Evil Geniuses cut through Team Nigma and ViCi Gaming on the second to last day at the WePlay AniMajor to reach the lower bracket finals.
The day started with Evil Geniuses sending Nigma packing by imposing a high tempo pace of the series and continued with ViCi Gaming pulling a reverse sweep on Quincy Crew with two surprising picks. A carry Weaver in game two and a position four Brewmaster in game three destabilized QC’s five man, fast-paced playstyle and eliminated them in the top six.
Vici Gaming
vs
Evil Geniuses
Heading into the lower bracket semifinals, it was Evil Geniuses’ turn to try a new hero at the Major. They opened the series against VG with a carry Outworld Devourer, and although they dominated the laning stage, mainly with Daryl Koh "iceiceice" Pei Xiang’s Broodmother, they couldn’t capitalize on the early lead and got completely countered in the late game scenarios with Black King Bars popping up on the VG cores past the 30 minute mark.
With their back against the wall, EG decided to open the second draft with an “in your face” Terrorblade for Artour "Arteezy" Babaev, who up to that point was undefeated on the hero in the tournament, boasting a 5-0 streak. Their first pick TB gave VG the room to draft around it and they chose to go with multiple control spells and a decent amount of magic damage, hoping to shut him down in the early stages. They did make his laning stage hard, but EG protected RTZ though his jungle farm session very well and turned the game in a mid lane fight for the tier one tower.
Despite getting obliterated by Terrorblade in game two, VG felt confident that they could actually beat him and allowed EG to pick it one more time. They also let Azel "Abed" Yusop’s Puck slip through and got punished for it. Arteezy had a pretty much free farm laning stage, while Abed kept VG busy with his Puck. VG got chased all over the map and eventually eliminated in the top four with what was Arteezy’s seventh consecutive victory on Terrorblade at the Weplay AniMajor.
Along with Team Nigma, who also got eliminated on the second to last day of the AniMajor, Vici Gaming will be heading home after a long tournament run that started in the wild card stage. But, while Nigma will now be heading to regional qualifiers for TI10, VG’s spot at the most important tournament of the year is already secured.
headline picture credits: WePlay Holding
