The final countdown for the Boston Major has officially started. Nine days are left until the group stage kicks off, although the format for the two day group stage is still a mystery. But these are just technicalities, why stumble on them, right? In the end, it can’t be that bad, and most likely all the 16 teams will advance into the main event. Or will they?… Well, let’s just wait and see what Valve has prepared for this last Major of the year.
Until then, we'd like to review the teams going to Boston in less than ten days from now, for your reading pleasure. In no particular order, we will start with Evil Geniuses.
Evil Geniuses from 2016 Fall Shuffle to present day
The pride of NA, three times top three at The International and third place finishers at both Frankfurt and Shanghai Major, Evil Geniuses have dramatically changed their roster this fall. A lot has been written by now and I doubt that I’ll break any news for anyone by saying that EG have lost their captain Peter 'ppd' Dager and the old man Clinton 'Fear' Loomis this past September. To replace them, EG welcomed back Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev for the third time and surprised their fans with their captain role choice when they announced Andreas Franck 'Cr1t-' Nielsen would take ppd’s spot.
2016 Fall Season Evil Geniuses roster:
Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev
Syed 'Suma1l' Hassan
Saahil 'Universe' Arora
Andreas 'Cr1t' Nielsen
Ludwig 'zai' Wåhlberg
Evil Geniuses’ achievements post shuffle:
1st place: MarsTV Dota 2 League 2016 Autumn
3rd place: The Summit 6
4th place: Northern Arena BEAT Invitational
Qualified for Dota Pit League Season 5
Emerging as one of the strongest teams after the post-TI6 shuffle, Evil Geniuses took a new approach compared to other pre-Majors seasons and put their new roster to work immediately. If we look at EG’s activity pre 2015 Fall Major (from Frankfurt) we notice that the boys in blue, despite being the centerpiece of that shuffle as well, went on playing only in two events, both being LANs. This time around, EG turned over a new leaf and two weeks after they announced the 2016 Fall roster, they traveled to China to compete at the MarsTV Dota 2 League 2016 Autumn where they ended up claiming the Battlefury trophy after a 3-1 victory in the grand finals against Newbee.
One month before the Boston Major, EG kept pushing themselves in events and qualifiers, and this was the first time in a very long time that we got to see the top tier teams, including EG, actually playing qualifiers. Put against NA teams in the Dota Pit #5 qualifiers, EG had a smooth run and reached the grand finals from the upper bracket. However, they dropped one game in their series against compLexity and NP.
EG’s most worrying results came in Canada at Northern Arena BEAT Invitational nearly two weeks ago. Dropped into the lower bracket after a nerve-racking series against EHOME, where they lost both matches to a free farming Alchemist, EG got eliminated by NP in the bo1 format of the lower bracket.
Although they finished third at The Summit 6 this past weekend, EG was overall in a much better shape than they displayed in Canada. But their losses against OG should be an indicator for the boys in blue on where their team stands with less than ten days before the Boston Major.
Evil Geniuses in numbers:
Win Rate: 61.40% in 57 matches
Radiant Win Rate: 60.71/% in 28 matches
Dire Win Rate: 62.07% in 29 matches
Most picked heroes:
Evil Geniuses’ particularity:
Apart from the obvious change in play style with Arteezy as their only carry, and the much faster tempo brought by Cr1t’s aggressiveness and playmaking potential from his fifth support position, Evil Geniuses has developed a strong strategy built around one hero through the past few months, and that hero is Venomancer. Played almost obsessively in every tournament after MDL Autumn, EG tested the green plague in various ways, but always in the same high magic damage output scenario. Interestingly enough, EG started to play Venomancer with their first matches in Elimination Mode and probably nobody paid too much attention to that as the tournament format is forcing the teams to unusual drafts.
But since then, EG tinkered their drafts around Venomancer in each and every tournament they played. From rotating the hero between Zai, Universe and even Arteezy, Evil Geniuses have a total of 12 matches played with Venom and most of them featured the flowing magic damage burst combos:
Venomancer + Outworld Devourer
Venomancer + Shadow Fiend
Venomancer + Warlock
Venomancer + Disruptor
With all that being said, we ask you:
stats source: dotabuff.com
