EG roster changes: zai released, Evil Geniuses down to three players

Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg was released from EG’s roster, hours after Clinton “Fear” Loomis was let got from the team. The changes appeared on the Dota 2 Majors registration page and have not been followed up by any official clarification as of yet.

Teams have until September 4th to release players from their current rosters in preparation for the upcoming season. New players can then be added to the roster between September 4th-18th. The rosters will become locked on September 18th, at 12:00AM PDT.

Having been on and off Evil Geniuses since 2014, Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg was released from the North American team’s roster, last night, during the first phase of the Dota 2 Majors registration process. zai has been recently seen vacationing in Rome, Italy, together with Arteezy and Cr1t. The young Swedish player is expected to either join an already established organization or create a mix of his own until September 18th.

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Yesterday, veteran player Clinton “Fear” Loomis – EG’s most emblematic members – was released from the North American team, according to the Dota 2 Majors Registration page. Fear has been with the EG organization for the past five years, since 2011.

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At this time, Fear’s future involvement with EG or Dota 2 altogether remains unclear. A tweet posted by the player implies he might consider retiring. However, neither Fear nor Evil Geniuses have provided any clarification as of yet.

Theoretically, there are still some slim chances that Fear and Zai could be added back to EG’s roster during the second phase of the registration process.

For the 2016 Fall Major, Valve has implemented a two-step registration process, including a “drop phase” and an “add phase”.

Teams have 17 days at their disposal – until September 4th – to release players from their current rosters for the upcoming season. This is an active process, unlike in previous seasons when the entire team was automatically dropped before the beginning of a new season. Therefore, players must leave the team or the management needs to remove any players that will not continue competing with the team. Any players that are still remaining on the roster after September 4th are automatically locked into the team.

New players can then be added to the roster between September 4th-18th. The rosters will become locked on September 18th, at 12:00AM PDT. Players who left or were dropped from a roster in the first phase of the registration process can be added back to the lineup in the second phase.

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Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg

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Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg © DotaBlast

Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg started his gaming career in Heroes of Newerth, playing for teams such as Trademark eSports and compLexity Gaming. He won DreamHoN 2012 at the young age of 14. One year later, he transitioned to Dota 2 alongside fellow HoN professional player ppd. They were teammates in Stay Free and in Super Strong Dinosaurs later that year. In late January 2014, he moved into the support role and joined ppd, Arteezy and Evil Geniuses players Fear and UNiVeRsE on team S A D B O Y S. The squad had an almost perfect record of 16 wins and only two losses in their twenty days of playing together. It wouldn’t be long until they got picked up by the Evil Geniuses organization, on February 21st, 2014.

zai left EG to join Team Secret, almost one year later. The young Swedish player parted ways with Secret, after placing 7th-8th at The International 5. In an exclusive interview for DotaBlast, Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg announced he would be taking one year off from competitive Dota, in order to complete his high-school education.

He was registered as a substitute player for EG during the 2015-2016 season, and joined Kaipi for a brief period of time, on May 24th, 2016. On June 12th, zai rejoined Evil Geniuses, together with Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora.

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Clinton “Fear” Loomis

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Clinton “Fear” Loomis © PGL

Clinton is one of the “oldest” players in the Dota scene, in both terms of age and experience. He is widely regarded as one of the best players since the game’s inception.

Having been around since 2005, during the DotA 1 days, Fear began his Dota 2 career playing with UNiVeRsE, Pajkatt, ComeWithMe and Theeban “1437” Siva for Online Kingdom, in 2011. His journey to The International and his Dota 2 career were featured in the “Free to Play” documentary.

Following The International 1, Fear would then join Evil Geniuses, in 2011. Other than his two-month departure from under the organization’s wing – when he continued to play with the same roster, under the S A D B O Y S tag – he remained with Evil Geniuses ever since, helping EG become the first American team to ever win The International.

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EG’s intempestive roster changes and the road from Open Qualifiers to TI podium

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Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan, EG, during The International 6 © Valve

Evil Geniuses have always been in a league of their own in the Americas region. Their individual talent and great tenacity as they overcame various hurdles along the way set them apart from their peers in the region.

In August 2015, Evil Geniuses managed to turn the odds to their favor and claim the coveted TI5 Aegis of Champions and $6.6 million in prize money, thus becoming the first American team to win The International.

In a shocking move almost immediately following their historic TI5 championship win, Evil Geniuses removed Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling from the lineup. Welcoming back Artour “Arteezy” Babaev, they then shifted Clinton “Fear” Loomis to the support role.

Despite the fact that they started off the fall season on the wrong foot, being eliminated in the very first round of the ESL One New York, they went on to take second place at the MLG World Finals and third at the Frankfurt Major and Shanghai Major.

The results were just not good enough, or perhaps the grass was greener on the Team Secret side of the fence. Both Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora and Artour “Arteezy” Babaev left the team before the rosters locked in for the next big event – the Manila Major.

After their unanticipated departure to Team Secret towards the last days of the team registration period, the future of Evil Geniuses seemed uncertain.

EG welcomed back both Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling and Sam “BuLba” Sosale to the organization, on March 26th.

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The new roster had a shaky start but overall commendable performances in the next three months. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to secure them a decent place at the Manila Major, where they fell into the 13th-16th ranks. Roster changes would strike again.

They put any animosity behind them and brought Saahil back in. Switching out Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling and welcoming back Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg after a year off from school, the team was four-fifths their TI5 lineup and was starting to look like a well-oiled machine again.

However, they had forfeited their direct invite for The International following their roster changes – an unprecedented move for a TI title-holder to be taking the open qualifier road. EG had to come back to Seattle the hard way – through the Open Qualifiers and then the Regional ones.

They shined throughout the tournament – both during the Group Stages and the Main Event – and even looked stronger than at The International 5, at times. Evil Geniuses were close to getting their names written on the Aegis of Champions for the second time. Not close enough, though: they fell to Digital Chaos in the Lower Bracket Finals and placed third overall.

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