Evil Geniuses have come under fire in the Valorant scene over their reported protracted pursuit of Turtle Troop player Jack ‘Add3r’ Hayashi, which is said to have deeply impacted the NA Challengers team.
Independent reporter Max Katz revealed on March 6 that Turtle Troop had been spotted practicing with former Akrew player Jake ‘Paincakes’ Hass as they expected Add3r to be signed by Evil Geniuses, who for months had been eyeing the player.
In the end, Evil Geniuses decided not to follow up their interest in Add3r, who missed an entire week’s worth of practice as the group stage of the Challengers League enters its last stretch.
Evil Geniuses have made no secret that they plan to build a 10-man roster for the 2023 VCT season, with only one spot left to fill. The team finished 9th-16th at VCT LOCK//IN, beating Heretics in the first round before losing to Talon Esports in the Round of 16.
EG under fire in the Valorant scene
Evil Geniuses’ on-and-off pursuit of Add3r ended up disrupting Turtle Troop’s preparations for the final two weeks of the Challengers League. The only unsigned roster in the league, Turtle Troop sit at the bottom of Group A with a 1-2 record ahead of their matches against G2 Esports and Oxygen Esports.
Matthew ‘Wedid’ Suchan, who also plays for Turtle Troop, wrote on Twitter: “When orgs f**k over free agent teams.” He later confirmed on Reddit that he was referring to EG.
The episode has put even more heat on the Evil Geniuses organization, which has come under heavy criticism in recent weeks over the handling of their esports teams. Last week, Dexerto published a story detailing how the North American organization had failed to care for one of their biggest talents, League of Legends star Kyle ‘Danny’ Sakamaki, who stepped down from the LCS team due to mental health issues.
Popular streamer Jeremy ‘Disguised Toast’ Wang also joined in the criticism of Evil Geniuses. In December, Disguised Toast revealed that he had a Valorant player “sniped” from him when he was assembling his team. It is widely understood that the player he was referring to was Max ‘Demon1’ Mazanov, who tried out for Disguised’s team before signing with Evil Geniuses.
“Accepting new members to the Professional EG Hating Club,” Disguised Toast wrote on Reddit.
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