Evil Geniuses’ dominant run towards a locked-in top-three finish at VCT Masters Tokyo has been the talk of the tournament. The team that needed MIBR’s upset win over 100 Thieves just to make it to the Americas playoffs has gone 8-0 in maps played in Tokyo, including three decisive wins on Fracture by six rounds or more.
Following their latest and most lopsided win on Fracture, a 13-2 beatdown of EMEA’s number one seed Team Liquid, EG coach Christine “potter” Chi spoke about why the map has become a favorite of theirs.
“Fracture is a map that really perfectly fits into our playstyle,” she said during the post-Liquid match press conference. “It’s a very reactionary map, and it’s a map that’s nothing like any of the other maps in the pool. We’ve really dissected it and figured out how to use the Sova; we have a very strong game plan.”
“And because it’s really reactionary map it helps elevate players like Jawgemo, who from the start was a very aggressive player. For me, it was my job to figure out how to highlight and elevate a player like Jawgemo, and Fracture works out really well for that.”
In all three victories at Masters Tokyo, EG have been operating with Jawgemo on Raze, arguably the best agent you’d want your aggressive playmaker on. Given the design of Fracture and how easy it is for attacking sides to pinch the defenders on either site, Raze’s grenades and Boombot abilities are more commonly used to punish defenders trapped on site.
EG has perfectly crafted site executes and pinches for both sites on Fracture, using the ultimates provided by Breach, Sova, and Killjoy to send the defenders into the waiting crosshairs of the other attackers, or into defender spawn, which allows EG to take the site.
Overall, EG is locked in on Fracture, now sitting at 8-2 on the year on the most unique map in the pool. Their only defeats were a 9-13 opening week VCT Americas loss to Cloud9 prior to the tide-turning roster change of bringing on Demon1 and a playoff loss to LOUD they’ve now avenged on an international stage. Additionally, all eight wins on Fracture have been by a round margin of six or more.
