The second and final day of the ESL New York tournament has begun and the first match saw Vici Gaming take out Team Secret 2-0. After that, Evil Geniuses took on Cloud9 and beat them 2-1. In the grand finals, Vici Gaming emerged victorious 2-1 over EG.
ESL One New York is on its way to its final hours. The first semi-finals between Vici Gaming and Team Secret have finished and the Chinese took the win. What followed was a clash between Evil Geniuses and Cloud9 in which the TI4 third placed advanced. The finals saw Vici Gaming take home victory.
The opening match of the final day saw two rather unconventional drafts in the first game. Team Secret opted for an Omnnikight as well as an Anti-Mage, whereas Vici Gaming picked themselves a Zeus and a Spirit Breaker. IceIceIce on the "space-cow" was able to create a lot of space in combination with an insane display from fy on his Sandking. Team Secret was unable to weather the storm that came their way, especially once Black^ started breaching their base with his farmed Terrorblade - when the towers fell, the gg call was just a matter of time.
The second game seemed a bit more conventional in terms of picks, with Secret opting for an Alchemist and a Clockwerk, whereas Vici relied once more on fy's Sandking and IceIceIce's Timbersaw. The Singaporean was able to be a dictating factor in the game, changing the pace on his own and once more creating space for Black^, whose Anti-Mage proved to be too much to take on in the later stages of the game. Vici swept Secret 2-0.
Evil Geniuses once more picked up a farming Visage and opted for a very aggressive pushing line-up in combination with a Lycanthrope and a lot of sustain by their supports Witch Doctor and Treant. Cloud9 answered with a midgame oriented line-up that was supposed to transition into the lategame with a Spectre and Legion Commander. The team around veteran Fear however showed much better execution and youngster zai on his Witch Doctor displayed an impressive performance, winning multiple teamfights and thus securing his team the first victory of the series.
The first game of the series saw zai take on the midlane as Beastmaster with Fear rotating to the support role. EG's early aggression kept them ahead and crucial pick offs and engagements gave them the edge in the game. Together with their Lycanthrope and Nature's Prophet combo, the North-Americans took down towers quite quickly. Super on his Ember Spirit was able to keep up in terms of farm, but bit by bit the advantage on EG's side grew as they won most engagements due to well positioned Death Wards by ppd. To counter the Death's Ward impact, both fy and fenrir opted for Ethereal Blades to nullify the lockdown and physical damage from EG. To great success the supports kept their carries alive to win teamfights bit by bit and Vici Gaming was able to sweep EG and secure game one.
In the second game, EG once more chose to draft an aggressively pushing line-up, pairing up Lycanthrope, Enigma, Venomancer with an offlane Jakiro by Universe. Vici Gaming opted to go for Black^'s Anti-Mage and a midgame oriented fighting line-up but was unable to get crucial items such as the Mek on Super's Alchemist on time. EG quickly pushed down tower after tower and all Vici could do was try to buy time for Black^ to get into fighting shape. All efforts seemed to be in vain however as the North-Americans kept on rolling and winning teamfights, eventually breaking highground. It was just a matter of time from there on out and EG ties the series.
The final game of the tournament saw Evil Geniuses going back to their successful Omniknight strategy with yet another farming Jakiro. Vici Gaming answered with a Centaur and Invoker combo, giving the latter one to Black^. The German once more farmed insanely well and the whole squad was able to keep ahead in terms of farm. A decisive engagement at the Roshan kept things rolling for Vici Gaming and yet another big teamfight sealed Evil Geniuses fate.
Final prize pool distribution: (Source: Dota2.Cyborgmatt.com)
1st - Vici Gaming ~ $53,000
2nd - Evil Geniuses ~ $26,000
3rd/4th - Team Secret/Cloud9 ~ $13,000 each
5th-8th - Na'Vi.US, Na'Vi, SNA, Alliance ~ $6,600 each
Rotator and news pictures by Helena Kristiansson, found on ESL Flickr