Evil Geniuses have already played against two of the top teams at The International 2023 and are now preparing for a battle for survival in Seattle against Gamin Gladiators.
Evil Geniuses are one of the two South American teams that made it out of the group stage at TI12, having already played against Team Spirit, the strongest team so far in Seattle, and Team Liquid, who are being regarded as the second best team after the group play.
Moving forward with the playoffs stage, EG are now preparing for the team that dominated the scene for the entire year, namely Gaimin Gladiators. Both have landed in the lower bracket rounds after losing their respective playoffs seeding series and will have to go head to head on Saturday, October 21 and play for their tournament lives.
During the days off between the group stage and playoffs we’ve been able to talk with Evil Geniuses’s assistant coach Igor "kaffs" Furtado and with their support 5, Jose "Panda" Padilla, and find out from them what went wrong for the team in the group stage matches, how they enjoy their time at TI12 and how do they feel going up against another Goliath so soon at TI12.
Evil Geniuses kaffs and panda Interview with GosuGamers at The International 2023
How has your experience in Seattle been so far?
Panda: The experience as a team hasn't been so great because there were some issues on the first day when we arrived. I don't want to go into details, but something happened and we ended up not having computers for almost two days and we didn't get to practice after our arrival. The patch dropped a few days before we came here, so we had to play the group stage kind of without being able to prepare much. So yeah, not the greatest experience so far.
kaffs: It's my first time in Seattle and, I don't know, this TI feels a bit weird. I'm not sure how it was before, but I feel like I'm at a Major right now.
How about the city, have you been able to go outside, and explore a bit?
Panda: I haven't been outside that much, but there are a lot of homeless people on the streets. People are quite weird here, they are like some kind of NPC characters from GTA, this is the vibe that I get from going outside.
kaffs: Things are also expensive here. That's the main issue with going outside, I think. I paid $15 for a 20-minute Uber drive and now I'm a bus person. I will never again take an Uber here. If I will have to, I will walk to the airport, even if it takes me three days to get there.
What do you think about this new TI format, with four groups and seeding matches, and the four-day break between the stages?
kaffs: I honestly don't like it that much, because imagine that you are a good team, placed top in your group, but then you lose the one seeding series and you go to the lower bracket. It makes no sense to have won your four games in the group and end up in the losers' bracket over one seeding series. I also don't think that the teams that did poorly in the group stage should get a chance at making it into the upper bracket.
I would like to just play more matches in the group stage and based on my performance just be seeded in the upper or lower bracket. That makes more sense to me.
Panda: I'm actually fine with how the group stage format is now. I don't hate it, but what I really don't like is the four-day breaks. I didn't like that at last year's TI either. I just don't like long breaks during tournaments. The meta changes a lot during the days off because everyone is getting the time to prepare a lot of new strats.
"Spoiler alert: We will cheese Gaimin"
Do you think that affects you specifically now that you are in the lower bracket? Because if you think about it the other way around, if you are an underdog, maybe the days off might actually help you.
Panda: I think this break between groups and playoffs will help us, yes, but that doesn't mean it's right or fair. I'm looking at it from the perspective of upper-bracket teams. If we were in the winners' bracket, I wouldn't like the breaks because any underdog team would try to cheese us like we are going to do to Gaimin Gladiators.
kaffs: (laughing) Spoiler alert: We will cheese Gaimin.
What went wrong in the group stage for you?
kaffs: We had everything figured out before the patch came out and we thought we still have it even after the patch, but things are just not the same. There is always a new hero, there is always a different priority and when things get out of the plan we have, it gets way harder. Right? So, I would say we've been struggling with gameplay and also with the drafting.
We've been losing mostly due to drafts. The drafts were not good partly due to the patch and we also lacked a bit of preparation, as Panda mentioned earlier. It was tough. The new draft structure is different and just weird. The draft is always important, of course, but with this patch is even more important because you can always get cheesed in some way and there are a lot more options, the game is way more open.
It's not like our gameplay was perfect, but we shouldn't have had that much difficulty going through the group stage.
