CeRq Reportedly Leaving Evil Geniuses

Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrovis is reportedly nearing the exit doors of Evil Geniuses. As revealed on Tuesday, January 3, the 23-year-old Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player will leave the North American esports organization ahead of the 2023 season kick-off and won’t compete for EG at BLAST Premier Spring Groups.

As revealed by reliable sources, the Bulgarian AWPer is nearing the exit doors of Evil Geniuses, as he won’t compete for the team in the 2023 season. Although yet to be officially confirmed, CeRq was left out of Evil Geniuses’ roster for the BLAST Premier Spring Groups and is reportedly not in EG’s plans for 2023.

Evil Geniuses have yet to announce his replacement for BLAST Premier Spring Groups, leaving the fans wondering who will step in CeRq’s shoes. Jerric “wiz” Jiang, Wesley “viz” Harris, and Jeorge “jeorgesnorts” Endicott from EG White, EG Black, and Nouns are all potential candidates and have been listed on EG’s roster for BLAST Premier Spring Groups, but there were no announcement of which of the three will take over CeRq’s spot.

There are reports, however, that wiz is the most likely candidate to pick up the Big Green for Evil Geniuses, as he is already the primary AWPer of EG Black. But it’s also likely that another player from EG will take over the role.

CeRq has been a player of Evil Geniuses since the North American esports organization acquired the NRG roster in September 2019 and is, besides Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte, the only remaining player of EG’s inaugural roster. He was a key player of NRG and Evil Geniuses, helping the team achieve immense success in the early days, which earned him the recognition as the 18th best player in the world in 2019.

Some of his most notable accolated with NRG and ERG include titles at ESL One New York 2019, StarSeries i-League Season 8, and IEM Shanghai 2018. Unfortunately, he struggled to reach the same heights in recent months.

Even though he has picked up two MVP awards during his time at EGH and NRG, he hasn’t looked as good since EG made roster changes in 2021. Going from an average rating of 1.10 on LAN and online between 2018-2020, CeRq has averaged a sub-1.00 rating in 2021 and 2022.

Besides CeRq’s individual struggles, Evil Geniuses also failed to achieve anything noteworthy in 2021 and 2022, which likely had to do with CeRq’s lack of impact throughout the years. So even though CeRq was one of the team’s main players through 2018-2020, it’s no surprise that EG have decided to replace him heading into the 2023 season.

It’s currently unclear who will pick up the AWP for Evil Geniuses following CeRq’s departure. Timothy “automatic” Ta is a potential candidate should Evil Geniuses sign viz or jeorgesnorts.

Although the addition of any of the two new players would shake up EG’s lineup, the signing of jeorgesnorts doesn’t seem like a bad move. The 19-year-old was previously a rifler for Triumph and Party Astronauts and had a solid run at IEM Road to Rio Americas RMR playing for Nouns, averaging an impressive 1.21 performance rating.

Wiz, as another potential candidate, also had a solid run throughout 2022, averaging a 1.14 performance rating for EG Black. However, unlike jeorgesnorts, he had to play much weaker opponents, so his value might not be as high as jeorgesnorts’.

It remains to be seen who will step in for CeRq, but we should get the answer shortly. Evil Geniuses will showcase its new-look CS:GO roster in a couple of weeks as BLAST Premier Spring Groups kicks off on January 19.