One of the biggest constants in competitive Dota 2 is the infamous ‘Kyle Curse.’ It happens whenever former pro turned analyst and caster Kyle Freedman predicts a team will win—only for the opposite it to happen.
It started as a meme but has been plaguing teams for several years now, with the latest victim being Evil Geniuses, who have been unexpectedly impressive at The International 11 so far despite having a mediocre season.
All pistons were firing right out of the gate, and they wound up topping their group as the first team to qualify for playoffs.
But is their red-hot form enough to overcome the Kyle Curse?
The curse reared its ugly head when Kyle responded to Wykrhm Reddy’s poll on social media about which team will win TI11 and predicted it would be none other than EG. “It’s EG’s year,” said Kyle, knowing full well what he’d done.
Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen, Evil Geniuses’ support player, knew it too. “Bro,” the Dota 2 star said in response, as if to say, ‘What the heck have you done?’
It’s also not the only curse EG could be inflicted with. The other one is what’s known in the community as ‘The Arteezy Curse,’ which makes any team with Artour “Arteezy” Babaev in it finish no higher than third.
The Canadian carry player has had 31 third-place finishes throughout his nine-year career, 15 of which were tier one tournaments, including The International 2018, The International 2014, and several majors.
To make matters worse, EGs ex-captain, NA Dota 2 legend Clinton “Fear” Loomis, also predicted they’d finish third by losing to Team Secret in the Upper Bracket final.
Despite all the curses and predictions against them, EG looks like one of the best teams in the tournament, along with Tundra Esports, who also had 14 wins and four losses in the group stage.
The playoffs are a different beast, though.
So, we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out for the Dota 2 hopefuls.
