EG Nightfall: “I don’t think it’s that different beating like NA DPC and then international for example like say, in Major”

Evil Geniuses have returned with a vengeance in the latter half of the NA DPC. Though the three top dogs of the region had remained undefeated up till this point, something had to give. This time, EG showed that they are still a force to be reckoned with in this region. They handedly delivered a 2-0 to strong rivals Quincy Crew. EG crushed QC in game 1 holding them to just 4 kills the entire game. The second was almost as dominant with Artour "Arteezy" Babaev's Terrorblade putting the beatdown on Quincy's chance of winning.

After today's game, the panel got a rare opportunity to interview EG's offlaner, Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko. Their first question was about how offlane was going for him, as a transition player from carry. He said, "I guess, nothing special, just like offlane and like carry is just kind of like similar roles right now so its not that hard for me, especially since I used to play offlane heroes... on VP, so it's kinda nice."

Their second question was about the difference between playing on Virtus.pro and on EG. Nightfall said, "I mean it's kind of hard to compare, in VP I would speak in my first languages, and I had like friends on the team... people who were like super close you know?" He followed up: "EG is more like a professional team, you know, for me."

They also asked how shot calling was for him in his second language. Nightfall noted, "Honestly it's not that difficult, it's kinda easy to talk in Dota, like Dota calls, are kind of easy to make. It's not a lot of hard words or something, it's like really easy stuff. He continued: "Even like when Ramzes was in EG and I think would be like way worse than mine and be like doing good."

The panel then asked about the match-up against TSM. He said that "we improved a lot since our last game against them." Nightfall added, "since back then we [weren't] on the same page, it was really like split, like not together, it was really way harder, now it will be like way better, way easier for us to play, so I feel good!"

They then asked Nightfall about how he thinks the team would stack up against international competition. He noted, "we still have a lot of things to improve but I don't think it's that different beating like NA DPC and then international for example like say in Major." Nightfall continued: "I don't think [the] level of difference game-wise is like that big, so I don't feel like we're gonna be struggling on Majors or something." He did add a caveat, explaining: "I still think we have a lot of things to improve."

Nightfall did think however that the team had improved a lot. He said: "Yeah, of course I feel like last season was really hard because we were split as a team. We couldn't be together so it was like really hard." He continued: "it wasn't the best conditions for me so when we were like all together, it feels way easier to like play together and get into the same page which is kind of important for a team like us. We have a lot of players from different regions and cultures, so basically being here with the whole team is way easier for our team."

The panel then followed up to ask if Nightfall thought that talking was the way they would improve best. He said, "yeah, that's how you improve like as a team with just time. You spend some time together to talk Dota, play a lot of matches together and that's how you get better. Nightfall added: "we just need time to get to our peak form on TI and stuff."

Will EG remain undefeated this tour? Will they make it to the Major? Stick with us for more coverage of NA DPC at esports.gg!