CeRq On The State Of NA, Almost Joining Rogue, And Their EU Trip

253 days, the last time Evil Geniuses (EG) faced off against a European team. After 8 months of playing in regional North American tournaments, they made the decision to travel to Europe for the remainder of the events this calendar year. Coming up first is the BLAST Premier Fall Series, and in the buildup we spoke to EGs Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov.

This is the start of your journey in Europe, you’ve spent the last 8 or so months in NA, what was the background of the move?

I think it just got to the point where we were playing tournament after tournament with three days in between, playing against the three same teams, nothing really changed and there was no variety. You lose motivation to be honest, so that’s why we wanted to move to Europe. Also there are more good teams here, and overall there’s more teams so that’s why we wanted to move to Europe for the remainder of the events. 

The state of NA is something which is very much up in the air at the moment, with 100 Thieves and Cloud9 both exiting, and VALORANT becoming more prominent. What do you make of the state of NA right now?

I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen, like I’ve had this talk with my family honestly, and we were brainstorming, not brainstorming... like I have no idea where this is going, like CS might move to being just European only you know, because NA just doesn’t have that many teams anymore. The competition is just in Europe, I feel like NA is just going to turn into being an Oceania like region, where there are two or three teams fighting for one spot in a tournament, knowing Europe is the bigger region and just has better teams, so I think that is what’s gonna happen. Even though NA has insane teams right now, you can’t prove it though, you’re not playing against teams that are top five because you’re in NA. 

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Your first game in BLAST is against OG, with them coming fresh out of playing back to back tournaments, do you think that will play into your hands?

First of all it’s gonna be a good game because the last time we played them was BLAST and they knocked us out. So we’re looking for revenge for sure. They are a pretty good team, I won’t say anything about preparation and stuff, but it’s going to be an exciting match for sure.

Elsewhere in the group there’s Navi and NiP, what do you make of the competition?

I don’t know, as I said I have no idea what to expect, we’re going to try and play our game and see how it goes. 

I feel like NA is just going to turn into being an Oceania like region, where there are two or three teams fighting for one spot in a tournament

On a personal note it’s been just over 3 years since you packed your bags and moved to NA. Some would say it was a risk but looking back in it surely it has paid off?

I don’t think many people know but first I got an offer from Rogue when I was in my Bulgarian team, and it got to a point where I had a meeting with my teammates and I decided that I wasn’t going to take that offer and that I’m going to keep playing in Bulgaria, but then the same night I told them that I’m going to stay in Bulgaria I got an offer from NRG. Looking at the players like Daps, that has so much experience, and AnJ was in the team at the time where I’d played against him a lot in Singularity so it was like yes it is a risk and I don’t know if I’ll be homesick, I don’t know how I will feel, I don’t know if I’ll fit in to the team. I knew that I’m a youngster and if I don’t play well then I’ll be on my way back to Bulgaria. I think it was a risk but I’m happy playing here.

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As you touched on there you started off with Daps as an IGL and then moving on to Stanislaw, what would you say he’s like as an IGL to you, especially as an AWPer?

He is a very good IGL, he tries to set everyone up individually. He sacrifices himself to make sure everyone else is comfortable and everyone else shines, yeah he is a very good IGL in my opinion.

As an AWPer, what players from Europe do you look at for inspiration? 

Right now I don’t really look at anyone, back in the day I was a big KennyS and GuardiaN fan, and there was a joke in my team because I was playing with the config from Keev from BIG, and they were making fun of me that I’m a Keev fanboy, but I was looking up to GuardiaN a lot for sure. 

First I got an offer from Rogue when I was in my Bulgarian team [Before NRG]

Lastly, As it stands, the fall finals will be the first global LAN, do you think we’ll see similar performances from teams as we’d seen online or see a complete switch? 

Like some teams that have recently started doing very good online in my opinion will drop off since they might doubt themselves more on LAN. I’m sure everyone's going to have a little doubt in themselves in the back of their head because nobody has played in a LAN environment for almost a year now. I’m sure it’s not going to be the same as online and I’m sure everyone's going to have a nervous first game in my opinion. It’s going to be very fun and I can’t wait. 

Thank you Cerq and you can catch Evil Geniuses against OG in BLAST today at 3:30pm GMT.

Thank you.

Images via BLAST