How many lives does this guy have?
On day 2, the losers of the previous day E-hug and Team Liquid faced off against each other to determine which of the teams would go home early and which would advance to face off against the loser of Cloud 9 and Evil Geniuses. Even though E-hug featured some interesting draft picks, most notably a Wraith King carry for Jiggle Billy in game 1, Team Liquid kited the hero around too well in the ensuing fights and secured an eventual win against a very farmed Skeleton King who also bought a refresher. In game 2, things got out of hand very quickly and eventually snowballed out of control on the backs of Bulba and his massive dunks on Axe. Even though E-hug was eliminated on 4 straight losses, it should be clear that this young team has the potential to become a powerhouse in the NA Dota scene.
Nice farm you got there
In the semi-final match between two North American titans, a preview of what could come in the finals was put on display. In this best of 3, Cloud 9 wasted no time in securing a quick win in game 1 after a number of pickoffs by the global lineup of AA + Wisp + Ember Spirit. Even though Arteezy was on his MLG winning signature Outworld Devourer, he wasn't able to do much against the very aggressive C9 lineup.
In game 2, C9 went after Fear so handily with an aggressive tri-lane of Wisp, Treant and Mirana that he wasn't able to get any farm. To put it into perspective, Fear had 1 cs after 5 minutes of diving, pushing and ganking on the top lane by C9's lineup. Even though EternalEnvy was trashed just as hard going 0-3 in the first 5 minutes, he recovered nicely in the end. EG at one point had a lead on the kills but because of the massive stacks that Demon was able to farm on his Shadow Fiend, the farm game turned quickly on EG and C9 managed to win a game that lasted just past 37 minutes.
Would Demon's shenanigans get in the way of the Grand Finals?On day 3, EG and TL faced each other in a best of 3 to determine who would face C9 in a best of 5 in the grand finals later that day. In game 1, Arteezy snowballed out of control on his Shadow Fiend that resulted in his net worth being almost double that of TL's safe lane carry TC's Void for most of the game. To put it into perspective, by about 17:30 into the game, Arteezy had over 170 last hits, was 1-0-2 with BKB, Midas, Treads, Helm of Dominator and over 3000 gold in the bank. The result of the first game was never in question.
In Game 2, TL jumped to a very quick lead in the early game and seemed poised to take the series into a final deciding game with a 12k gold lead and 7500 experience lead after 21 minutes of play and a 13-5 kill score. However, TL made too many sloppy plays and allowed EG to crawl back into the game and with a late game roster of a midas Morphling and Weaver, EG took the game late and secured their spot into the finals with C9.
Team EG with Anna
Team C9 without Demon :(The match that everyone was waiting for has finally arrived. A best of 5 finals between C9 and EG with everything on the line - to Fear never having won a LAN ever before - as pointed out by Demon in the pre-game interview to Arteezy's 100% LAN win rate on stake and Demon, the ultimate stand-in trying to beat his former team and helping C9 win their second LAN without Bone7 and his visa issues.
The disaster that sealed the deal for Cloud 9
In Game 1, EG utilized an interesting strategy that put Fear on a farming TideHunter and essentially put all the damage duties to Arteezy and his Morphling. Even though the game was very close, a mid-game gank of SingSing's Mirana coupled with another two pickoffs in the Radiant Secret Shop Area and a dieback from SingSing sealed the deal as EG took game 1 handily.
Who needs BKB when you have a Wisp to relocate you out?
Game 2 saw C9 strike right back with some fantastic relocates by Pieliedie on his wisp and a ballsy display of all-out aggression by Envy's no BKB build secured C9 just enough damage to beat EG. Unfortunately Game 3 saw Envy try out his patented Drow build to no avail as Fear's 1-role Bounty Hunter destroyed C9's fragile early game and snowballed the game out of contention quickly.
Easiest Rosh of their life!
In game 4, Envy set out to prove his naysayers wrong by getting Drow again but this time in a 5-range + familiar lineup. There was just too much damage and even Roshan lasted all of 4 seconds to the massive physical damage that C9 outputted. This game goes to show why Drow and Visage is such a lethal combo and in the right hands, could make Visage a legitimate carry as Aui showed in the game.
Congratulations!
In the last but final game, we were treated to a Demon Shadow Fiend once again and a Singsing Clockwerk. For the first time in the series, EG finally wised up and decided to ban out Mirana and Ember Spirit - both heroes that SingSing plays at an extremely high level. EG on the other hand chose to go with the rat strategy with Lycan and Weaver split-pushing. Even though the early game was close, after Zai got a quick blink dagger on his Sandking, the game once again snowballed out of control and after 30 and a half minutes, GG's were displayed in all-chat and EG prevailed over C9 in an exciting and satisfying best of 5.
It was interesting to note that C9 always banned out Naga first pick with Shadow Fiend and Morphling bans incoming as well against EG. In game 2, C9 banned out Naga, Shadow Fiend, Morphling, Dazzle and Templar Assassin, 4 mid heroes that Arteezy could all play at a high level. It didn't seem to matter that much as Arteezy was constantly able to find farm on whatever hero he played even when he got 13 or 14 minute midas on Morphling, he always ended up with massive amounts of farm once he went to the safelane. On EG's side, they banned out Pieliedie's Wisp and Aui's Ancient Apparition every game as well as Singsing's Ember throughout the series. Looking back at it now, those bans seemed to work very well against C9 especially the Wisp and AA ban as whenever those heroes are in C9's hands, fantastic saves and snipes can always be seen.
To conclude, this was Fear's first LAN victory and Arteezy's 2nd LAN win in a row (after MLG Columbus). Even though Demon gets trashed a lot in the public eye for his "throwing" tendencies, he played fantastic on C9 and often found key pickoffs as Batrider and farmed like a beast on Shadow Fiend. Here's hoping Demon can translate the success he's found as a stand-in and propel Team Dog into high level contention.
After the tournament, team captain Peter "ppd" Dager had this to say when asked about the future of Evil Geniuses:
"As a team, I think we're really, really, confident. I think we can definitely beat anyone. I think I'm the type of captain that can win tournaments, and I think we have the type of team that can win tournaments."
Additionally, when asked about the logistics of having back to back tournaments in DreamHack, MLG and ESL followed by the International, Peter notes that:
"MLG would be the tournament to skip if teams were to skip a tournament. If you skip that tournament you can just stay in Europe straight from Dreamhack to ESL, and then go to America for TI and you can worry about that jetlag when you get there. Especially since most teams are European, I think that would probably be the realistic thing to happen."
Only time can tell whether this infusion of old blood and new blood can make EG a success like they once were, but if recent results are any indication, the future has never looked brighter.
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