Evil Geniuses lose their upper bracket spot at The International 11

The International is a Dota 2 tournament unlike any other. Teams that dominated the Dota Pro Circuit don’t always succeed. And outsiders sometimes turn into dark horses.

At TI11, Evil Geniuses entered the competition as one of the underdogs. Then they went on to win their group with a record of 7 W – 0 D – 2 L. They were the only team that didn’t draw a single time. Until their last match of the group stage, which they lost against BOOM Esports, they looked nearly unbeatable.

In the playoffs, Evil Geniuses started in the upper bracket and had a relatively easy opponent, at least on paper. But for the first time in many years, South American teams proved to be stronger than North American ones at the Dota 2 world championship.

Thunder Awaken, despite not having any superstars on the roster, managed to beat a team full of superstars, and led by one of the most successful captains in the game’s history.

The match between EG and Thunder

Evil Geniuses played their usual brand of Dota 2. They picked heroes like Sven and Shadow Fiend, did well in the laning stage, and looked like they were going to win game one. But at minute 21, EG lost Tidehunter and Shadow Fiend and after that point, everything started to unravel. Their draft was simply awful against Thunder’s.

The game continued for another 26 minutes, but it was just a very slow death for the North American team. The networth graph swung more and more in favor of their opponents, until the difference was too big to deal with.

In game two, EG had another casual draft and tried to make Shadow Fiend work, but Thunder countered them with heroes like Morphling, Dawnbreaker, and Tiny. This time, despite EG having a 2000 gold lead at the 15 minute mark, the battle ended in under 30 minutes with a victory for their opponent.

Other important results of day one

Day one of the main event of The International 11 was full of interesting matches and upsets. Team Secret dismantled PSG.LGD in just two games, the first of which lasted 23 minutes. In the lower bracket, beastcoast won their battle against Hokori and Gaimin Gladiators defeated Fnatic.

The big upsets of the lower bracket occurred in the match between Team Spirit and BOOM Esports, and the one between Royal Never Give Up and Entity. Both Spirit and RNG were eliminated, despite having a huge theoretical advantage.

The battle between RNG and Entity lasted for 107 minutes. This was the longest game of a TI’s main event.

Header: The International / Twitter