Evil Geniuses Hopes to Carry Momentum into Groups

The four teams of Group B will play their first matches of the Valorant Champions tournament on Monday, August 7th, as Evil Geniuses takes on FunPlus Phoenix and FUT Esports will take on T1.

They, of course, are four of the sixteen Valorant teams that qualified and traveled to this tournament in hopes of being crowned as the best Valorant team in the world. You can catch all of the action live from Los Angeles on Twitch and on YouTube when the tournament starts on Sunday.

Evil Geniuses enters the tournament as a major favorite to win their group, with oddsmakers currently having their line set at -300. This is a team that went from being viewed as a major underdog to one of the better teams in the world.

They barely squeaked into the VCT: Americas League Playoffs after ending the Regular season 4-5 and finishing 6th in the standings. However, they made the most of the opportunity they got and made an incredible run through the Americas League Playoffs ending in 3rd place.

Their performance domestically qualified them to participate in the Valorant Masters tournament in Tokyo. There their legendary run continued with them steamrolling through the group stage and then the playoff bracket losing only in the Upper Bracket Finals and the Grand Finals both times to Fnatic. This performance has put them on everyone’s radar ahead of all the action in Los Angeles.

When talking about miracle runs, few compare to FunPlus Phoenix’s Lower Bracket run at the VCT: China Qualifier. They started the Chinese tournament with an immediate 0-2 loss to TYLOO, sending them to the lower bracket after their first match.

FunPlus Phoenix wouldn’t get discouraged turning it around in their next match, taking down Team Weibo 2-0. They would follow that win up with a 2-1 win over Trace Esports, setting them up for a rematch against TYLOO.

This time FunPlus Phoenix was ready and took them down easily 3-1. Though they would lose to Bilibili Gaming 3-2 in the Lower Bracket Final, they still earned a right to compete at Champions and make their case to be viewed as one of the best teams in the world.

FUT Esports ended the EMEA League Regular Season with a 5-4 match record, earning them the 5th seed in the EMEA League Playoffs. They had an absolutely stellar run through their domestic playoffs. They started with a 2-0 win over Giants before falling to Fnatic 2-1.

They came to life in the Lower Bracket, defeating Team Vitality 2-1 and following it up with a 2-0 win over Natus Vincere. Though they’d lose to the eventual champions, Team Liquid, they still got an invite to Valorant Masters Tokyo, where they’d exit in groups with a 1-2 record.

T1 finished 6-3 in the Pacific League Regular Season, giving them the 3rd seed going into playoffs. They won their opening match against Gen.G Esports before losing to the eventual champions Paper Rex.

Much like FUT Esports, they ran through the lower bracket taking down ZETA DIVISION and Gen.G Esports again before losing to DRX. At Masters, Tokyo T1 had a disappointing Group stage, being eliminated after losing to NRG and EDG.