One of the most consistent tier-one teams, Evil Geniuses never seems to be far from the spotlight in professional Dota. With a series of high-profile wins behind them, expectations for EG are high leading to the Shanghai Major.
The EG line-up has an interesting story. Despite a dominant win at TI5, the team went through a major reshuffle in the post-TI shakeup with Artour ‘Arteezy’ Babaev returning to EG as their flexible position one/two carry. Yet this change to the winning TI5 formula has not blunted EG’s ability to get results. EG took home a solid 3rd place at the Frankfurt Major before going on to win several major tournaments over the last few months.
Evil Geniuses roster:
Artour ‘Arteezy’ Babaev
Syed ‘Suma1L’ Hassan
Saahil ‘UNiVeRsE’ Arora
Clinton ‘Fear’ Loomis
Peter ‘ppd’ Dager
EG’s playstyle revolves around the unmatched flexibility in their line-up. Assigning a rudimentary position number to any of EG’s players other than ppd’s hard position-five support would be to sell the talents of the individual players short.
Both Arteezy and Suma1l, considered by many to be some of the greatest play-makers (and wearers of neck-pillows) in the game, are capable of carrying their team to early leads. This ability to control the early game is then complimented by the hero flexibility brought to the table by both UNiVeRsE and Fear who tend to play offlane and support heroes that transition into high damage dealers in the later stages of the match. Of course, all this is held together by the glue that is ppd’s captaining and hard position-five support work. Considered to be one of the most strategic drafters in pro-Dota, ppd’s ability to adapt to the ever changing meta is one of EG’s greatest drawcards.
Evil Geniuses achievements since the Frankfurt Major:
3rd place: Frankfurt Major
1st place: The Summit 4
2nd place: StarLadder i-League Season 4
2nd place: MarsTV Dota 2 League 2015
1st place: Captains Draft 3.0
Evil Geniuses top picks in 6.86:
Arteezy:
Lone Druid: Eight games played; 62.5% win rate
Morphling: Three games played; 66.7% win rate
Sven: Three games played; 33% win rate
Suma1L:
Invoker: Nine games played; 55.6% win rate
Lina: Six games played; 66.7% win rate
Batrider: Six games played; 66.7% win rate
UNiVeRsE:
Faceless Void: Seven games played; 85.7% win rate
Batrider: Five games played; 40% win rate
Dark Seer: Four games played, 25% win rate
Fear:
Enigma: Six games played; 66.7% win rate
Earth Spirit: Six games played; 83.3% win rate
Witch Doctor: Three games played; 33.3% win rate
ppd:
Vengeful Spirit: Eight games played; 62.5% win rate
Dazzle: Six games played; 50% win rate
Witch Doctor: Four games played; 50% win rate
Player’s stats collected from datdota.com
What the heroes say: ?
One thing you can’t help but notice from looking at EG’s hero picks in 6.86 is their obvious intention to test the meta. Looking towards Arteezy you see unconventional picks like the position-one, hard farming, Lone Druid. Further down the line as well, one can see both Suma1L and UNiVeRsE experimenting with the ever contentious Batrider; a hero that fits Suma1L’s high-precision playstyle to perfection.
What is maybe most interesting though is UNiVeRsE’s 85.7% win rate on Faceless Void. Void got a major re-work in a recent patch and has been out of the meta ever since. Many people criticised the re-work as a nerf due to the changes to Void’s Time Walk and Backtrack abilities. However, when mastered, the new Void can be a monstrous damage dealer and difficult to kill when the new Time Walk is fully utilised.
A question does remain, however, over Arteezy’s ability to play as the hard farming position-one carry. Known as a high intensity, highly aggressive mid player; Arteezy’s transition to the safe-lane carry has had its up’s and down’s, both during his time with Team Secret and the refreshed EG.
It is also important to remember that this EG line-up is not the line-up that won at TI5. Although they are considered the top team in the world at this point, nothing is certain. EG do seem to be experimenting with the current meta and this should put them in an excellent position. Yet, there are many other teams, such as a resurgent Alliance, that could easily come from the shadows and walk away with the Shanghai Major.
So what does everyone else think? Let us know in the comments what your predictions for the Shanghai Major are!
