posted by Mantis.,
One of the most interesting and exciting matches of the tournament so far, the match between
Evil Geniuses and 
Natus Vincere was certainly an eye opener. Na'Vi, the winner of The International and EG, a team reborn from the ashes of the former MYM have proven a constant knack for each other since the very beginning. The two very even teams unfurled in a true [B]Clash of Titans[/B] for a berth in the Grand Final of The Defense.
[align=center]EG in great trouble[/align][b]Game 1[/b]
The first game was full of surprises and intense battles. The early game was quite balanced where we see Misery's trademark hero, Priestess of the Moon and Maelk's Chen pushing hard on the top lane against LightofHeaven's Prophet, getting two fast towers and damaging the Tier 3 tower a bit.
Although, on the bottom lane we see Leshrac, Vengeful Spirit and Earthshaker get some kills on Naix and Wind Runner maintaining the stability of the game whereas at mid lane, Invoker was winning against Beastmaster in every aspect.
Throughout the early-mid game, EG was leading in towers while Na'Vi was leading in kills until after the 20 minutes mark, where Na'Vi began to win every team fight thereby increasing their advantage with a fat Prophet and Invoker. Within the next 10 minutes, 'GG' call was made from EG and Na'Vi won the first game.
[b]The most notable fact during the pick/ban phase was that EG traded Invoker and Prophet to Na'Vi for a Chen first pick.[/b]
The awkward moment when you realize you are going to die[b]Game 2[/b]
In the second game, we witness some spectacular performance from both sides. Besides Dendi getting early arcane boots and dagger on Sand-king, we see Lacoste's Venomancer playing safe in fear of getting ganked by sand-king and Puppey's Chen that ultimately denies him farm and much needed level-up.
While on the bottom lane, Fear's Skeleton King manages to farm with the support from Misery's Ancient Apparition and keeping LightofHeaven's Wind Runner with almost no farm in the early game.
At mid lane, DeMoN's Shadow Shaman is ganked frequently by Ars-Art's Crystal Maiden and XBOCT's Night Stalker.
We witness Na'Vi leading in towers and kills throughout the game keeping the gold advantage on their side. However, we see Na'Vi's courier getting killed that denies Dendi his dagger for complete 3 minutes as well as two attempts to push into EG's base going in vain. It borrows extra time for EG as Skeleton King begins to look menacing with his increasing farm.
Just when the game seems to be stabilized, a team fight at the tier 3 tower in EG's base changes the momentum of the game where EG lose their Skeleton King, opening a chance for Na'Vi to destroy the barracks which they successfully destroy. With hopes lost and Skeleton King gone, a 'GG' call is made from EG giving the second game to Na'Vi yet again.
[b]The most notable moments in the second game were Dendi's escape from death near the Radiant secret shop (at 22:30-23:00 minute) and DeMoN's Shadow Shaman dying in a hilarious way after successfully saving himself from Dendi´s blind blink into the woods with Epicenter, but then dying after all to sandstorm blocking the way out of the woods (at minute 19:41)[/b].
After two exciting matches, the Ukranian´s left no doubt of being worth to proceed into the Grand Final of The Defense with one game advantage in a best-of-five format. On the other hand, Evil Geniuses have been pushed down to the lower bracket where they will be facing
Quantic Gaming on February 29 at 19:00 CET. The winner amongst the two will proceed to the finale whereas the loser will have to settle for third place.Here's an interview by
Gaelle [B]'MystresS'[/B] Pavillon for DachEtMax with 
Dmitriy [B]'LightOfHeaven'[/B] Kupriyanov about their victory against EG in the winner bracket final. English subtitles are available by turning on the captions below the video player.All the matches will be streamed by your one and only,
Toby [B]'TobiWanKenobi'[/B] Dawson. The VoDs for the game between EG and Na'Vi are available in the VoDs section here and on our Youtube channel here. Stay tuned to joinDOTA as we bring you the latest updates from The Defense.
Comments