posted by LooLooCakes,

The second day of the RaidCall EMS One Summer Season has come to an end with the semi-finals and the grand finals being played out, as last seasons semi-finalist mousesports ended up facing off against the first North American team to qualify for the EMS One LAN portion, taking on Evil Geniuses in a best-of-five series.

Black has nothing but love in his heart today.
Photo by ESL.

mousesports vs. iNfernity

The early and mid game favored iNfernity, as the Living Armor from the Treant Protector and the great plays from the surprise-pick Goblin Shredder allowed the Alchemist, who had a shaky start, to find farm and rise to the top of the net worth table. However, the stellar plays from qojqva on Tinker brought mouz back into the game as the constant split-push and global pick-offs allowed the Germans to regain map control and put some farm on their carry, Gyrocopter. iNfernity were cornered in their own base and growing pressure on the lanes and teamfight domination forced them to accept their defeat in Game 1.

The second game was a one-sided affair, with mousesports securing a very early first blood on iNfernity's carry, Lifestealer, and dominating the trilane with their aggressive Rubick-Nyx Assasin-Weaver trio. The Anti-Mage solo mid for iNfernity failed in front of FATA's signature Puck and the gold and experience lead soon skyrocketed for mouz along with the kills in their favor. With pressure on all lanes and pushed into their base, iNfernity had to call "gg" as early as 18 minutes into the game.

No surprises here as mousesports take the series 2-0 and advance into the Grand Final.

Evil Geniuses vs. Fnatic.EU

The beginning of the game was for both teams a matter of getting farm and levels rather than finding kills. However, for Fnatic it seemed like they were putting all eggs in one basket, the Alchemist, while EG had good farm on all their cores: Queen of Pain, Spectre and Batrider. The mid-game showed plenty of teamfights and trades happening back and forth in terms of towers and kills. EG seemed though to be favored by these exchanges and slowly gained an advantage which culminated with winning a big teamfight and taking bottom barracks at 37 minutes. From that point on, EG started a slow seige against their opponents' base but their attacks were fended off by Fnatic. Despite having the gold and xp graph dead even after an hour of play, Fnatic couldn't reject the assault for any longer and lost their tier 4 towers and top barracks at 60 minutes. Although they still attempted to push and take a fight, EG played it safe and let the creeps push into the Ancient, forcing a 65 minute "GG".

Evil Geniuses started the second game fairly well after getting a fast first blood on n0tail on the top lane in the first minute of the game. However, the game was relatively quiet until the smoke attempt from both of the teams next to the Rosh pit, where Fnatic came on top of that fight. The early-mid game went completely in favor of Fnatic after a big fight where Tal "Fly" Aizik threw a five man blackhole and because of that Fnatic got the xp and the gold advantage. Having that advantage, Fnatic continuted to force teamfights with the aim to take control of the map. They didn't stop the pressure trough out the last 20 minutes, and therefore they took the bottom Barracks. Following their attempt to defent the Barracks, Evil Geniuses faced the angry and farmed Morphling played out by Era as he demolished their team one-by-one. Evil Geniuses couldn't stop the push even though they bought back some of their heroes, and therefore they called the "GG".

The third game kicked off with both of the teams focusing on their farm on their main heroes. Fear was having great time on the top lane as he was able to buy a really fast radiance, and therefore to have advantage over the heroes of Fnatic. Evil Geniuses played safe and patiently trough out the game, as they were able to get the xp and the gold advantage. Fnatic lost the early-mid game after a big team fight where EG managed to make a 4-1 trade. Following their xp and gold lead, EG continued to push and to get even more map control over Fnatic. The big moment came at the 25 minute mark, where EG forced Fnatic to another big team fight and after an great play from Bdiz, he managed to make a rampage, and therefore Fnatic were forced to call the "GG".

Evil Geniuses defeat Fnatic.EU 2-1 and proceed to the Grand Final.

Grand Final

mousesports vs. Evil Geniuses

Drafts for the Grand Final available here.

Game 1

Evil Geniuses knew who they wanted to keep down, as they put out plenty of hate in the direction of

Dominik 'Black^' Reitmeier on the Anti-Mage from the very earliest point of the game. This seemed to work out for EG, who were trading even in terms of overall kills and their cores, with the exception that Black remained so shut down that he did not get his Battlefury until 26 minutes into the game, while his counterpart

Clinton 'Fear' Loomis on the Lifestealer was happily farming away.

