Evil Geniuses reportedly set to sign zews
According to reliable sources, Evil Genuises are in advanced talks with the former MiBR CS:GO head coach Wilton "zews" Prado, who is said to be appointed as the new strategist of the North American CS:GO roster.
Since the departure of Chet "ImAPet" Singh earlier last week, due to internal disagreements with Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz and Tarik "tarik" Celik, Evil Genuises were working overtime in their search for a new head coach for their CS:GO project and it seems like they have found a perfect replacement in a Brazilian Counter-Strike veteran and renowned coach zews.
According to reports, zews has found himself on Evil Genuises' shortlist, as their number-one target to replace ImAPet, which is not all too shocking, seeing how zews is widely regarded as one of the best CS:GO tacticians, who should fit in perfectly with Evil Genuises' ambitions of becoming one of the top teams in the scene.
Zews has parted ways with MiBR in late-March due to growing concerns with MiBR's poor performances and the team's refusal to make the needed changes to address the issues, as stated by zews. Although the Brazilian ex-pro claimed he does take a part of the blame for MiBR's downfall in recent years, he went on record to say that he believes the best decision for him is to leave the team and look for options elsewhere.
Zews began his Counter-Strike career in November 2005, when he played for Army5 Gaming and later in 2008 transitioned to Counter-Strike: Source with YeaH! Gaming and semXorah. In late 2012, zews made his first appearance in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene with Insight esports, but it was not until April 2013, when he won his first CS:GO tournament, the SEA Open Brazil #13, with a stack Deyertal Matkal, to which he added Razer Challenge Brasil 2013 title with ProGaming.TD only a couple of days later.
His first stint as a head coach came in August 2015, when he left Yakuz4 e-SPORTS and joined Games Academy as the team's strategist. Throughout his three-months stay at Games Academy, zwes failed to win any notable events, but his talent as a coach did not go unnoticed and in November 2015, he got picked up by Luminosity, where his career as a CS:GO coach reached new heights.
With Luminosity, zews won a plethora of tournaments, including MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016, ESL Pro League Season 3 – North America, DreamHack Open Austin 2016 and ESL Pro League Season 3 – Finals, while reaching high marks in other S-Tier tournaments, including a runners-up finish at Intel Extreme Masters X – World Championship. The entire Luminosity roster later joined SK Gaming, where zews won ESL One: Cologne 2016, before he left to join Immortals, where he enjoyed his final stint as a pro player.
With Immortals, zews picked up titles at iBUYPOWER Invitational 2016 – Fall and Northern Arena 2016 – Toronto, before he got replaced by Lucas "steel" Lopes in November 2016, which marked the end of his career as a pro player. Not long after, zews got picked up by Team Liquid, who at the time were searching for a head coach, who would replace Luis "peacemaker" Tadeu.
With Team Liquid, zews had a fairly successful run and although Liquid failed to establish themselves as one of the top teams in the scene early on, the North American organisation had their flashes of greatness in 2017, when they made it to the finals of ESG Tour Mykonos 2017, ESL One: New York 2017 and even secured a few solid placements in a handful of S-Tier events.
In early 2018, zews helped Team Liquid pick up cs_summit 2 title, to which they added podium finishes at StarLadder & i-League StarSeries Season 4, Intel Extreme Masters XII – World Championship, iBUYPOWER Invitational – Spring 2018, ESL Pro League Season 7 – Finals and Esports Championship Series Season 5 – Finals. In autumn of 2018, Liquid also made it to the semi-finals of FACEIT Major: London 2018 and EPICENTER 2018, reached the finals of ESL One: New York 2018, Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Chicago and ended the year with a silver medal from ESL Pro League Season 8 – Finals.
Despite zews's successful run with Liquid, he has found himself traded to MiBR as a part of the deal, which saw zews and Epitácio "TACO" de Melo move to MiBR in exchange for Jacky 'Jake' "Stewie2K" Yip, which can be regarded as one of the biggest mistakes MiBR have made.
In early months with MiBR, zews saw a reasonable amount of success picking up top-four finish at Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Katowice Major 2019, bronze at BLAST Pro Series: Miami 2019, another top-four placement at Intel Extreme Masters XIV – Sydney and title at Esports Championship Series Season 7 – North America in May 2019. Since then, MiBR have found themselves in a freefall, as they failed to achieve anby notable success outside of top-four finish at V4 Future Sports Festival – Budapest 2019 and CS:GO Asia Championships 2019.
Even in 2020, MiBR have left a lot to be desired with their runners-up finish at Intel Extreme Masters XIV – World Championship: North American Qualifier, 10th-12th place finish at BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 Regular Season and fifth-sixth at DreamHack Open Anaheim 2020.
The disappointing performances eventually saw MiBR drop down the world global rankings and are as of April 2020 ranked #19, which is an improvement compared to last month, but still, a very poor ranking ex-SK roster, which once dominated the CS:GO scene. MiBR's poor performances also led zews to make the decision to leave the team, however, it did not take him long to find a new home.
If the rumours prove to be true and zews joins Evil Genuises, this will be his second stint with a North American squad, having previously guided Team Liquid. Although it remains to be seen whether zews will be able to help EG reach the heights he did while at Team Liquid, it's safe to say this signing would be a huge addition for Evil Genuises.
