Evil Geniuses are well on their way to reclaiming their title as the kings of North America. In a close 2-1 series, the storied organization were able to overcome the beast that is TSM FTX. This victory puts them at a 3-1 score. This change in the standings puts EG in prime position to take one of the two spots to the next major. It also effectively might keep TSM out of contention if both of these teams keep playing the way they are.
Evil Geniuses and TSM pick… Sniper?
The games themselves featured some unconventional hero choices. Both games featured a Sniper, a hero who’s pick rate is among one of the lowest. In the first game, TSM lacked the ability to jump on the Artour “Arteezy” Babaev carry Sniper. In addition, Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko had an incredible game on Viper, and their combined damage shut down TSM.
“It’s one of the heroes that conceptually is broken. I think on top of that her value is just too good right now, so it’s like a mix of both”
Cr1t- on Marci
In game two, EG started off very well with one of their early lane dominating strategies. It looked as if they might win the second game. However, TSM’s teamfight proved to be too strong. Enzo “Timado” Gianoli O’Connor’s Tiny got some great Avalanche catches. Combined with the rest of the team’s damage, they were able to blow up EG’s heroes. And after awhile, the damage from Jonathan Bryle “Bryle” Santos De Guia’s Sniper just became too much.
Game three was the closest of the bunch. The laning phase started off pretty even between the teams. In the early game the teams went back and forth trading kills, with TSM’s supports taking the gold lead.
After a few pickoffs on Arteezy, TSM looked to be surging ahead. However, Nightfall’s Razor seemed content to put the team on his back as he took over his carry’s damage dealing responsibilities at the top of the networth charts. The game again went back and forth until the Troll Warlord proved to deal too much damage and became impossible to kill. EG managed to just inch it out over TSM.
Cr1t- on the NA power rankings
After the match, the panel had a chance to catch up with 4 position player Andreas Franck “Cr1t-” Nielsen. Neal “tsunami” Khandheria first asked Cr1t- who he was most afraid of facing in NA. Cr1t- said “I wouldn’t say afraid, I think that’s a bad word to use for a competitor. I’d say we respect both of them but we weren’t really scared of either of them.”
He continued, “TSM’s result at the major was obviously very impressive, I think these games we just played showed why they got second at the major, because their macro is so good… You gotta treat your opponents with respect but you gotta believe you can win every game.”
Responding to tsunami’s query about issues in the second game, Cr1t complimented their opponent.
“Yeah I think we had some issues figuring out how to play against them. Like I said, their macro is really good, they played the map well. They were kinda ratting us, making it hard for us to play the game that we wanted to play, and obviously as Lion I wanted to start the fight for my team but it was hard to find the right fights for us.”
“I’d say we respect both of them but we weren’t really scared of either of them.”
Cr1t- on TSM and Quincy Crew
However, Cr1t- also continued, “It was a bit frustrating but it’s all about resetting for the third game, so I think we did a good job of that. I think we had a good draft in the last game even though we were under pressure we were pretty confident that we had the better skill.”
Thoughts on heroes
Cr1t played Marci in the final game of the series. With a Blink Dagger build, his Marci was clearly instrumental in saving teammates and turning the tide of the fights. The final game was an extremely close game with EG coming out on top.
I think as a four player, it’s pretty broken from my point of view. I think there are some responses but there are just too many tools that she has. You can never really completely counter her
Cr1t- on Marci
Marci has recently seen a surge in pick-rates in official matches. When asked about the hero, Cr1t~ said the hero’s broken.
“It’s one of the heroes that conceptually is broken. On top of that her value is just too good right now, so it’s like a mix of both.” Cr1t- continued: “There’s some heroes in Dota that just have concepts that are really good but they make up for it by making the skill numbers really bad, but for Marci, the numbers are just too good for the concept. I think as a four player, it’s pretty broken from my point of view. I think there are some responses but there are just too many tools that she has. You can never really completely counter her.”
What’s Cr1t’s pre-match ritual?
Andrew “Jenkins” Jenkins next asked what music Cr1t- listened to as part of his “pre-match ritual.” Cr1t- said “I don’t really do that unless it’s like a really big tournament, or TI where you go in a shuttle and you have a really big lead up to the game.”
He continued: “Here, we’re kind of just here. We have PC’s that we can use and prepare, so it’s more like when you go in a shuttle for 15-20 minutes and you put in your airpods or whatever to get in the zone. For today I don’t think I listened to any music, even in my pubs.”
How far will EG go in this DPC tour? Stick here with us at esports.gg to find out!
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