IHC condemn Evil Geniuses to last-place exit at EPL S17

The North Americans finish the tournament with just one map victory to their name.

IHC defeated Evil Geniuses in the Group A 8th place decider match with a 2-1 scoreline (Inferno 16-10, Overpass 6-16, Nuke 16-6), eliminating the North Americans from the Maltese tournament. IHC stay alive at the event and now require two victories to qualify for the playoffs. Their first test will come against the loser of the game between G2 and fnatic on Sunday at 12:30 .

For Evil Geniuses, this is the continuation of their abysmal form at the start of 2023. They began their year with last-place finishes at BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2023 and IEM Katowice 2023 Play-In, before suffering a loss to Illuminar in CCT North Europe Series 3. They then returned to North America and failed to qualify for the IEM Rio 2023 North America Closed Qualifier and the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Americas RMR, and now exit EPL S17 in last place.

Inferno began with an Evil Geniuses pistol round, followed by force buy wars that the North Americans eventually won. They took their early momentum and ran away to a 7-2 lead, Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta looking particularly impressive with 11 kills and just one death. As IHC were forced down to an eco, they attacked the B site and hit some crisp Deagle shots that netted them their second and completely turned the tide. The Mongolians won six rounds in a row to take the lead in the dying moments of the half, going into their defensive side 8-7 up.

IHC went for an aggressive play in the pistol round that failed to work out for them, but once again promptly answered back with just pistols in the next. They looked comfortable throughout their defense and limited Evil Geniuses to just two more rounds in the second half, ending up 16-10 winners and taking the lead in the elimination series.

Next up was Evil Geniuses's pick of Overpass and the North Americans quickly justified their decision as they once again raced to a 7-2 lead. This time, however, they didn't let their foot off the gas and finished the half with an 11-4 scoreline, with IHC showing a lack of repetition on the map in official matches. Evil Geniuses's win was only a matter of time due to their huge lead and the North Americans showed a strong defense as they dropped just two rounds on their way to a 16-6 victory.

The final map of the series was Nuke, where IHC defeated teams such as FURIA and paiN and sport a 92% win rate in the last three months. This time they quickly negated Evil Geniuses's pistol-round win and strung five in a row on their offense, with none of the rounds looking particularly close. Evil Geniuses managed just three more in the first half, as IHC went into the favored CT half 10-5 up and looked in control of proceedings.

IHC won their first pistol round of the series to start off the second half to make sure of their victory against the North Americans. Evil Geniuses weren't able to find any success on their T side and lost 6-16, bringing an end to their EPL campaign with just one map win to their name.