Artour “Arteezy” Babaev missed his sponsored return to streaming on April 10, but it wasn’t because he overslept or just didn’t feel like going live. Arteezy actually required a hospital trip.
Evil Geniuses subbed in Andreas Franck “Cr1t-” Nielsen for the sponsored stream, with the support player acknowledging Arteezy’s absence. He responded to fan questions regarding where Arteezy was and said that the team’s star player was out of commission due to health issues.
“The reason I started to stream yesterday was because he is sick. Yesterday he went to go to the hospital, to go to see a doctor and he’s…I’m not going to specify but he got some medicine…but he’s not feeling well enough to stream. He doesn’t want to put on a show that’s half-assed for you guys,” Cr1t- said.
Cr1t- noted that Arteezy’s condition is “nothing too serious” but it’s completely unknown what the Evil Geniuses carry player is dealing with. Neither Evil Geniuses nor Arteezy have discussed the matter and it’s a mystery what is afflicting the star Dota 2 pro player.
The removal of Arteezy from the streams was quite sudden. Evil Geniuses was promoting Arteezy’s return to Twitch just days before. Arteezy stated on Twitter that he would stream a day later instead, but this never materialized.
A day before the first scrapped stream, Arteezy played alongside Evil Geniuses in the team’s Dota Pro Circuit match against Quincy Crew. Evil Geniuses won in a 2-0 sweep and he was visible on-camera during the series.
Will Arteezy miss any DPC matches with illness?
Arteezy was out of commission for streaming, but will he be put on the shelf for any of Evil Geniuses’ official matches? That remains a bigger unknown for EG and its fans.
Evil Geniuses’ next match is a big one, as EG is set to play against TSM on April 16. As was the case last season, the North American DPC league has been a three-horse race at the top with Evil Geniuses, TSM, and Quincy Crew. Following Quincy Crew’s defeat at the hands of EG, Evil Geniuses and TSM are the last two remaining undefeated teams in the league as both are sporting perfect 5-0 records.
The two teams will be desperate to score a victory to avoid possible tiebreakers that could jeopardize qualification for the Stockholm Major. The health of Arteezy should come first after his trip to the hospital, which might see the team need a substitute.
