Evil Geniuses overcome early scare to get into World Cup Quarterfinals

It was the 1st game of the Round of 8 Winner's Bracket, with the theme of the last two winner's bracket rounds being somewhat of a International HoN vs Garena HoN type nature. As FnaticMSI sent iMp to the loser's bracket, all eyes were on eG to do the same. However, one thing that can't be denied was, DuskBin were definitely ready to make a statement.

Just to catch everybody up on all the action lately, the round of 16 winner's bracket of the GosuGamers HoN World Cup recently come to an end, with Evil Geniuses, DuskBin eSports, FnaticMSI, Online Kingdom, KD-Gaming, SK-Gaming, Muscle Guyz and Dotally rad dot com emerging as the last 8 in the winner's bracket. Meanwhile, in the loser's bracket, unfortunately it was the end of the road for Goat, CNB-Gaming, PLOW, F4P, ToY-Gaming and Stop Attacking Axe. Due to the sheer volume of the games played, it was near impossible to cover all of them at once, but the best 3 games which were played on game 3 were all covered in the previous article.

Being the 1st time both teams are clashing ever in a competitive game, all eyes were on DuskBin eSports for a potential upset or at least give eG a run for their money. Both sides, famed for their aggressive, fluent ganking play along with well coordinated teamfights showed their similarities right from the start of game 1 as both support heroes from both sides went for a lvl 1 mid gank, turning it into a 3v3 fight. However, eG was one step ahead in initiation, winning them the fight. Meanwhile, this left capt`mike's Hammerstorm to solo chu's Wretched Hag at top lane, and he did surprisingly well. Both teams were locked in a stalemate as the stats were almost identical for the 1st 20 minutes.

DuskBin began to take the lead at the 23rd minute, as a couple of good pick offs due to Hammerstorms early portal key and abusing of Defiler's ultimate to get early tower pushes brought the team some good gold. eG however, responded by getting a genocide over DskB in a teamfight at the Hellbourne secret shop. DuskBin showed good anticipation while playing catch-up with eG, eventually scoring a kill on a ganked bkid and went for Kongor. Desperate to prevent them from getting the token, eG made the mistake of going in despite the absence of their carry. They were easily genocided and DuskBin got the token of life.

Item choices were beginning to get very interesting as there were 3 portal keys on DuskBin's side while eG decided to go for 2 puzzle boxes. Amazing use of their mobility won DuskBin the crucial teamfight at eG's base entrance and the game was over by then. eG conceded when their top rax fell as well.

--- End Game 1 ---
The results of game 1 shocked many, as this is eG's first competitive defeat since FnaticMSI using their 1st 5 starters. The picks in the 2nd game were somewhat puzzling, as DuskBin went for 4 out of eG's 5 heroes in game 1, keeping their Witch Slayer to complete their lineup. Abandoning their conventional hero choices, eG decided to switch to a dual carry approach which featured Forsaken Archer and Corrupted Disciple, which had fallen out of favour recently due to the trilane metagame.

DuskBin's decision of laning caused Hellbringer to be soloing against a trilane, and it did not end well as jojoflow ( aka Dragon_punch ) got demolished by eG's 3 heroes. eG were pulling away as they were winning mid lane as well. The only saving grace for DuskBin was zekaykay on Soulstealer who was farming up a storm. Things looked bad for DskB as eG stormed into a 10k gold lead at one point with a 22-9 hero kill score.

A good gank along with a follow up Kongor pulled the game back a bit for DuskBin, as DskB looked to be on the verge of a comeback carried by Soulstealer as epic as the old Empr days when Scandal played him, they were winning teamfights easily and the gap between them and eG were getting smaller each time. But all of a sudden zekaykay unfortunately falls in a teamfight to 3 eG heroes at low health thanks to some good kiting.



The game by then had reached a point where one mistake from either team would cost them the game. With that in mind, an epic teamfight at the Legion forest genocided eG and zekaykay got the token of life from the resultant Kongor kill. Things were looking worse for eG as chu later out of desperation perhaps, attempted a solo push at Hellbourne's base, which resulted in his inevitable death as 4 heroes teleported back. Problems compiled for eG as Forsaken Archer was forced to use her Shrunken Head to escape a gank. Still 4v5 and with the token advantage, DuskBin had the chance to end the game or at least force a buyback by chu.

Unfortunately, hesitant play and sloppy initiation not only cost DuskBin the token but 3 heroes as well. eG never wasted a moment to amount a full force mid push. 2v4, there was nothing DuskBin could do as eG pushed in. The game by then was decided.

--- End Game 2 ---
Both sides were quite worn out by the time game 3 came along. After a quick 5 minute break, the game commenced. DuskBin for the first time in the series did not ban Pebbles, a chance which eG immediately seized by using their first pick on him. eG finished off their lineup with a rather old school trilane carry, Swiftblade.

Things started off quite well for DuskBin as se`busca on Bubbles was getting dominated by jojoflow's Hellbringer. However, although they were winning mid and bottom, DuskBin were conceding freefarm to bkid's Swiftblade as they probably figured a 3v3 trilane clash was not in their best interest.

DuskBin stormed into an early lead. By 15 minutes they were able to keep 4 eG players below 200 GPM. However, good teamfights and a lot of overplay on DuskBin's end gave eG the lead, and they never looked back as bkid rushes out a quick Runed Axe and Frostburn. By 30 minutes, eG had a 13k EXP lead, 6k gold lead and got Kongor. They wasted no time to amount a push bottom to end the game. DuskBin conceded after their bottom lane was pushed in.

--- End Game 3 ---
Action carried on in the World Cup as the loser's bracket teams fought it out for a second chance at the final. As a result of the matches played, iMpuniTy, TS-Gaming, Druidz Qpad, Wahlin, Empire Multigaming, Deal With it and Pro Sex Inc. are still in the running. Unfortunately, this also meant the end of the road for teams like Global Core Gamers, Roam and KiLL, Team.Team, Epic, Used to be good, Interpol and SLAMMERS.

Be sure to watch out as the remaining 6 of the winner's bracket duke it out on Sunday. The loser's bracket is heating up as well and with teams like DuskBin eSports entering the fray, things could get a little more interesting down there. Stay tuned as GosuGamers continues to bring you more coverage.