The curse continues for Cloud9, as they have been defeated once again in the Grand Final of DreamLeague #2 by Evil Geniuses. It took Americans four games to seal the deal against their opponents, who had to play nine matches in a row in the third and final day of the tournament.
The second season of DreamLeague now belongs to the past, after the conclusion of the best-of-five Grand Final between Evil Geniuses and Cloud9. The Americans secured their spot through their victory in the Upper Bracket finals against Virtus.pro yesterday, while Cloud9 had to earn their place through another BO5 series earlier today against the same team. While C9 did show some signs of life in the third game of the series, they were unable to prevent the seemingly unstoppable physical-dps strategy of their opponents during the fourth and final game of the series.
Prize Distribution :
1st - 
Evil Geniuses - $40,000
2nd - 
Cloud9 - $25,000
3rd - 
Virtus.pro - $12,500
4th - VP.Polar - $7,500
5th - 
Team Tinker - $5,000
6th - 
4ASC - $5,000
7th - 
MVP.Phoenix - $2,000
8th - 
Alliance - $2,000
Game One
Evil Geniuses managed to score a victory against Cloud9 in the first game of this bo5 series. During the biggest part of the game EG had the upper hand on Cloud9 which allowed them to safely farm the map and control the fights the way they wanted. Both EG and Clou9 exhibited their high level of understanding of the game from the very first moment of the drafting phase. Impressive enough was the response of EG to the lineup of their opponents since they drafted in such a way that the huge physical damage their opponents had would be negated. The combination of Dazzle's ultimate and Arteezy's Assault Cuirass did provide a safe game for them since Terrorblade wasn't able to pass through any damage to his enemies. Furthermore, Zai and his Ogre Magi definitely made a huge impact to the damage output of EG since his multicasts were able to instantly take down the supports of Cloud9 while his bloodlust provided almost infinite damage to the core ones.
On the other hand, it was obvious that the whole lineup of Cloud9 was all about EternalEnvy and Terrorblade since the drafts of Elder Titan, Puck, Centaur Warruner and Treant Protector were all there just to keep him alive. It turned out though, that the utility-crowd control draft of Cloud9 did not pay off as they would have expected until probably the very last minutes of the game when they were able to effectively protect their core, win a couple of teamfights (with the biggest one being in their base where they did literally annihilated their enemies) and eventually push to the Middle melee barracks. Nonetheless, EG did turn the game around once again allowing them to emerge victorious in this first game.
Game Two
EG opted for dual lanes this game putting Storm Spirit (Arteezy) in the safe lane with Witch Doctor (ppd) while Fear took the mid lane with Puck. Cloud9 went with a tri melee core which meant they had a rough laning phase. Elder Titan (Universe) and Naga Sire (zai) absolutely dominated top lane crushing a greedy Cloud9 lane. This ensured Spectre (EternalEnvy) had little farm going into the mid game while Zeus (AUI.2000) stayed behind in experience. With the strong advantage in the laning phase, EG started to stick together and got many pick offs. A dull mid game however meant that Spectre got her radiance before Cloud9 had lost too much. Although EG couldn't get a lot of kills they farmed more effectively, and Naga had her radiance soon after Spectre's. Cloud9 tried to sneak a Roshan with Vladimir's on Brewmaster. But EG scouted it and scored the aegis for themselves.
With the advantage in their favor, EG got a kill on Brewmaster near Tier 3 and C9 had to give up their top barracks. A buyback by Brewmaster did not help either. By this point of time, Naga Siren's net worth had surpassed that on Spectre. They got yet another kill on Brewmaster and with no buyback on him EG destroyed mid barracks too without having to give up anything. A last attempt by Cloud9 turned out to be nothing better than an obvious smoke which EG counter initiated perfectly. And with that, Cloud9 tapped out putting themselves in a do or die situation for the next match.
Game Three
Game number three of the DreamLeague Finals ended up with Cloud9 scoring a win against EG and putting them again back in to the game. This time Cloud9 exhibited a much more consistent and focused gameplay and managed to place EG under their towers while they were being sieged. In this game Cloud9 drafted an unconventional squad with no real carries instead they focused more on dealing Magic damage as well as in to more utility. EternalEnvy with Necrophos and PieLieDie with Io were definitely the ones that stood out from this game with the first one being the man that carried C9 in to victory, whilst the latter one was charged with saving his teammates several times.
Evil Geniuses on the other hand tried to pull off a similar draft like the one of the last game with Elder Titan (Universe) and Naga Siren (Zai) going in the offlane hoping that they would manage to somehow stop Cloud9 from taking the upper hand. Furthermore, Fear went with a Slark pick that would have proven deadly if their opponents did not manage to stop him from farming, proof of that was his lack of items up until the 30th minute. As it turned out though EG were not able to pull their strategy successfully and they offered a rather easy win to Cloud9.
Game Four
For the final game of the series, Evil Geniuses selected the strategy of the day, with the Terrorblade - Elder Titan combo being the main source of damage against towers and heroes. Cloud9 decided to pick a variety of nukes, disables and crowd control, in an attempt to control Arteezy's Terrorblade during Metamorphosis. For the first quarter of the battle, the two teams were seemed rather even in terms of successful ganks. The picture started to change with the arrival of Arteezy's Manta Style and Fear's Aghanim's Scepter. From that point, the Americans turned on the aggression, taking down the first tower of the game by minute 20, and Roshan soon after. About 30 minutes into the game, Arteezy spotted a Double Damage run at the top lane, finding the perfect opportunity for a solid push. Using Metamorphosis and his Aegis, Terrorblade took down both the mid tier-three tower and melee barracks, with Cloud9 being unable to defend due to the massive physical damage coming their way. The enormous gold and experience advantage of the Americans gave them the confidence to go for the win, after their second Roshan kill of the game. A grave mistake and the death of EternalEnvy offered them the opening they needed, and they proceeded to take down the bottom set of barracks and finish the game.
Photo: GosuGamers
