Cr1t- Explains Why the Roster Parted Ways With Evil Geniuses

In one of the biggest roster moves following The International 11 (TI11), Evil Geniuses (EG) parted ways with their star-studded team in exchange for some budding talent in South America. It is possible that last season's result influenced this departure, but the reasons for this bold move remain unknown. The former position four of Evil Geniuses, Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen, revealed on a recent livestream why they are no longer playing for the team. Cr1t- stated that Evil Geniuses was unwilling to pay the salaries that he and his team wanted, and instead wanted a lower-paid roster. Meanwhile, the player also mentioned that the organization had overpaid them in the past.

Cr1t- said that Evil Geniuses parted ways with them because of salary-related issues

Cr1t- went on to discuss the matter of salaries in relation to the departure of the old Evil Geniuses roster. This roster featured Cr1t-, Artour "Arteezy" Babaev, Tal "Fly" Aizik, Abed "Abed" Yusop, and Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko.

Despite parting ways, he clarified that there were no hard feelings involved in the decision.

“The reason why we are not with EG is because they didn’t want to pay our salaries… EG just wanted a cheap roster and wanted to play like - that’s fair. There’s no hard feeling. We definitely were overpaid on EG and EG always took good care of us.”

As Cr1t- explained, during the peak days of the pandemic, Evil Geniuses continued to support them despite other teams not actively paying the players' salaries.

"During all of COVID, when it was really hard for us to compete because we had global players, we couldn’t really compete in all the EU tournaments and stuff, EG still paid our salaries, and a lot of companies were like - not paying salaries for people who were inactive. So, they didn’t have to do it, you know. I still have a lot of respect for EG. Not going to change.”

Cr1t- was an integral member of Evil Geniuses for six years and witnessed the ups and downs of the team during his time with the organization. Following this move, he has now joined Shopify Rebellion with the other former teammates, with the exception of Nightfall as he returned to Eastern Europe. Following the acquisition of Evil Geniuses' slot, Shopify Rebellion will play in Division 1 of the North American Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 2023.