Vega Squadron has eliminated Evil Geniuses from the tournament, and will join MVP Phoenix in the Grand Finals.
Game One:
The first game of the series began at a very slow pace, with first blood being drawn at the nine minute mark by Evil Geniuses. As expected, the pushing lineup from the boys in blue did its magic in the early stages, with both Death prophet and Broodmother pushing Vega Squadron’s towers, while the Russians engaged in team fights only when ultimates were up.
Although EG had map control, Vega played around the Roshan timer and patiently waited to catch EG on the wrong foot. A three man Chronosphere at the Radiant Secret Shop 45 minutes into the game granted Vega a full team wipe on EG, and opened the high ground for siege.
Five minutes later Syed Sumail 'Suma1L' Hassan used his DP Exorcism a little too early in a defensive team fight, costing him and his team the game.
Game Two:
Being one step away from elimination, EG drafted a strong lineup with good sustainability in team fights and put Kurtis 'Aui_2000' Ling on the late game carry Chaos Knight, but Vega Squadron had the last pick of the draft and drafted Medusa.
EG chose to go with an odd laning strategy, sending Chaos Knight and his support Dazzle into the offlane to deal with the Medusa - Oracle dual lane from the Russians. Dazzle’s heal-bomb potential was not enough to secure a kill on the Medusa, and the two heroes started to make smoke rotation ganks in the mid and safe lane in order to secure a slight advantage for Aui.
However, Vega again had a stronger ultimate combo-- Chrono into Stone Gaze-- which forced EG to play a bit more defensively and even allowed the Russians to take Roshan for the entire early to mid game. The big Aegis contest came around the 42 minute mark when EG took their first Roshan kill, placed the Aegis on Windranger, and pushed the Dire high ground for the first time. They took the middle lane barracks but conceded the Aegis, Cheese, and two deaths. With extremely tanky carries, the game turned into a never ending chase where neither Medusa or Chaos Knight could be killed.
53 minutes into the game, Rostislav 'fn' Lozovoi decided to buy a Divine Rapier and, with the Aegis on him, Vega went for a last push but the rapier and the aegis were lost to Aui’s CK. Just two minutes later, Vega Squadron was wiped and made the GG call.
Game Three:
For the last game of the series Vega Squadron prepared a Drow Ranger - Nature’s Prophet tactic while EG tried to counter push them with another Kanishka 'BuLba' Sosale - Broodmother pick. With last pick again, Vega had a very good answer in the form of a Disruptor to trap and silence Brood.
Only 22 minutes into the game the Russians besieged EG’s high ground with perfect use of the Disruptor’s Glimpse on the split, pushing Broodmother. Their continuous effort to end the game as quickly as possible was stopped at the 30 minute mark in what could have been the final push. EG managed to repel the Russians with a five man team wipe, but the defensive agony lasted only twelve more minutes. A last Roshan kill for Vega Squadron enabled them to breach EG’s base and with that they secured the win and the opportunity to take revenge on MVP Phoenix in the Grand Finals.
headline and title image from Vega Squadron's facebook page
