counterstrike-banner
All News
article-headline
Dota 28 years agoIsaac "RedCrayon" Celis

EG one step closer to reclaiming their TI title, send EHOME to lower bracket

With a guaranteed top three finish on the line, both teams brought their A-game to the best of three series. It was the boys in blue however, who prevailed with a huge mega creep comeback in game one, and cleanly executed game two.

Game One 

EHOME's fate would be decided by the laning phase, which they took control of, going up by five kills in the first seven minutes via the insane play from Daryl 'iceiceice' Pei Xiang Koh on his Timbersaw. EG finally got on the board with a pickoff on Zhi 'LaNm' Cheng Zhang's Ogre at around eight minutes, rotating four for the lonely support. EHOME however, continued to push the pace, taking a very early Roshan at 13:30 and even taking down all of EG's tier two towers just shy of 16 minutes. With map control and aegis, EHOME looked to crack the EG highground at 17, but EG defended brilliantly with a huge Blink-Call by the old man Clinton 'Fear' Loomis. EG took the aegis and four in return, evening up their poor laning phase from earlier.

As the match transitioned into the mid-late phases, EG started to claw their way back, playing off of Saahil 'Universe' Arora's Chronosphere and the huge burst damage coming from the Mirana Aghs and Ethereal Blade, getting pick off after pick off. With no outer towers left for EG, the onus was on the Chinese squad to crack their highground. However, after their disastrous early attempt, EHOME seemed hesitant and decided to farm and split push, giving EG a little bit of breathing room. Despite this, EHOME maintained control of the Roshan pit.

The final phase of the game started just before the hour long mark. EHOME with aegis and cheese in hand, tried to crack the EG highground again at 44, but EG again, with cool, calm and collected play (and a Dagon from Syed 'SumaiL' Sumail Hassan), held the Chinese squad again, only losing a tier four tower. It came down to a number of fights from the 53 minute mark that would spell the end for the Chinese squad. EHOME claimed yet another Aegis and Cheese and tried again to crack the bottom barracks that they so desperately wanted at 54, but EG still held, Zhiyong 'oldchicken' Wang underestimating the Dagon burst from SumaiL. Again, EHOME regrouped and tried to crack the same set of barracks at 57, finally taking the objectives but that’s all they got, with EG answering back in a big way, taking a full set of barracks mid and the ranged barracks top. EHOME showed great composure, opting to not buyback on oldchicken's Juggernaut, holding without their core. It seemed the name of the game for EG was Dagon, as zai picked up one earlier, adding to the huge magic burst damage of the Eth Blade on Mirana.

69 minutes spelled the beginning of the end for the Chinese squad. EHOME were poised to take the final set of barracks, but an aggressive smoke from EG caught out iceiceice, followed up by a beautiful three man Chronosphere from Universe. However, with no follow up, EHOME answered back with the double Chaotic Offering, forcing buybacks from EG. As the fight raged, buybacks flew left and right, with the EHOME squad teleporting back into the fight with Boots of Travel, eventually claiming megas. However, with no buybacks on the EHOME cores, EG looked to answer back from megas. Another fight broke out at 73, EG wiping EHOME, as the Dagons on the side of EG showed their strength. With no buybacks on EHOME and their cores down for at least a minute, Universe pushed for the throne with a Divine Rapier claiming the game for Evil Geniuses, marking the first ever comeback from mega creeps at an International.

Game Two

For game two, both teams went with very strong five man teamfight drafts. EHOME went with a similar draft from game one, but opted to deny the SumaiL Mirana and Fear Axe, still picking up the Timbersaw and Warlock for that big five man engagement. EG in contrast went with a Drow-Medusa draft, with the Universe Void and Peter 'ppd' Dager on the Shadow Demon this time.

Early on, EG continued their momentum from their huge comeback in game one: constant rotations around the map, resulted in a 2k gold lead in the first 14 minutes. With pressure to find that big five man fight, EHOME gathered up and found SumaiL in the midlane at 15:30. However, the fight seemed all for naught, with the Chinese squad losing four in return for the valuable Medusa, and Universe turning the fight with a great Chronosphere.

As the game moved into the later phase, EHOME continually hemorrhaged heroes, Fear's positioning, PPD's clutch Disrputions, and Universe's impeccable Chronospheres proved to be the nail in EHOME's coffin. SumaiL, with over 300 cs at around 33 minutes and the EHOME cores well behind, EG simply posted up on the EHOME highground and took the game with a cleanly executed draft.

EG will face off against Wings Gaming in the Upper Bracket Final. The Chinese are coming off a strong performance against the upstart Koreans.


The International 6 Coverage HUB

Click here for results, VODs and all the other information
 

Author
redcrayon-avatar
Isaac "RedCrayon" CelisLoL refugee. DOTA lover. EE fanboy. Hit me up about anime, dota and anything else you can think of

All Esports

Entertainment

GosuBattles

Account