Daps Joins Evil Geniuses as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Coach

North American esports organization Evil Geniuses announced the return of Damian “daps” Steele as their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive head coach. The Canadian strategist will return to the helm of the team after an eight-month hiatus.

Daps Returns to CS:GO

Daps has announced his return to the competitive CS:GO scene on Monday, June 22, when he unveiled he is joining Evil Geniuses as their head coach. The 27-year-old has transitioned to Valorant in October 2020 but has decided to return to the scene he was a part of since 2012.

Daps joins Evil Geniuses as a replacement coach for Wilton “zews” Prado, who left the North American esports organization on Wednesday, June 2.

“Excited to start my coaching journey with the boys, happy to be back in CS,” said daps.

By joining Evil Geniuses, daps will re-enter the CS:GO esports scene for the first time since September 2020. He was at the time playing for Gen.G, who ended up dispending their CS:GO project at the end of the year.

However, the Canadian CS:GO pro is mostly known for his time as an in-game leader of NRG Esports, which he was a part of for over two years. With NRG, daps won several high-profile tournaments, including Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Shanghai, cs_summit 3, Esports Championship Series Season 6 – North America, and the ESL Pro League Season 9 – Americas, helping his side peak at no.4 in the world ranking.

At NRG Esports, daps built a team that formed the foundation of the current Evil Geniuses team. He has played alongside EG’s core members in Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte, Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov, and Ethan “Ethan” Arnold, who he will reunite with as their head coach.

After leaving NRG Esports in July 2019, daps spent the next year playing for Cloud9 and Gen.G. Both teams currently no longer field a CS:GO roster.

After his departure from Gen.G in September 2020, daps transitioned to Valorant, where he played for NRG.

During his eight-month stint in Valorant, daps won Nerd Street Gamers – Monthly December and competed at several Valorant Champions Tour tournaments. The team, however, failed to achieve much success, missing out on qualifying for the VCT Masters – Reykjavik.

Evil Geniuses Hoping for A Fresh Start

Daps’ arrival follows Evil Geniuses’ streak of underwhelming performances that saw them drop to no.20 in the world ranking. The team’s decline started in September 2020, when EG peaked at no.1, but have since been dropping on the global ladder.

In February 2021, EG recovered and reached world no.9, but their performances since were anything but convincing. Evil Geniuses failed to win a single tournament since ESL One: Cologne 2020 Online – North America at the end of August and plummeted to no.38 at the end of May.

The North American side have since bounced back with a top-six finish at Intel Extreme Masters XVI – Summer but have yet to come close to hoisting a trophy.

With daps at the helm, Evil Geniuses will hope they can start fresh and improve their form ahead of Intel Extreme Masters Season XVI – Cologne.

IEM Cologne kicks off on Tuesday, July 6

With no tournaments on the schedule for the next week, Evil Geniuses now have two weeks to get ready for IEM Cologne. There they’ll face off against 24 CS:GO esports teams for the largest slice of the $1,000,000 prize pool.

Attending the event are all of the top-15 teams in world rankings. Joining the elite teams are FaZe Clan, Bad News Bears, Team LDLC, Sprout, ViCi Gaming, Renegades, MiBR, and Team One, who have qualified via regional qualifiers IEM Cologne qualifiers, and via ESL World Ranking.

The esports bookmakers have yet to release odds for IEM Cologne. Even without knowing how the betting odds will look like, it’s fair to assume Evil Geniuses won’t be considered as one of the favorites before they start showing some improvement.