A very strong contender for the game of the year was played in Ukraine at the WePlay day one Playoffs between Evil Geniuses and Team Spirit.
Many doubted that Evil Geniuses would find team cohesion after the recent shuffle, but the last game of the best of three series from WePlay Playoffs day one should wipe away those doubts.
With a potential elimination on the line, both teams entered the arena a bit after midnight and finished their duel after all three possible games.
In the first game of the series Team Spirit displayed traditional CIS aggressiveness with an old fashioned draft developed around Chaos Knight. Evil Geniuses tested the waters in the new patch with a semi support and a jungle Axe for Clinton 'Fear' Loomis, playing the Axe-Infest strategy. Despite their lineup's mobility and beefy cores, they were outplayed by a well-coordinated Team Spirit and an incredible Windranger by Bogdan 'Iceberg' Vasilenko.
EG used the same jungle Axe for the second game, this time paired with heavy team fight heroes and a Syed Sumail 'Suma1L' Hassan Puck for the double initiation option.
Team Spirit went with a more of reactive draft, trying to match the late split push game scenario with a Morphling focusing on sustainability. Team Spirit lacked disables while EG was able to always control the Morphling with Disruptor’s Glimpse or Puck's Silence, leading to a swift victory for the NA team.
Team Spirit continued to develop a multi saves draft for the last game of the series but with multiple auras added to enhance their team fights. Peter 'ppd' Dager drafted a Winter Wyvern for himself to pair with Kanishka 'BuLba' Sosale’s Dark Seer.
The game itself was a perfect representation of what teamwork is supposed to look like from both Team Spirit and Evil Geniuses. The skirmishes started with the first night cycle, when Iceberg on a mid lane Night Stalker secured first blood on Sumail’s Brewmaster followed by two more kills, boosting his item progress significantly.
From then on, the game was incredibly intense, with the two teams displaying amazing gameplay on both sides.
We won’t spoil the details, but we urge you to find 45 minutes to watch the replay of the beautiful show that EG and Team Spirit put on in front of an empty auditorium, at an absurd hour for a LAN event.
Team Spirit was defeated and Evil Geniuses will move forward into the lower bracket where they will face Elite Wolves for the next match up.
