLAST Groups

Great individual effort from Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta wasn't enough to pull EG across the finish line.

BIG have defeated Evil Geniuses in the first round of the BLAST Premier Spring Groups knockout stage, taking down the North American side despite an opening loss on Overpass as they came back with close wins on Dust2 and Vertigo. The German squad have sent EG to the Showdown and earned a lifeline in the knockout stage, facing Astralis next on Friday.

It was the first time we saw the new Evil Geniuses' map pool tested after they had previously only played Inferno in the best-of-one stage, a map they didn't get to pick this time after BIG decided to ban it in the opening phase of the veto.

Instead the North American side opted for Overpass and impressed in their debut on the map, much thanks to an inspired performance from autimatic. After a couple of maps that left much to be desired, the returnee from VALORANT gave a great account of himself against the German team, consistently finding openings and multikills to help EG pick up a convincing victory on the opener.

The individuals didn't quite turn up on the other side to help Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische carry the load, with the AWPer being the only one standing out from BIG before heading into their pick, Dust2.

The German squad clearly felt more at home on their map, getting off to an amazing start on the T side and putting together a solid half. It was going smoothly for them until it was 12-6, when it looked like Evil Geniuses would mount a comeback after overpowering the B bombsite with just pistols, but in the end a couple of key rounds from syrsoN swung it back in the favor of BIG.

It came down to a close affair on Vertigo, where the two teams battled for control in the first half, with BIG coming out just ahead on the back of 1v2 clutches from Tizian "⁠tiziaN⁠" Feldbusch and syrsoN. After a tightly-contested half, the German side pulled off a couple of close retakes to start pulling away, coming out victorious 16-10, this time with Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne sitting atop the board.

After the loss, Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip appeared on the official broadcast to discuss the new team's first appearance together in the BLAST Groups, which saw them get off to a bad start against Vitality but then put up a solid fight facing Liquid and BIG.

Despite the growing pains the team is experiencing, the in-game leader was positive about the debut showing.

"It's hard to say where we stand. We're not the strongest team right now," Stewie2K said. "I think we put up a good fight, I'm very happy with our showing."

"I'm not even surprised Tim [autimatic] is playing this well, honestly. I know that Tim works very hard when he really wants something, he'll put all the time and effort into it, and he's going to try to analyze every little thing that he does. I know he's very self-reflective in that sense."