"We will give our A game against Gaimin Gladiators and I even think we are favourites"
But, as we already said, this break will help us a lot and I'm pretty confident that we will give our A game against Gaimin Gladiators and I even think we are favourites.
Panda: Let's just say we will be the dark horse in that match. But yes, I agree, we had some bad drafts. I don't think we could have won even if we had played our best game.
kaffs: Especially against Entity, right?
Panda: Oh yes, the drafts against Entity were atrocious. I guess there were some games that we could have won if we played better, but mostly, the problem was in our drafts.
How do you like the current meta? Have the last few balance patches changed the viable hero pool significantly?
Panda: From a position 5 perspective, the last patch changed the hero pool a lot. The heroes I was playing though are past six months or so, are gone, we have completely different heroes in this meta. Everything changed and I'm not that happy about it. As for the meta as a whole, I don't like that every hero is buying Heart of Tarrasque and Blade Mail.
It's a very tanky meta and I don't like it. I'm really squishy as a five. I throw a spell and it doesn't do any damage while I die to anything.
kaffs: Panda will have to play heroes that do percentage damage like Phoenix and Ancient Apparition, and those are not his favorites. They have never been. He likes strong-laning heroes, he likes heroes with saves, and Phoenix is a team fight hero, which is kind of weird for him.
Are we going to see the Panda Oracle in the playoffs?
Panda: I hope so. I didn't get to play any save heroes in a long time.
kaffs: I think I told Panda that he will get to play his Oracle through the whole freaking year and we have never been able to pick it. I think he hates me by now.
Panda: I remember I actually played twice this year against Gaimin Gladiators, once in Lima and once in Bali. We won both times.
What do you make of Gaimin Gladiators as opponents for the elimination series at TI12, is the burden of expectations on them?
kaffs: I've always talked to everyone throughout the whole year, since Lima Major, that I really wanted to play against Gladiators in a match that is worth something because we always played against them on group stages and matches that don't have a high stake. And I always thought we were a good matchup against them because we beat them 2-0 in Lima, and we had a couple of draws throughout the year, so I'm looking forward to our series with them here.
"I really wanted to play against Gladiators in a match that is worth something"
I think they have all the pressure in the world and we don't. So, I think it's going to be a great match and I truly believe that we are going to do it.
Panda: I agree, I think they have a lot of pressure now that they lost to Talon, some players might even feel guilty about that loss, so I think they will try really hard in the series against us and that could play against them. They could play themselves and make some mistakes.
Based on what you have seen till now, who looks like the most formidable opponent?
Panda: Team Spirit are the strongest and then I don't know who to place second. It's between LGD and Team Liquid. But Team Spirit does everything better than most teams at TI12.
kaffs: The thing about Team Spirit it's not only that they understood the meta, but the meta also fits their best playstyle. The playstyle that they won TI10 with. And now they're just taking the opportunity because they know the best what to do in this meta. Of course, they have very good ideas, they were the ones who started this Tarrasque-Blade Mail thing, so yeah, they are the trendsetters. Watching their replays, you see that it doesn't matter if they lose the early game or even if they're getting crushed, they always find a way to get back into the game.
Last year, South America performed great at TI. beastcoast finished in the top 8 and Thunder Awaken finished in the top 6. This year, things have been very different. Why do you think that is?
kaffs: This year we had four SA teams. Vivo Keyd I think are still doing well, they had that LGD seeding matchup and LGD is probably the second-best team at TI12, just below Spirit, so yeah, that was tough for them, but I think moving forward they will do ok.
Thunder were the last SA team that qualified for TI and they had a pretty tough group. I would even say that they had the hardest group of all of us and they almost made it to the playoffs. I guess the only surprise is beastcoast. I guess they disappointed everyone. Even I expected a lot from them. And we talked about what went wrong for us. We could have been in the upper bracket, but then things happened. We also had two very big names to beat. Team Spirit in the group, then Team Liquid in the seeding series, so yeah, tough luck.
What does the SA region need to do to be more consistent?
Panda: The people have to be more focused, they need to treat this as a job. I think some players are still not thinking about this as being a true career.
kaffs: I think the players in South America have the talent but, they lack discipline. They should just try hard, in general.
