Sources: Evil Geniuses will pick up Thunder Awaken roster and play in South American DPC
The International 11 has just ended and the winds of roster changes have already begun to brew. With South America having such a strong showing at The International 11, the region has drummed up more interest than ever and North American organisation Evil Geniuses are the first to make their move.
The roster moves began as soon as Thunder Awaken left the competition at the International 2022, finishing at 5–6th place and beating their new organisation in a 2–0 sweep in the first series of the upper bracket. They fell to Team Secret in the next round and was eliminated in the lower bracket by Team Liquid in one of the best series that The International has ever seen.
After the team was eliminated, the roster changes began to take place. Thunder Awaken acquired Beast Coast’s mid Jean “Chris Luck” Pierre Gonzales Salazar and offlaner Adrián “Wisper” Céspedes Dobles. The team then began to scope out different organisations for this new team. According to multiple sources, Alliance, Thunder Awaken, Nigma and even long-time North American organisation Cloud 9 were in the fight to pick up the team after their strong performance in the International 2022.
As for Evil Geniuses, the organisation had stuck with their current roster since May 2022, when Tal “Fly” Aizik was added to the team. However, after their disappointing result at the Arlington Major, the organisation considered leaving the Dota scene entirely. However, Evil Geniuses was back in the running for a new team as soon as they had the chance to acquire the new Thunder Awaken squad. The team reached a verbal agreement with the newly formed Thunder Awaken squad on Monday morning after beating out the other teams mentioned above.
More surprisingly, the North American organisation will not move the team to North America to participate in the region’s Dota Pro Circuit. Instead, Evil Geniuses look to move out of the region and into South America to compete in the region that has shown the most growth over the last few years. While this is the plan, there is still the complication of Dota Pro Circuit slots, as Evil Geniuses will need to acquire a South American slot in order to participate in the upper division and will need to figure out a way into the region. They will also have to figure out what to do with their North American slot moving forward. There is a chance that Evil Geniuses will start in the lower division of the South American Dota Pro Circuit if they are unable to find an upper division slot.