posted by Vekus,

The first finalist has been found and now we look for another as the second semifinal of the ESL One New York kicks off in just a moments’ time. Evil Geniuses will face Cloud9 in a fight for western dominance and the all-important ticket to the grand finals. Who will reign supreme?

Butting heads

Even though it is blunt, what is better than a head-to-head comparison to figure out which team is more likely to win? The number cruncing on this one however, is not too hard, as EG and C9 faced each other only one time since this years International. They played each other in the WEC Final, where EG managed to get an overwhelming record of 4-1 against C9.
Anybody would agree however that five games are a relatively small sample size, so why not try to get some bigger samples?

The

Evil Geniuses played 20 matches in the last wonth, with an overwhelming winrate of no less than 75%. Broadening the timeline to 3 months, their winrate drops a bit, but still stays at a whopping 65,08%.

Cloud9 can offer a bigger sample size...however at the cost of winrate. In the last three months, they managed to win respectable 54,79% of their 73 matches. If we take only the last month into consideration, C9 manages to play 44 matches and rise up to 59.09% in winrate.

Although the Evil Geniuses might lead in both direct and indirect comparison of statistics, fans can surely expect an interesting match, as Cloud9 proved to be extremely resourceful in the past and definitely will have some pocket strategies prepared.

Sticking to their guns

If past matches are anything to go by,

Cloud9 will surely stick to their guns as they have been playing a lot the likes of Razor, Bane & Brewmaster in the past few weeks. While occasionally they still highlight the infamous Drow/Visage combination, they’ve also dabbled around with different combinations and strategies like so many other teams in the post-6.82 era. Out of the two teams Cloud 9 is perhaps the one to try something out of the ordinary, but at the end of the day - and by sticking to what they know best - C9 can still be a tough task for

EG to handle.

On the other corner stands

Evil Geniuses who really mixed things up yesterday by highlighting unorthodox “carry” heroes on Fear in all of their games, even though the true driving force of the three games they played yesterday was Arteezy. While EG might not boast the most variety in their drafting and style of play the Americans have still shown the ability to adapt on the fly, and even then it mostly comes down to the brilliant execution. What is sure is that neither of the teams is going to back down an inch, but for us to have a winner and a grand finalist, one team has to fall.

Who do you think will reach the finals?

This article was written by

Markus Fischer, joinDOTA's Senior Writer. Vekus started to follow Dota rather late, as he joined the community in 2012. From then on he tried to get a job in Esports and found it later at joinDOTA. Reallife is mostly spend at university trying to understand physics and running. Avid wearer of Bandanas.Location: Chemnitz, GermanyFollow him on @VekusDota.

This article was written by

Teemu Ikonen, joinDOTA's Senior Writer. Meliora.Infinitum got absorbed into Dota during a LAN party between TI and TI2, and has been captivated ever since. Spends his spare time outdoors taking photos and writing a book. Believer of alternate universes, no legs strat and Half Life 3. Location: Espoo, FinlandFollow him on @MelioraInf.