After a poor first game of the series, Newbee made a spectacular comeback to eliminate Evil Geniuses from ESL One Hamburg.
With the final day of the Group stages at ESL One Hamburg entering its 2nd elimination game of the day, Evil Geniuses and Newbee would both be looking to avoid heading home early. Both teams, having suffered losses to Team Secret in the opening days, would be fighting to claim a semi-final appearance against Virtus.Pro. Apart from a spot in the playoffs, both teams would be wanting to secure the Dota 2 Pro Circuit Points that come alongside making it to the top 4 of the Major. While EG were low on the list, Newbee had yet to secure any points at all.
Game One
It was Newbee who struck first, claiming first blood as Andreas 'Cr1t' Nielsen's Nightstalker was picked off in the river by 3 from the Chinese line up. But from then on, EG were able to constantly find kills across the map, trading positively in most skirmishes and keeping a good lead for themselves. The aggressive play coming out of the Radiant squad seemed too much for Newbee to deal with in the early game stages – with constant roaming to secure kills.
While Newbee were able to make their way into the game with some items coming online, EG absolutely ripped through them with twenty two minutes passed – which opened up the tier 3 tower in the Dire’s base, which was quickly taken down. With thirty minutes passed, EG killed off 3 from the Dire line up and then moved into the Roshan pit to claim the aegis for Artour 'rtz' Babaev's on the Monkey King.
A few minutes later EG pushed through mid and before they could even drop the barracks, GG was called by Newbee, giving the North American team a 1-0 lead in this elimination series.
Game Two
Newbee, with elimination staring them in the face, drafted an Undying in an attempt to keep their hopes alive at the Major. With First Blood going the Chinese team’s way with a roam to mid from Hong 'Faith' DaZeng's Undying, EG kept themselves in the game by quickly equalizing the score. With ten minutes passed the game remained fairly even with 4-4 on the score board but a slight lead in net worth going in Newbee’s favour.
EG were playing an extremely aggressive game once again, which Newbee were still battling to deal with as they begun to bleed kills across the map again. The Dire team managed to slow the game down, which helped them to make their way back into the game, but EG once more, were able to find some great fights to ensure they kept their lead. With an aegis in hand, EG moved onto the high ground in the bot lane and claimed tier 3 tower but it came at the cost of losing a team fight, which opened the game up for Newbee to make a comeback.
However, on the next push from EG, Newbee found a perfect fight to defend their mid lane barracks and wiped EG from the map. Suddenly Newbee found themselves on the front foot as they pushed straight down mid and drop the barracks with ease. The Radiant team managed to drop the final tier 3 in the top lane but Newbee were defending extremely well, not allowing EG complete access into their base.
With an hour passed and full control of the game, Newbee marched into the Roshan Pit, claimed the aegis and looked ready to tie up the series. A fantastic fight from both teams opened up in the mid lane and Newbee came out ahead which opened the door for them to claim mega creeps – but EG were not ready to give up.
However Newbee were too strong and with sixty seven minutes passed they ended the game and tied up the series.
Game Three
After the brilliant come back from Newbee which allowed them to tie up the series, elimination would now be awaiting the losing team of this final game of the series. EG found the early game advantage as they racked up a few kills in the opening ten minutes to give them an 8-3 lead on the score board. EG used their early pressure to quickly dispatch all of the tier 1 towers from their opponents side of the map – but by fifteen minutes, Newbee had managed to tie the score line as they begun to get some farm on their heroes.
It took just over twenty one minutes for a full team fight to break out and when it die, Newbee showed their strength as they dropped 4 from EG’s line-up. However, the re-engage from the NA team came through as they found Newbee in the Rosh pit and they took down 4 in return, before claiming the aegis too. By thirty minutes, the game had become quite even again, with neither team wanting to make a mistake that got them eliminated.
But a few minutes later, EG managed to wipe Newbee completely off the map, but after losing 3 themselves, they could not find any further objectives. Even with the previous fight not going their way, Newbee found a way back as they took a great fight and claimed an aegis subsequently. While the game hung in the balance, it was Newbee who were taking map control and aiming toward pushing the high ground soon.
With another aegis going their way, Newbee moved into the high ground mid lane and dropped the melee barracks. It took fifty five minutes for the Chinese squad to break through onto the high ground properly and when they did, they cleaned up the Radiant cores and after claiming mega creeps, they took the game and the series.
With a 2-1 victory after a spectacular comeback in game two and a brilliant game three too, Newbee will move forward into the semi-finals at ESL One Hamburg where they will meet Virtus.Pro. Unfortunately for EG, they will be going home without any Dota 2 Pro Circuit Points coming their way.
