Evil Geniuses Completely Messed Up at ONE Esports Singapore Major

What a way to lose! After an extraordinary tournament run and a 2 – 0 advantage in the Grand Final against Invictus Gaming, Evil Geniuses managed to lose the title at ONE Esports Singapore Major. This was a devastating loss for Fly and his crew, who are probably wondering what happened. The match was in the bag. And then they threw it, tilting more and more as they started to lose. In this article I’ll have a look at the Grand Final. But first, let’s do a recap of the event.

General Remarks

Overall, ONE Esports Singapore Major was a good tournament. Considering the fact that we hadn’t seen a live event in more than a year, seeing the strongest teams in the world finally compete against each other was something special. And the results are quite surprising. Looking just at regional competitions, one can easily get the idea that Europe is by far the strongest region and that nobody can beat Team Secret. But when you watch an international event like this, it quickly becomes obvious that the battle for the next Aegis of Champions will be much more unpredictable.

South America and SEA Were Amazing

One region that few people expected to shine was South America. Thunder Predator dominated the Group Stage, ending with 5 wins, 2 draws, and 0 losses. Unfortunately for them, they encountered Team Secret in their first Upper Bracket match and lost, even though the games were quite disputed. But then they managed to beat both Aster and Virtus.pro in the Lower Bracket without losing a single game. Even iG, the team that was going to win the title, came close to losing against them.

Another region that did really well was Southeast Asia. Of course, you’d expect Fnatic to be the organization that made it possible. But instead, it was Neon. And if you’ve never heard of them before, it’s because they’ve only recently started to play like a world-class team. And they are currently experimenting and adapting to the pro scene.

Neon came close to elimination in the Group Stage of ONE Esports Singapore Major, finishing in 7^th place with modest results. But in the Playoffs they defeated Fnatic, Vici Gaming, and then came close to beating Team Secret. Overall, Neon finished 5^th – 6^th, just like Thunder Predator, and have a great shot at obtaining a direct invite to The International 2021.

China Dominated

The Chinese giants played some really good Dota. They may have looked a bit underwhelming regionally, but as soon as they encountered opponents from other regions they simply went from decent to formidable in a matter of days. PSG.LGD and Vici Gaming first won the Wild Card and then finished 2^nd and 3^rd in the Group Stage. In the Playoffs, VG finished 7^th – 8^th while PSG.LGD finished 3^rd. And I haven’t even mentioned Invictus Gaming yet.

In total, China had 2 teams in the top 3 and 3 teams in the top 8. That’s a spectacular achievement and a testament to the strength of the region’s Dota 2 scene.

NA Dota Is Back

Judging by a number of metrics, North American Dota looked doomed ahead of ONE Esports Singapore Major. Compared to most of the other regions, the skill-level of its teams seemed to be quite low. And to some degree that proved to be true. After all, Quincy Crew finished 9^th – 12^th. But when we look at things in context, we immediately see that NA Dota is quite strong.

First of all, Quincy Crew lost mainly because they had to play with stand-ins. This ruined their synergy and left them no time to prepare. Against world-class opponents, this is a recipe for disaster.

Evil Geniuses is a different story. Their roster has been intact since the start of the season and everyone on the team is a highly accomplished veteran. That level of competence, guided by BuLba and Fly, is likely to produce exceptional results. And in fact, it should have led EG to their first Major title in years. But then something happened.

The Grand Final of ONE Esports Singapore Major

The final match of the tournament started well for EG. Even though they were behind by a few thousand gold, game 1 quickly turned in their favor after numerous kills achieved by Abed and Arteezy, assisted by the rest of the crew. Invictus Gaming’s FlyFly also helped to some degree, simply because he bought a Eul’s Scepter on a Morphling. This was a questionable choice but I’m sure he had a good reason to do it, even though that reason eludes me.

Abed had a lot of fun on Storm Spirit. Little did he know at the time that he was going to play the hero in all of the 5 games! I’m not sure if he asked for it or if BuLba felt confident in his midlaner’s abilities. Whatever the case, the choice worked in the first two games but proved to be disastrous in the final 3. And to some degree, EG should have expected that.

At this competitive level, doing the same thing over and over is guaranteed to backfire at some point. Even Team Secret experienced that, in spite of being exceptional at executing game plans. You simply cannot do that. It’s disrespectful towards your opponent. In effect, you’re telling the opposite team that you can beat them without using any element of surprise. You’re inviting them to learn your playstyle and fully prepare and then you walk right into an ambush.

Game 2

In the second game of the match, EG had the victory handed to them by their opponent. For some reason, iG thought it was a good idea to play Faceless Void in this patch. And not only that, they picked him while having 4 melee heroes in their draft! Needless to say, the Chronospheres were completely ineffective, there was nobody to create space and the Aghs-giving Alchemist turned out to be a complete joke. The game was over before it even began.

Games 3, 4, and 5

The next 3 games were a masterclass from iG. Instead of banning Phoenix or at least Lion, EG simply allowed them to have these heroes and combine them with amazing carries: Sven, Troll, and Spectre. Meanwhile, EG went for very weak drafts. I will never understand why teams pick Phantom Assassin and Lifestealer in this meta and at this competitive level. But BuLba thought it was a good idea.

Don’t get me wrong, the games were quite balanced. But in the end, they were lost by EG because of their drafts. Late game, iG always had the upper hand.

 

Photo credit: Valve