American team Evil Geniuses survived what turned out to be a scary three-game series for them as they defeated Fnatic with the score of 2-1. They will move on to face Invictus Gaming in the finals of ESL One.
Despite being billed as the heavy underdog, Fnatic almost pulled off an upset for the second straight time. They fell short, however, and lost on a 1-2 heartbreaker against Evil Geniuses. With the defeat, Fnatic will exit on a joint 3rd/4th place finish, and they will get $20,000 for their effort.
Evil Genuises will now advance into the grand finals, wherein they will face Invictus Gaming. Their best-of-three match-up is the final series of the tournament, and the winner will get more than $80,000 in cash prize. The championship round is supposed to be a best-of-five, but it was changed because of the delays caused by the security regulation changes yesterday.
1st - $80,000+
2nd - $40,000+
3rd-4th - 
Alliance, 
Fnatic - $20,000+
5th-8th - mousesports, 
Vici Gaming, 
Cloud9, 
Natus Vincere - $10,000+
Game One
EG started the game by banning out Io, the all-important hero from Fnatic's first round win against Vici Gaming. They also 'stole' Tinker from the enemy, while completing their line-up with offensive heroes which featured Bane, Void and Vengeful Spirit. Fnatic looks to engage, choosing the now unpopular Visage to go with the Panda and their last pick Meepo. While the crowd was electric after that pick, it was that same hero who gave first blood as he died solo against Tinker.
Tinker's good start followed through, getting another solo kill against Meepo before taking part on a few others across the map. Fnatic didn't score a hero kill until EG had nine across their name. At that time, which is around nine minutes into the game, Tinker already has his Boots of Travel and EG was already holding a commanding gold and experience lead.
The American team continued their excellent rotation, and they racked up more kills because of their big burst damage. Tinker already has a Dagon 5 by the 23rd minute, but more surprisingly, the 4-position Vengeful has a Force Staff and Orchid by minute 26. Fnatic called GG as they were demolished by the enemy.
Game Two
Fnatic had a different draft from what they had on the games through the past two days - this time they went with a pushing line-up which features Lycan, Venomancer and Enigma. EG drafted an Outworld Devourer mid, a Doom carry and an offlane Batrider. The first minutes of the game was consumed with both teams trying to get leverage for their cores, with EG getting a slight victory on the laning stage.
It was Fnatic who claims First Blood this time as Venomancer used his skills to claim Mirana. EG bounced back with two kills of their own as Batrider introduced his Blink Dagger on the 9th minute, but Fnatic rebounded with an unchallenged Roshan kill. The European team then made use of their line-up's biggest strenth - pushing. They were able to get a 6-0 lead by the 15th minute.
Evil Geniuses was able to bounce back after back-to-back kills on Lycan. They were also able to hold off Fnatic's highground attempt on the 22nd minute after the European team overestimated their lead and dove past the towers. Still, their pushing prowess was still very strong. After claiming the third Roshan ten minutes later, they moved on the middle lane and then destroyed the barracks.
Despite being down by a lane, EG was still very much in the game. They are actually ahead in terms of hero experience, and only down by a few thousand on the gold. This was shown as they held a top lane push by the enemy, and then completed a teamwipe at the expense of several buybacks.
Fnatic was able to get several pickoffs from Lycan's scouting wolves and Void's Chrono. They pulled off to a bigger lead when they were able to take the bottom melee barracks at the expense of a few heroes during the 48th minute. The teamfight didn't end there though, as it transitioned into a drawn-out two-minute actions of heroes trying to kill each other. Fnatic ultimately pulled through in the end, and EG had to call GG as they had already exhausted all their buyback.
Game Three
The crowd went wild with Fnatic's final two picks on game three - an Undying and a Meepo. EG has an interesting line-up themselves, going with a Wraith King and a Templar Assassin on their final two. Meepo narrowly escaped first blood with a three-hero Earth Bind and a juke on level 1, but he still gave it out anyway a few minutes after the enemy re-enganged.
Fnatic was winning the other two lanes though - the Enigma surprisingly going mid zoned out the Templar Assassin, and the Venomancer-Undying duo was working great against the Doom. Tidehunter was able to farm an early dagger, and that opened the way for kills for his team. Both teams were creating space for their bullied teammates - Venomancer forcing teamfights to give a window to Meepo and Tidehunter giving opportunities to Templar Assassin.
The game had a break after some technical difficulties, with the game being paused at the 12:43 mark. EG then has a minimal 700 gold lead, but they were also sitting on top of a 3,000 experience lead. The game resumed after quite a lengthy break, and we saw Fnatic equalizing on the gold by taking down the bottom tier-1 tower a minute after.
Contrary to the first game, Meepo is very farmed on this one. He has already finished his Scepter and bought a dagger before minute 20, and things were looking good for his team. However, after claiming Roshan, Fnatic lost a 2-3 team fight despite having Aegis on their attempt to breach uphill mid. They also attempted on the top lane, but EG was amazingly holding. Despite big controlling skills by Fnatic, they were severely lacking on damage to burst and bring down the enemy heroes.
Both teams farmed up items on several minutes of stalemate. It should be noted that the 4-position Wraith King has already transistioned into a damage dealing core at this point, having items like Abyssal Blade, Assault Cuirass and Sange and Yasha. Fnatic was able to catch Wraith King and Templar Assassin, but EG somehow held the bottom lane with only the three remaining heroes.
Fnatic engaged on the tanky Doom, which proved to be a very costly mistake. They used the Hex, Ravage and Black Hole - and yet they were not able to finish the Doom. Enigma was only able to channel a few seconds of his first and what turned out to be his last ultimate, because he was bursted down by the Templar Assassin with right clicks immediately after. The double Doom, multiple Shiva's active, Psionic Traps and Wraith King reincarnate added into a controlling slow that EG was able to clean up the whole Fnatic team, emphasized by Templar Assassin's ultra kill. With the whole team but Meepo not having buyback, EG easily cleared out all the lanes and Fnatic called GG after their last lane fell.
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