Evil Geniuses debut new logo as part of big esports expansion

Evil Geniuses’ brand position has changed drastically in a short time, and today it has a brand new logo to go along with EG CEO Nicole Lapointe Jameson’s vision for the brand.

In the past four months, the public has seen Evil Geniuses add two of the world’s largest esports games to its portfolio. Today, it made another drastic change.

After 20 years, Evil Geniuses unveiled a total brand redesign on the team’s official twitter account and website on December 12. The new look, while a large departure from the original in both style and feel, embodies the organization’s name much better than the original that hasn’t changed much over the past 20 years.

Founded in 1999, Evil Geniuses is one of the oldest esports organizations ever founded. After entering Counter-Strike in the early 2000s, EG dabbled in most esports titles over its existence before slowly withdrawing from most games beyond Dota 2. Since then, EG’s Dota 2 team has been the organization’s main focus.

On September 16, the Geniuses announced that the Dota 2 team would undergo several changes, including the benching of veteran mid laner Syed “SumaiL” Hassan and the release of Gustav “s4” Magnusson. 

In their place, EG added mid laner Abed Azel “Abed” L. Yusop and former Virtus.pro star Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev to the offlane position. Some Dota 2 fans saw some of this coming, as EG’s fifth-place finish at TI9 disappointed after the came in third at TI8.

Evil Geniuses logo comes after new CSGO and League of Legends teams

September 26 was a day of surprises for two massive esports communities, as Evil Geniuses announced expansions into both Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends on the same day.

That morning, the team formally known as NRG Esports walked onto the ESL One New York stage in jerseys branded with the classic Evil Geniuses logo. EG had purchased the NRG CSGO roster outright, and their surprise debut at ESL One NY would end with EG taking first place.

Evil Geniuses’ first Counter-Strike tournament in nine years resulted in their first CS win since the Beat It! 2010 Grand Finals on September 9, 2010. 

The roster features experienced players like Tarik “tarik” Celek and Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz, as well as three young talents in Cvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov, Ethan “Ethan” Arnold, and Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte. Since EG signed the team, the roster reached a number one world ranking for the first time and now sits comfortably at number three.

EG’s shiny new CSGO squad would go on to win StarSeries i-League Season 8 after ESL One NY.  After more than seven years without a Counter-Strike team, EG was firmly back in the game.

EG CEO pushes esports expansion, “leans in” to Evil Genuises brand

While Evil Geniuses’s public revival came to light September, the process started with the appointment of Nicole Lapointe Jameson as the organization’s CEO back in May 2019. 

Since then, Jameson, featured in Forbe’s “30 Under 30,” has been at the forefront of EG’s push to turn the world’s oldest function esports organization back into a premiere and powerful company. Under her leadership, Evil Geniuses has expanded at a rapid pace.

Whatever Jameson is doing behind the scenes is working. The CEO has brought the brand back into the public consciousness with overwhelming force.

“[Evil Geniuses is] coming back, and we’re coming back strong. We’re excited to be that powerhouse that people once knew us as,” Jameson said in an interview with Travis Gafford.

EG takes Echo Fox’s League of Legends franchise slot

On September 26, the same day that EG’s CSGO squad debuted at ESL One New York, the Genuises announced that they would take over the open League of Legends LCS spot left by Echo Fox’s sudden exit. Riot approved EG’s bid for the spot, and the organization immediately went to work.

As of today, Evil Geniuses’ first League of Legends team will field a star-studded roster that includes Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen, Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam, Colin “Kumo” Zhao, Bae “Bang” Jun-sik, and Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro for the 2020 LCS Spring Split.

“We are very excited because I think the [entry into the] LCS really healds the rebirth of your favorite bad guy. We’re here to defeat Liquid, and we’re here to lean into the brand and lean into the evil. We think people will be very excited with a lot of the content and brand differentiation that we’re really looking to position ourselves with to come,” Jameson said.

Evil Geniuses also overhauled its Rainbow Six Siege roster in September, adding several new players to the cult esports shooter. In November, EG signed Fortnite pro Justin “FearItSelf” Kats as the organization’s only contracted Fortnite player. FearItSelf is widely known in the Fortnite scene and has amassed a total of $153,270 in prize winnings to date.

With everything else Jameson and Evil Genuises has done in four short months, the December 12 logo reveal marks the end of the old Evil Geniuses and the beginning of the new one.