Evil Geniuses defeated Team Liquid in the Starladder Series IX American Division in a thrilling best of three series with a score of 2-1. Liquid, initially knocked down into the losers bracket by EG, fought their way back through the likes of Team Dog and Revenge before ultimately falling again to Arteezy and company.
The American Division Series ended tonight with EG moving on to the Starladder Lan Finals and Team Liquid returning home empty handed. Both teams fought with everything they had in this epic three game series.
Team Liquid was off to a good start in game 1 until Timbersaw and Treant Protector got EG back into the game with a full team wipe. EG picked up momentum and was able to breach the high ground at mid, pushing into the base, wiping out TL, and forcing a GG.
Game 2 was a back and forth battle with Team Liquid fighting to survive. Led by a Dragon Knight with over forty armor, not even Ember Spirit with a Divine Rapier could stop a deathball push by TL down the middle lane.
The final game 3 was an epic conclusion to the series with Qojqva on the Tinker facing down against the infamous Arteezy Naga Siren. Team Liquid threw themselves at the Dire ancient with a vengeance, but clutch plays by Universe and standin Mason defended long enough for the Naga Siren to return and finish off the rest of TL while mega creeps took down the Radiant ancient.
Evil Geniuses will be joining MVP.Phoenix, DK, IG, and four European teams in the Lan finals in Kiev after defeating Team Liquid. The current top four European teams are Alliance, Empire, Cloud 9, and Rox.kis, while Virtus.Pro and Sigma.int are just a few games behind. The prize pool has grown to over $200,000, and the final showdown begins April 17 after the European Divison concludes.