As they realized they couldn't take head on fights, mouz started split pushing with their Lone Druid and Puck, buying time for Black^ to get back into the game. As EG began to sense that they were falling behind with the weaker split-push lineup, they decided to try and force the issue instead, claiming the Aegis at 34 minutes and pushing down mid lane, only to have the fight turned around on them horribly. While EG got the Tier 3, they ended up on the sideline long enough for mouz to equalize, claiming a Tier 3 of their own before backing off.

EG seemed to find their opening at 38 minutes after having killed off

Adrian 'FATA-' Trinks on the Puck when he was checking the rune spawn as well as having claimed a kill of Black^ while he was split pushing the top lane. As EG rush in through the mid lane they clame the Melee Barracks before having to back off, only to realize that meanwhile

Max 'qojqva' Broecker on the Lone Druid had taken out their entire bottom and mid lane Barracks, setting EG far behind. Backs against the wall EG try to force a Roshan fight at 45 minutes where Fear ends up dead and without buyback available, allowing mouz to claim the game.

Game 2

With EG going for the Keeper of the Light and Phantom Lancer, mouz knew they were in for a timing push in order to end the game before they would get overrun. For this purpose they paired up the qojqva Lone Druid and FATA- Puck of game 1 with a Lifestealer for Black^ as well as a Chen for

Troels 'syndereN' Nielsen, getting them the early game pushing power and tankyness they would need to break the base.

While both teams traded some kills during the laning stage, neither was truly willing to face the other head on, as they instead farmed up, with Black^ leading the way while Fear on the Phantom Lancer had a slightly rougher time getting his last hits. As mouz started finding their levels and items, they began pushing down towers, threatening the top Barracks by 24 minutes and as the Epicenter from

Pascal 'paS' Lohmeier went through the Song of the Siren it made for one dead Naga Siren, allowing mouz to out-last EG and claim the Barracks before backing off.

The decisive moment for the game was as mouz caught out the Nyx Assassin and Keeper of the Light at 31 minutes, reducing the available base defense for EG by a considerable amount and enabling mouz to rush in through mid lane and then rotating to the bottom lane, ending the game.

Game 3

For the third game mouz had solid lanes figured out, but as EG started picking off kills with their global line-up and ability to pile on damage from multiple sources things started getting out of hand fairly quickly, which forced mouz to rotate the supports out of their offensive trilane, leaving FATA- alone on the offlane Queen of Pain, undoing much of the early economic damage that mouz had tried to inflict towards Fear on the Spectre.

As tends to be the case when Spectres end up doing well, EG kept up the early aggression and were able to find several key kills, in particular making life difficult for qojqva on the solo mid Tinker, who got sniped off in the middle of farming Ancients by a long range Rocket Flare as well as ended up being disallowed any kind of split pushing fun, as Fear was always ready with his Haunt, even finding accidental kills on the Tinker at times when he was trying to play safe.

AS they snowballed hard, they pushed down all Tier 1's and one Tier 2 by 30 minutes in, while mouz had yet to claim a single Tower. From this point onwards EG kept on periodically returning to put pressure on the mouz base, taking several lopsided teamfights until they managed to pick up an Aegis for Fear at 35 minutes, which enabled Eg to take the high ground and take over the base, ending the game with some fountain farming action at 39 minutes of play.

Game 4

For the fourth game of the finals, mouz managed to collect themselves and find solid early game farm while trading kills favourably, as they set themselves up to take control of the early mid game, which was actualized after a team wipe at 22 minutes putting mouz ahead 15-5 in terms of kills and Black^ on Lifestealer leading up the farm by a fair margin over the Lone Druid of Fear.

Still EG's teamfight abilities allowed them to regain some control with the threat of the Black Hole, Vacuum, Wall of Replica and the area of effect damage of the Dragon Knight's Dragon Form. While these deterrent got them a Roshan as well as some much needed map control, a fight at the bottom Tier 2 Tower at 31 minutes once more resulted in a teamwipe in favour of mouz, who went 5-1 as well as picking off the Aegis, as paS on the Rubick managed to turn around the Enigma Black Hole and give Black the room he needed to go to town.

After this point mouz kept control of the game, gaining momentum until shortly before 40 minutes they were able to breach the base, going absolutely berserk and refusing to be pushed back out, leaving EG no room but to call the 'GG' by 41 minutes in.

mousesports take the finals 3-1 over Evil Geniuses, improving on their joint third place from last season.