Evil Geniuses and TSM FTX will represent North America at the ESL One Stockholm Major

Evil Geniuses and TSM FTX qualified for the ESL One Stockholm Major by surviving the NA DPC tiebreakers at the cost of Quincy Crew.

Tiebreakers in the Dota Pro Circuit at the end of the leagues can be cruel. After slogging it out for the whole season and proving you are one of the best teams in the region, no team would feel good going out of contention for the DPC Major on the back of a couple of bad games, but that is exactly where Quincy Crew are. They lost out against Evil Geniuses and TSM FTX in the NA DPC Division I tiebreakers, ending their dream of flying to Stockholm for the DPC Major. The two former teams will now carry the flag for North America to make the perineal case for the region that it deserves more than two teams at the Majors.

 

Evil GeniusesvsQuincy Crew

The first game of the tiebreakers was Evil Geniuses vs Quincy Crew, and it was a massive stomp in EG’s favor. EG picked Storm and Medusa in the first phase, invited QC to counter their cores, and still destroyed them in just over half an hour with a score of 33-5. The typical answer to Medusa in this patch has been Terrorblade, but QC’s Terrorblade couldn’t even begin to have an impact on the game, ending with a final score of 0/3/2. EG’s Medusa on the other hand was involved in the action, ending the game 10/0/8.  Quincy Crew were swatted off by EG, and went into a survival game against TSM.

 

Quincy CrewvsTSM FTX

TSM were probably the most impressive and consistent team in the NA DPC League in Tour 2, and they wanted to show what EG can do, they can do better! That is exactly what they did, finishing off Quincy Crew in a little under 29 minutes. TSM were all over the map with their fast paced Chaos Knight draft, and made excellent use of Underlord’s new ultimate, Fiend’s Gate, to get in and out of fights. Quincy Crew did defeat TSM 2-1 in the league just a couple of days ago, but TSM put that in the rearview mirror to secure the win in the tiebreaker and cement their place at the DPC Major along with Evil Geniuses.

 

Evil GeniusesvsTSM FTX

The final game of the tiebreakers was the contest between EG and TSM. When the game started, both teams were guaranteed a place at the Major. It was just a question of ranking in the NA DPC League. EG again started out with a Medusa and Storm, and again stomped the game in a little under 23 minutes with a score of 22-6. To be fair though, TSM were probably in a very different mindset going into this game. Having failed to make it to the DPC Majors in both seasons last year, and having had the Major for Tour 1 cancelled, it was a massive achievement for them to know they would be travelling to play with the global elite this time around. Even though EG were impeccable, it wouldn’t be incorrect to make a guess that the minds of the TSM players were already in Stockholm.

 

After a rough start to the year, Evil Geniuses have shown North America that they are the team to beat. But the new roster hasn’t had a chance to prove its might on the international stage, so the upcoming Major is an important one for EG to show the other regions that they can still go toe-to-toe against the best in the business. As for TSM FTX, it’s the first time this roster has made it to a DPC Major. They did make it to TI10, but their performance was quite disappointing. This is their chance to show the world how much they have evolved. All in all, the ESL One Stockholm Major marks an important event for both North American teams travelling there, although for different reasons.