It was just last month that Evil Geniuses – with a roster led by Silly, Aches, Assault, and Apathy – was standing on the stage in Columbus, Ohio as the Call of Duty World League Champions.
Now the roster has moved to Team Envy after the announcement that the new season of the CWL will be moving to 5v5.
Aches was one of the most outspoken voices against the format change from 4v4, which CoD esports has used since its inception, and this roster turnover appears to be why he was so against it.
“With the format switch to 5v5, it put us in a very tough predicament,” Aches wrote in a press release. “If the CWL stayed 4v4, we had every intention of continuing to #BleedBlue and signing long-term with EG.
“It is extremely disappointing that Activision allowed such a significant announcement to happen so late, putting us in this situation with no time to plan accordingly; I feel that EG are left in an undeserving position because of it.”
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With the quick timeline of the extended rosters, the market for Call of Duty pros has never been hotter because every team needs to add at least one player.
“We built a laundry list of suitable fifth players to fill out the squad here at EG, but, when we went to market, we found none of our targets to be available even when starting the conversation with nearly unheard of transfer rates for their respective organizations,” wrote Evil Geniuses COO Phillip Aram, in a press release.
Team Envy will immediately inherit a high-quality roster that is currently riding the popularity wave that comes with being world champions.
Evil Geniuses still wants to be in competitive Call of Duty and are hoping to rebuild another team that can compete for a championship next year, but losing these players is a massive blow to the organization.