Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #29 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le Apoth Vincent Le jawgemo Alexander Mor beat FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #3 MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban 2-0 in the opening match of Masters Tokyo Group A, putting them one win away from the tournament's playoffs.

“That was the third best team [in EMEA]?,” Demon1 muttered in the post-match press conference.

Demon1's remarks nearly overshadowed the fact he barely made it to Japan. Due to visa issues, EG's keystone player in their late run in the VCT Americas barely made Masters Tokyo. But with him on board, EG were a different beast.

“It was very important [having Demon1 in Tokyo]. Max has definitely elevated this entire squad for the past couple of months. We're feeling reinvigorated,” potter said. “The kind of confidence that Max provides for this team, just in general, we feed off that. We were feeling very motivated as soon as we found out he was actually going to make it.”

But he wasn't the keystone player in today's win. In fact, EG almost needed a decider to win.

EG on the Masters Tokyo stage Good, solid fundamentals got EG through their first match. (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

The match looked destined to head to Pearl, as FUT had successfully retaken Lotus' B site with a 12-9 lead on the board — they just needed to defuse. But Boostio crept through FUT's utility and into AtaKaptan 's Viper Pit to take down four and kill a retake, throwing his team into an overtime that they closed out 14-12 to take the match win.

Boostio had already proven his might throughout Lotus, as he switched halves with nearly 500 ACS and 21 kills on the board, also scoring the tournament's first ace in the first rounds of the map. He cooled off towards the final stages of the game, but still clocked in 35 kills by the end of the map.

“ C0M and Ethan are always very good at supporting. If you look at that ace, the only reason I got it was because of Ethan's flash and Corbin set me up as well for a 4K with the stun,” Boostio said. “It's all about their utility, not really about me. But it feels good to have that type of performance on the international stage. I feel very good right now.”

FUT's EMEA struggles on Split also showed in Tokyo, as the Turkish roster fought to even put five rounds together on their opponents' pick. Lotus was a much tighter affair, as both teams traded blows on their way to the overtime that Evil Geniuses closed out the match on.

“We just couldn't play our game today. Maybe our fans are a little upset right now, but it won't happen again I'm sure,” MrFaliN said.

EG were superior to FUT on every aspect during Split, with C0M's +10 kill differential and 1.49 rating taking his team to another level. But it was on Lotus, their opponents' map pick, that the Americas reps came alive. Boostio did not stop after halftime: the IGL recorded ten multikills in the second map, two of them 4Ks, after struggling to reach the double digits in map one.

And he did all this while IGLing for the team.

“His calling also helped a lot. We closed out Split because of the calling. We started well on defense and closed it out super cleanly on Split,” Ethan said. “And on Lotus, same thing. We started out okay — the closing part was the important part. That was a lot of him. Mid-round calling and everyone having faith in the system.”

Ethan kept up with his teammate even on Lotus, which the former finished with a 1.34 rating and 20 kills, just a hair over his match rating of 1.31.

Kids, don't push utility in ranked like this.

The team's faith in Boostio is one of the many pillars EG are built on. Ethan and jawgemo both pointed out other strengths that will let this team go far in their first international outing.

“I come with a mindset, for a lot of events, that we're underdogs. I think it helps a lot mentally. It worked really well for the regular season with no expectations, so I'm going to keep it that way myself,” Ethan assured.

“I don't think any of us got pressured. We just had our own game, and especially our individual skill. We have no limit on us. Once somebody is hyped, the rest of the team is hype and it just goes like a domino effect,” jawgemo remarked. “We're always going to make sure we're on top of each other and make sure that we have our plays correct. If we're not doing well, we're going to pick somebody else up and that's why we're a team.”

EG's next bout is tomorrow against either a Chinese newcomer or DRX, a staple of Asian Valorant. Demon1 may want to play FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 Leo Leo Jannesson Derke Nikita Sirmitev Boaster Jake Howlett Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder because of “all the comparisons,” but his teammates point to one common goal.

“The goal is always to win,” Ethan ended.