Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov and co. won the crucial series 2-1, bouncing back from a poor opening map.

Evil Geniuses stay alive in the $1 million BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 with a victory over FURIA, who were playing with their newly-announced sixth player Lucas "⁠honda⁠" Cano.

The North American team has been out of the spotlight since their last tournament in Europe, when losses to Ninjas in Pyjamas and OG cut their BLAST Premier Fall Series campaign short. Today's victory ensured they don't suffer back-to-back last-place finishes on the Old Continent.

The lower-bracket match started with Inferno, which FURIA won, but Evil Geniuses turned it around after a tight Mirage and a blowout on Nuke. Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz's men will continue the event in the lower bracket, where they will face the loser of Vitality and Liquid next.

Evil Geniuses finally turned things around

The action started on Inferno, Evil Geniuses' map pick and the same map they defeated Astralis on the previous day, but the game was a quite different one this time around. Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan and his team dominated things from start to finish, with the FURIA in-game leader standing out individually with a 1.66 rating in a 16-9 win.

On Mirage, Evil Geniuses managed to stabilize, winning seven CT rounds in a row after losing the opening three, but FURIA pulled back for an 8-7 half. The back-and-forth continued until the end of the map, but after FURIA brought it to 14-14, Evil Geniuses managed to pull across the line.

The conclusion was reached on Nuke, where Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte and Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold were rock-solid, leading their team to a comfortable 11-4 CT half which they converted on for a 16-6 victory.

BLAST Premier Global Final 2020Best of 3 Evil GeniusesMatchpage 2 1 20th January 2021 FURIA 9Inferno 16 16Mirage 14 16Nuke 6

Evil Geniuses	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Vincent 'Brehze' CayonteBrehze	59 - 51	+8	80.6	1.18
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovCeRq	51 - 45	+6	71.6	1.07
Ethan 'Ethan' ArnoldEthan	49 - 57	-8	75.6	1.02
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguzstanislaw	48 - 50	-2	69.6	1.01
Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik	49 - 56	-7	74.2	0.98

FURIA	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoKSCERATO	61 - 47	+14	86.3	1.22
Yuri 'yuurih' Santosyuurih	57 - 46	+11	83.1	1.19
Andrei 'arT' PiovezanarT	54 - 52	+2	73.5	1.13
Vinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoVINI	47 - 54	-7	70.0	0.95
Lucas 'honda' Canohonda	40 - 59	-19	55.6	0.71

Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte Age: 22 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 1010 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.66 Vitality #2 Richard 'shox' PapillonCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautKévin 'misutaaa' Rabier Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Age: 21 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 1044 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.62 Evil Geniuses #18 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovPeter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' Arnold Ninjas in Pyjamas #16 Simon 'twist' EliassonFredrik 'REZ' SternerHampus 'hampus' PoserTim 'nawwk' JonassonNicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Andrei 'arT' Piovezan Age: 24 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 759 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.70 Lucas 'honda' Cano Age: 20 Team: FURIAS Rating 1.0: 0.90 Maps played: 11 KPR: 0.59 DPR: 0.72 Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz Age: 26 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 1191 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.65 FURIA #7 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoPaytyn 'junior' JohnsonKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato OG #6 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenIssa 'ISSAA' MuradMateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold Age: 20 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 961 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.67 Liquid #8 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipMichael 'Grim' Wince