Evil Geniuses and VALORANT coach Christine “potter” Chi have not been afraid to shake up the meta this year, and with VCT Americas stage two starting off the newly buffed duelists on patch 8.11, the last remaining world champions on the roster have much to look forward to.
Coach potter sat down with Online Esports just prior to start of stage two, and when asked about the the changes to Iso, Neon, Reyna, and Raze in VALORANT patch 8.11, potter said that it’s an exciting time for everyone in the league, but namely her dynamic duelist Alexander “jawgemo” Mor.
“All of my players are very excited about this change, this patch, especially Jawgemo,” potter told Online Esports. “He’s gonna be having a great old time being able to select all these different duelists—well, four mainly that are going to be going into the rotation. I think a lot of teams are going to have to have some real serious discussions about those trade-offs.”
“Between Neon, Jett, and Raze, it’s going to be interesting. Raze lost a little bit of distance, but the speed from the Satchel is still there; she’s still incredibly strong. The tradeoff discussion between her and Neon will be interesting, and Jett is still so, so good. If you have a player that’s an insane Jett, it’s tough to bring out an Iso [instead]. You lose that explosiveness, but then you have a tank that can play around with sound cues and misdirect. I think it’s gonna make stage two very fun.”
In some ways, Evil Geniuses find themselves in a similar spot as the midway point in last season; showing positive signs but overall still not yet where the team wants to be. But potter says this is all according to plan. “Because we had the perfect amount of problems from the beginning of the year, by each match we knew exactly what we needed to work on. So we’re constantly feeling our progress and our confidence growing together as a squad.”
But in the same way that moving Demon1 into the starting lineup was the turning point last year, perhaps the buffs to Neon and Iso could be what gives Evil Geniuses the edge this year. When speaking to Dot the day prior, Sentinels’ Zellsis noted EG as one of the few teams in Americas capable of shaking up the meta to their favor. Though when asked which other coaches rival her ability to adapt, potter immediately brought up Sentinels’ coach kaplan, as well as her former assistant coach and now head coach at 100T, Zikz.
EG will take on 100T in week three of stage two in a collision of former 2023 world championship contenders, but stage two begins against another set of past world champions—versus LOUD in week one.
