The Summit bleeds blue but are the punks satisfied?
Arteezy Image © Beyond the Summit
The DOTA Summit 9, the last Dota 2 tournament before the grandest Dota 2 world championship of the year, has come to an end with the boys from Evil Geniuses successfully reaching the summit and possibly satisfying some punks.
Arteezy, SumaiL, s4, Cr1t-, and Fly have displayed a marvelous performance from the start of the tournament until their best-of-five grand finals against EternaLEnVy’s Fnatic Dota. They started their campaign by topping the six-team group with a 7-3 win-loss record along with another North American team VGJ.Storm. (SumaiL even won his latest bout against ppd when their teams clashed during the final day of the group stages, 2-0.)
READ: SumaiL vs ppd in the DOTA Summit 9
A more dominant Evil Geniuses showed in the playoffs of the tournament when they were able to kick the SVG-led squad down in the lower bracket in less than an hour to claim the first grand finals spot. After ultimately ending VGJ.Storm’s DOTA Summit 9 journey, Fnatic Dota rose from their undefeated lower bracket run to face EG in the best-of-five grand finals.
The grand finals bout was supposed to be problematic for the boys in blue because in the entirety of the best-of-two round-robin group stage, Fnatic Dota was the only team that handed them a 0-2 series loss. But as it turned out, it was never a problem for EG. They revived the ‘EE at second place’ storyline by sweeping Fnatic Dota, 3-0.
The DOTA Summit 9 was Evil Geniuses’ first successful appearance with their revamped roster that features ex-OG players, s4 and Fly. They didn’t do very well in the China Dota 2 Supermajor and their qualification for The International 2018 through the North American qualifiers supposed to be expected for a group of top-tier Dota 2 players.
For the die-hard #BleedBlue fans, EG’s latest achievement is undeniably a cause for celebration, especially after a rough Dota 2 Pro Circuit. Compared to other participants, EG will be flying to Vancouver, Canada this August with a lesser number of games played as their current roster. This makes their achievement at a tournament that featured five out of six The International 2018 attendees a good sign.
GGs! #BleedBlue pic.twitter.com/b4cKPjng3n
— Evil Geniuses (@EvilGeniuses) July 29, 2018
Last year, the last Dota 2 tournament that featured The International participants was the DreamLeague Season 7. It was a four-team competition that pit Europe’s best Dota 2 squads such as Team Secret, Team Liquid, Vega Squadron, and the now disbanded Planet Odd.
The brief tournament ended up with Team Liquid coming out on top after a hard-fought grand final series. One month later, the KuroKy-led squad was able to complete a miraculous lower bracket run to win The International 2017.
Now, I’m not saying that Evil Geniuses will make history as the two-time Aegis of Champions bearer at The International 2018. It’s possible but honestly improbable.
At the very least, considering their run at the DOTA Summit 9, we can probably expect a decent The International 2018 journey from Evil Geniuses.
