In an interview with 1pv on their show ‘Le Club’, former Evil Geniuses assistant coach Paolo ‘EVY’ Berbudeau talked about his time with the North American organization and the struggles he and Damien ‘maLeK’ Marcel had with management and IGL Jacky “Stewie2K” Yip.
In a translated transcript of part of the interview, EVY recounted some of his bad experiences with Stewie2K when it came to practice and attitude towards the coaching staff.
“[Stewie2k] wouldn’t say hello to maLeK when we walked into the room, starting on Day 5/6,” EVY said. “When Damien spoke, he was turned back to his pc, he wasn’t listening to him. Sometimes, Stewie would listen to Damien [maLeK ]and then turn around and not respond. One of the worst things I’ve seen is denying tactical breaks. Damien calling tactical breaks and Stewie saying no.”
In one part of the interview, EVY called into question the Major winner’s leadership skills and criticised his communication skills in-game.
EVY tells us the story behind Evil Geniuses failure: "In the end, it was maLeK or Stewie".
A lot of interesting anecdotes and insides about the last 6 months in EG.https://t.co/sqIjbrxqtN
— neL (@neLendirekt) June 15, 2022
“Stewie has put in some nice clutch shots for us, etc. But he has a 0.55 rating against top 5 teams with EG, his level is questionable, he doesn’t challenge himself as a player anymore and he’s not a good leader,” the ex-Evil Geniuses coach said.
According to HLTV, the former Team Liquid player has a 0.67 rating against top five teams in the past six months across 10 maps played. His average rating in that time period has been 0.92.
Stewie2K or maLeK
According to EVY, the North American organization pushed hard for the young IGL despite the reservations of maLeK, who had been given “carte blanche” to operate the roster as he saw fit.
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Later on in the year, after growing frustrated that promises of change were not being fulfilled by the management, maLeK stepped down from the team, with the organization allegedly keen to move on from him.
“A lot of things were wrong and [maLeK] lost it, and simply said ‘stop, you are doing s***, do what I asked you to do, this is not normal, etc.’ He had been right for six months, and when he stood up and demanded that we stop bulls**tting him, it was over,” EVY said.
EVY then recounted how he woke up on May 10 to a message from a friend expressing support. When he opened Twitter, he found out that he had been let go from Evil Geniuses.
“The basic idea going forward was to part with Stewie, 1000% percent,” EVY said. “In the end, it was maLeK or Stewie. We could have kept Stewie as a player, although he could have challenged the authority.”
Stewie2K joined Evil Geniuses on January 18, reuniting with his former Cloud9 Major-winning teammates William ‘RUSH’ Wierzba and Timothy ‘autimatic’ Ta. The team has no top finishes at any LAN tournaments and bowed out of the Americas RMR in eighth place, failing to qualify for PGL Major Antwerp.
At the time of publishing, maLeK remains inactive with Evil Geniuses, who are yet to name a replacement. On June 14, the North American organization announced that Head of Data Science Soham ‘valens’ Chowdhury now oversees all three of EG’s rosters with the title of Director of Athletics.
EVY’s comments raise further questions about Stewie2K’s ability as an in-game leader. On the french show “La Pause”, hosted by Sebastien ‘KRL’ Perez, Vitality captain Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire stated his belief that Stewie2K “is not made to be a captain”.
