EPT
IdrA's gone. Stephano will be gone as well. So, what's in the future for Team Evil Geniuses?
Well, they're going to have a lot of money come August. IdrA's contract is already off the books, minus some rent payments, and Stephano has announced his retirement for August 15th (assuming he signed a one-year contract, his contract ends around then anyway).
In additional, they'll probably save some money on HuK in one way or another. HuK's EG signing was announced on August 17th of 2011, and he re-signed with EG in August of 2012, which tells us he has a 1 year contract. While we don't know if EG intends to let him walk or re-sign him at a lower rate (considering his form over the last year, a reduction seems inevitable), but in any case it's not hard to assume he'll be taking up less of their money this August.
So, why is August important? Avid Brood War fans will probably have guessed by now: KeSPA contracts end and free agency begins in August-September, at the end of the Proleague season. That's right, EG could make a run at another marquee KeSPA player.
KeSPA has always been super secretive about contracts, and any information we know about contract amounts and lengths is typically from Korean news articles stating unspecific sources.
The most lucrative potential target is SKT's
PartinG. OSEN reported (English translation) that his current contract with SKT is only until September, the end of the Proleague season. OSEN reports a salary of around $65,000 for the nine months, which should be easy for EG to cover with money coming off the books.Besides PartinG, the only player who has both the skill and marketing value to be worth a large salary for EG is probably KT's
Flash. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem too likely that he'll be free any time soon. The last time he was supposedly going to be a "free agent," it was revealed that KT Rolster already gave him an extension the previous year, in anticipation of free agency. At his current pace, it's hard to see KT Rolster ever letting him out of their grasp.Still, we don't know who will be available come August, and who will be considered the best, or most entertaining player in the world. There are two WCS Season left until then, and a LOT can happen in that time.
The real question here is whether or not KeSPA will let one of their marquee guys leave. The Association did loan out Jaedong to EG last November (Korean media refers to it as a loan, though EG doesn't seem to care about disputing this discrepancy) but that was all part of a larger plan to bring in EG-TL into the Proleague, appeal to a western audience, and get some salary relief for their internally funded 8th Team.
The Jaedong free agency debacle of 2009 taught us that KeSPA is more than willing to implement arbitrary rules to make sure top teams keep their top stars when it suits them. The rules did change to be more reasonable as a result of the Jaedong controversy, but don't think for a second that the idea of an ace level player leaving wouldn't make them come up with enough red tape to package an elephant.
While there's slim pickings in terms of star power, EG will definitely have the funds to pick up skillful, solid StarCraft II players should they decide they want to continue in Proleague (with or without TL). Revival, aLive, and Oz are bandaids, and they're showing nowhere near the skill of players you want to rely on as your core. But if it's cheap, pure talent they want, EG might as well pick off players on ESF teams instead of going after KeSPA free agents.
Speaking of eSF, there's them and foreign players to think about outside KeSPA. But that's a year round opportunity as opposed to having a particular season. After the PuMa fiasco in 2011, EG's approach toward picking up eSF players seems to have become more cautious, due to fear of harming their relationship with various Korean entities (GomTV is the chair of eSF, after all). But in the end, one can only make so much of an argument about EG being the "bad guy" if they are offering talented players the money they deserve.
As of now, it seems like
Life is the only player they'd need that IdrA/Stephano/HuK/whatever money to acquire. Rumors are that Red Bull is very keen on keeping their logo on their little superstar, so it may take quite the bid to pry him away. Of the foreigners, DIMAGA is the only notable, teamless player who stands out, and perhaps he could become EG's next target depending on his performance at WCS Europe. It's hard to speculate too much about the foreign scene, considering Evil Geniuses already has Suppy and NaNiwa (on their Alliance brand), and we'll have to wait and see who receives acclaim at WCS EU/AM.On a final note, there are a lot of other considerations for EG as well. The Alliance brand needs expanding, they need to think about what do with Jaedong in November, and they need to think about whether or not they have the stomach for another season of Proleague. Not only that, but they sponsor players in multiple other games as well, and the cash could be redistributed in that direction. But in any case, they are losing two of their biggest StarCraft II stars, and they have the need and the money to replace them.
TL;DR: Flip a coin. Heads: EG.PartinG.RC. Tails: EG.Life.RC. Lucfron loses regardless of result.
