Why Evil Geniuses Potter believes they were baited by their Stage 1 performance

Just two years ago, Christine "Potter" Chi stood in front of thousands of fans from around the world in a packed stadium in Los Angeles, California, hugging and celebrating with her Evil Geniuses squad.

As she looked around, she couldn’t help but feel a moment of peace and disbelief that she could officially call herself the VCT 2023 - Champions champion.

Fast forward to EG's elimination from the VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Stage 2, and that moment felt like a blip in the timeline as she sat in a silent room at the VCT Americas studio, reflecting on what exactly went wrong in their series against 100 Thieves.

As she gathered herself in the press room, she sat for a moment, running through all the scenarios that could have gone differently. That continued for a minute before taking a breath and signaling the go-ahead to begin the interview.

“I’m ready,” Potter states with a smile on her face.

The plucky underdogs of VCT Americas

Evil Geniuses came into the 2025 VCT season as major underdogs. However, throughout the year, the team showcased their ability to punch above their weight.

After a top-eight finish at VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Kickoff, Evil Geniuses came into Stage 1 in full force, where they were truly able to establish themselves as a dark horse for VCT Masters Toronto. They took down the likes of KRÜ Esports and Cloud9 to set themselves up in a position to qualify for their first international event since VALORANT Champions 2023.

They found themselves two rounds away from besting reigning VCT Americas champions G2 Esports, only to fall short at the finish line.

So, going into Stage 2, there was a fair amount of expectation for Evil Geniuses to become one of the favorites to qualify for VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Valorant Champions. Instead, their Stage 1 performance became the exact thing that stopped them from finding success in Stage 2.

“To be honest, I think we were baited by Stage 1,” Potter bluntly shared. “I think if we hadn’t almost made it to Toronto, we would have been band-aiding and fixing different things going into Stage 2, maybe even a roster change like LEV.”

Evil Geniuses finished the Stage 2 Regular Season in fourth place in Group Alpha after squeaking two wins by against FURIA and 2GAME Esports. From the outside, the shift in strength may have been surprising. For Potter, it made sense why other teams were pulling ahead while Evil Geniuses remained stagnant in Stage 2.

“A lot of these teams had a different kind of push going into Stage 2 because they were able to identify that one small change that would have really complemented their other four players.”

That was something that Potter took full responsibility for when discussing the team’s overall failures after Stage 1.

“We baited ourselves with how close we were in Stage 1, and that really ruined us, and that’s all on me,” Potter shared. “G2 was always the better team, and we always had things to work on, regardless of how close we were to Toronto.”

A competitor at heart

The constant urge to problem solve and find ways to win is something that has been ingrained into Potter’s life philosophy for nearly two decades, dating back to her days as a CS:GO pro.

In fact, despite all of the team's shortcomings throughout Stage 2, there was a confident belief in her team’s ability to still make a miracle run to VALORANT Champions Paris.

“Until that final shot, I truly believed that we would have made it to Champions,” Potter said. “There were so many scenarios where if one pistol round goes differently, a domino effect could take place and the outcome could be completely different.”

Potter went on to talk about all of the years of experience in FPS. She highlighted what the early stages of being an FPS pro were like and talked about all of the unique moments that built her career. One of those highlighted moments was “the knife kill” from MIBR’s André "Txozin" Saidel that helped kickstart a legendary run to become VALORANT Champions in 2023.

While the “domino effect” wasn’t in favor of Potter in Stage 2, their loss against 100 Thieves and sad end to 2025 does not take her away from her number one priority as a competitor: winning.

“It’s a crazy feeling going through the highs and lows that you experience as a competitor,” Potter shared. “Your priority just has to be clear, and mine has always been clear. I’m still obsessed with winning.”

Potter’s 2025 season is over, and she will have to wait a few months before embarking on another quest to become a World Champion once more. Before she closed out the interview, she had one final message to share with VALORANT fans.

“I love the VALORANT community, and I hope that as we go through the year, we can be a little more kind to each other,” Potter said. “I hope you can be kind to my players. The grass is never greener on the other side, I promise. I also think we need to gas up our players even more. Let’s gas each other up, that’s all.”

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Featured Image Source: Tina Jo via Riot Games