joinDOTA MLG Season 1 Championship Semi-final: NiP's valor could not keep EG at bay

posted by Jooehn,

With one foe down on their path to the grand finals as they beat MVP Phoenix* 2 games to none in the quarter final, Evil Geniuses still had a long way to go. After two close games against Ninjas in Pyjamas* that included a lot of pushing, EG kicked in a higher gear and brought home the third and deciding game. SumaiL's Storm Spirit was ever so lethal and led his team to a convincing victory.

Who fed the Troll?!

With aggressive drafts for both teams possessing extreme teamfight potential, things were bound to get busy before long. NiP put themselves in the driver's seat early on as

Simon 'Handsken' Haag's Chen had huge impact on the duo versus duo toplane. Thanks to his rotations his team could secure no less than three kills and the tier one tower prior to the 10 minute mark. Everything was going according to plan for the Swedes who could secure a Roshan kill soon thereafter. EG's first answer to the heavy aggression came directly after as NiP rotated to the botlane in an attempt to demolish the tier one tower there. An auspicious rune of invisibility for

Sumail 'SumaiL' Syed Hassan on Magnus, resulted in a wonderful Reverse Polarity that completely caught the Swedish squad off guard and led to two important retaliation kills.

"I just want a hug" - Hellbear 2015

During the period of constant five man Dota and pushing from NiP,

Clinton 'Fear' Loomis was farming excessively on the Radiant side without being contested. This was the biggest factor speaking for an EG comeback anytime soon, and equipped with Sange and Yasha as well as the Empower of Magnus, he brought refreshing momentum into the midst of Evil Geniuses. One perfectly timed Epicenter from

Saahil 'Universe' Arora later in the midlane and the tide had turned in the American squad's favor. The amount of towers fallen on each side soon evened up and as NiP's line-up was the one meant to be pushing the hardest, the game started to quickly slip out of their hands.

The man of the hour for NiP was

Jonas 'jonassomfan' Lindholm who played Clockwerk with perfection and kept his team in the game despite the difficult position they were put in by Fear's Troll Warlord. While not having the confidence to dive head first into an all out teamfight, jonassomfan used his Hookshot to position himself properly and Power Cogs to separate the EG squad, allowing his team to pick targets off with ease. Nonetheless, with over 400 damage and equipped with a Daedalus and Satanic, Fear was too big of a problem for NiP to handle. SumaiL also kept hitting crucial RP's, creating gorgeous setups for Universe to release the fury of his Sand King.

SumaiL's game winning RP

44 minutes in Evil Geniuses opted for a smoke to track down a target or two around the Dire ancients as Roshan was on his way back to life. What they found was instead the fully stacked squad of NiP, allowing SumaiL to hit the best RP yet and bring and end to this game. With the follow-up damage from Troll and Sand King, NiP melted quicker than a cube of ice dropped in a volcano and that was it for the Swedes. EG grabs a well deserved one game lead in this series and are a single win away from advancing to the grand finals of MLG Columbus.

I'm blue da ba de

The unsuccessful attempt at rocking a pushing strategy in game did in no way discourage NiP from bringing it out again. This time around though, it was a "blue strat" based on the Drow Ranger accompanied by four other ranged heroes instead of Luna, Chen and Witch Doctor. Relying on the Drow Ranger aura, it was crucial for NiP to do well in the laning phase and secure sufficient farm on

Adrian 'Era' Kryeziu to start pushing. On the other side, EG dropped their area of effect oriented draft and instead chose to focus on getting pick-offs with Shadow Demon and Clockwerk to snowball their Zeus and Phantom Assassin with heavy momentum.

A lucky invisibility rune for Vengeful Spirit allowed NiP to seek the first blood on the immobile Zeus in the midlane together with

Linus 'Limmp' Blomdin's Puck. The duo got a decent gank off, but what they did not expect however, was the counter rotation from EG to the toplane. As Zeus popped Thundergod's Wrath, the events took quite the turn and the first blood fell in the hands of SumaiL instead. This would prove to be the theme of the game's early stages as none of the teams could get any beneficial trades around the map and gain substantial control of the game.

NiP was the ones under heavy pressure to make plays happen, as their line-up had a set timeframe where it's strong and would slowly start losing efficiency beyond that point. Evil Geniuses' plan was to punish NiP in their attempts to gain objective, a feat that was easier said than done. It would take until the 20 minute mark before any of the teams could gain a substantial lead as NiP used the momentum gained from a Roshan kill to win a fight in the toplane. With newly acquired confidence the Swedes could start pushing for real and threaten EG's side of the map.

The big playmaker of NiP that allowed the turn of events was Limmp who was all over the place with his Puck and performed out of his mind. His mobility constantly kept the EG players on their toes and gave them no time to catch a breath, as he could be lying in wait just around the corner with his mind set on ambushing and picking off a target. The boost from his exploits was what the Ninjas needed to push the scales and be able to start sieging the base of Evil Geniuses. There was no coming back at this point for the American squad and as Handsken's three Familiars pushed down the toplane melee barracks alone, they chose to concede and try their luck in the third and deciding game.

Caught in the vortex

As NiP chose to ban out the Drow Ranger in the final game of the series they had to completely abandon their pushing strategies and abandon their true comfort zone. Instead they secured a Sniper for Era and jonassomfan's trademark Axe to their line-up to face up against EG's Storm Spirit and Universe Faceless Void. It was obvious right of the bat which of the teams felt most comfortable on their respective heroes as EG immediately set off with their high tempo playstyle and started creating chaos all over the map. While thoroughly making sure that Limmp did not get a single rune in the midlane, EG killed two birds with one stone as SumaiL got the space he needed to farm up and start doing his thing.

As EG rotated around the map with their assassination squad, one death became two deaths on the side of NiP and it did not take long before EG sat on a solid 10 kill lead. SumaiL's Storm Spirit was devastating and with his 15 minute Bloodstone there was no end to his fierce reign in the early game. The chaos did not cease and each quiet moment was the calm before the storm and NiP was stuck in a never ending nightmare. A magical teamfight in the midlane where a well-timed Shallow Grave from

Elias 'Sealkid' Merta meant a wasted Chronosphere which the Ninjas could capitalise on, allowed them to gain some consolation and scantly level out the difference in net worth.

Evil Geniuses' lead was still crushing and the Ninjas attempts were all in vain since it was EG's game to lose and they did not make any mistakes. After getting hunted down beneath the tier four towers in their own base with all barracks still standing, NiP knew that they had one last chance to make anything happen in this series. With a final crack at breaking the seemingly unbreakable pace of SumaiL and company, the Swedes put their last strength into a valiant effort to make a play. Under the protection of a Smoke of Deceit, they rotated to the Radiant botlane and tried to pick off the slippery Storm Spirit. Nonetheless, their damage did not suffice and as the rest of EG's line-up rotated to the scene, their MLG dream was over. EG wins two games to one and move on to the grand finals where Team Empire awaits.