Rebranding is the process of changing the corporate image of an organisation. The idea behind rebranding is to create a brand different in identity from its market competitors. However, the rebranding of Evil Geniuses is proving to be more than that, as its former owner Alexander Garfield, expressed outrage on Twitter.
On Dec 12th, Evil Geniuses, one of the oldest esports organizations in the scene, unveiled its rebranding on social media with a new logo and tagline, #LiveEvil. This is the first time that the company, established in 1999, experienced major changes in term of branding.
The new logo ditches the symbolic style of the old one, opting for a more text-based approach. This is all according to the ominous theme the company is pursuing, also changing its tagline from #BleedBlue to #LiveEvil.
The change hasn’t gone down well within the esports community. Many esports fans on Twitter and Reddit are slamming the new logo as being bad, bland or even garbage.
One Twitter user called the change “Neither evil nor genius”. However, the most notable response is from the team’s former owner, Alexander Garfield:
At first glance, this seems like your normal, everyday Twitter’s response, until Garfield expressed further dissatisfaction on his account:
He claimed that people are forgetting the history of the organization and how it got to where it is today. He also pointed at the new owners for not making good on their promise of empowerment when he sold them the company back in 2014.
Garfield started working for Evil Geniuses back in 2004. During his time as CEO, EG was one of the most successful esports organizations, the powerhouse of the North American esports scene. Garfield sold the company to Twitch in 2014. The streaming platform was acquired by Amazon earlier that year. Since then, EG continues to grow, acquiring rosters from various games. Although their Dota 2 team won The International in 2015, EG has yet to regain their success in the past. The team constantly underachieves in tournaments, coming in third in most.
In response, EG current COO, Phillip Aram went on his Twitter account to shed some light on the situation. He apologized to Garfield and EG fans for catching them off guard with the changes. He also stated that the old one is not scratched off altogether, saying that they are still tinkering with it and will reintroduce it later on. The full response can be read here.
Evil Geniuses is not the first esports team to receive backlash for rebranding. Other big esports organizations like LGD gaming, OG, Virtus Pro have all experienced the same thing, but none has quite caused as much of a stir as Evil Geniuses.
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