Evil Geniuses is reportedly looking to revamp its CS:GO roster ahead of CS2’s launch with French rifler Audric “JACKZ” Jug.
The North American organization and the 30-year-old are currently in talks, according to a report by 1pv.fr on June 16. JACKZ has been inactive for most of the year as he stepped down from HEET in January, but he made headlines in March during ESL Pro League season 17 due to his sharp individual form while standing in for Vitality. ApEX, Vitality’s IGL, credited JACKZ after they won the BLAST Paris Major in May, saying he taught dupreeh how to play for the team during his short stint with the squad.
EG, on the other hand, have had an awful run in the first six months of 2023. The main team have only won three out of 17 best-of-threes this year and are currently ranked below EG’s secondary roster, according to HLTV’s world rankings. They also didn’t qualify for the BLAST Paris Major in May, the final CS:GO Major.
Related: Evil Geniuses CS:GO squad reach new low following loss to unranked team
Should JACKZ agree to join EG, it’s unclear who he’ll replace. The most likely candidates are one of the riflers—Brehze, autimatic, Sanzhar “neaLaN” İskhakov, and Ismail “refrezh” Ali.
In case EG removes Brehze, autimatic, or the AWPer Jerric “wiz” Jiang to add JACKZ, the organization would have a lineup mostly made of European players as neaLaN is a Kazakhstani and refrezh is from Denmark.
Fielding an EU roster would force EG to compete against European teams for the next Major cycle, which will be played on CS2 in 2024.
