North American Dota 2 powerhouse team Evil Geniuses (EG) sweeps the series against their Chinese juggernaut rivals Vici Gaming (VG), 3-0, to claim the title and win at least $1.28 million prize money in a Dota 2 tournament at Shanghai, China Monday, Feb. 9.

EG triumphed over VG in their own house with well-planned strategies and highly coordinated movements, bringing home the bacon from the Dota 2 Asia Championships (DAC) along with a life-size sculptured sword that resembles an in-game weapon — the Radiance.

Dota 2 is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game which pits two teams with the goal of destroying the central structure of the opposition. The DAC is a weeklong tournament featuring 16 of the best teams in the world in competition as they vie for their share of the $3 million (P135 million) prize pool — one of the biggest tournaments ever in competitive gaming or eSports’ history.

Throughout the three games of the best-of-five series grand finals, EG held the upper hand and never lost their momentum.

In game one, the Americans went for an Area-of-Effect (AoE) oriented lineup which punished the Chinese early in the game as EG found pick-off after pick-off. The successful ambushes by EG created the space needed for their push which eventually resulted in a great lead in the game. They had the gold and experience lead from the get-go until their Chinese rivals tapped out at the 40-minute mark. EG had a 12-kill lead and 20,000 gold lead advantage at the end of the game.

In game two, the same aggressiveness and coordination came out in force for the Americans. EG chose a well-balanced lineup with tempo-controlling heroes as well as those that could carry the game to victory. Just like the story of game one, EG found the right timing for their pick-offs as they tightened their vice-like grip of the game to allow their own heroes free reign of the map.

The Americans were on fire as they  took down the opposition’s towers and structures one by one, clear-cutting their path to victory. VG threw in the towel at the 35-minute mark with EG having a 24,262 gold lead and 25-14 kill score lead.

It was in game three that VG went toe-to-toe with EG. VG managed to take the lead early in the game and capitalized on it, keeping down EG’s core heroes until the middle of the game. However, it was the dynamism coming from the support players of EG that created space for their core heroes’ growth. The Americans found the right opening to get their selves back into the game after crucial clashes went in their favor. EG lost some of their valuable structures and towers but it was they who managed to push into the opposition’s base leading to a forfeit call at the 33-minute mark.

“It was a team effort. Everyone played extremely well and we just helped each other so we pulled through,” EG’s Clinton “Fear” Loomis said in the post-match interview.

Budding rivalry

This is the fourth grand finals meet between EG and VG in the last nine months. With this DAC grand finals sweep, EG is now 2-2 against VG in Championship finals. They last met at the ESL New York Grand Finals where VG emerged victorious.

VG will take home $366,902 for placing second place.

15-year-old Phenom

Syed Sumail “Suma1l” Hassan (c) SLTV

Throughout the run of EG in the DAC, one of their members rose to fame and stardom. The 15-year-old Pakistani national member of EG, Syed Sumail “Suma1l” Hassan, showed phenomenal performance, gaining the respect of veteran professional players, the hearts of the crowd and the admiration of global Dota 2 spectators.

“I’ll be really happy. I think I deserve it,” Suma1l said during the post-match interview when asked about his reaction if an in-game hero would be named after him.

Throughout the tournament, Suma1l’s signature hero, Storm Spirit, delivered thrilling plays that secured his team’s dominance over their opponents.

Only the deserving players of the Dota 2 gaming community — usually those who have shown exemplary performance with a certain hero — are given the chance to have a hero renamed after them. So far, at least six Dota heroes have been renamed after professional players.

Asked for his advice for young, aspiring Dota 2 players of his age, Suma1l had two things to say: play hard and never lose patience.

“What else can I say? It’s really hard to be like me,” Suma1l exclaimed as the crowd roared and applauded.

In all of Suma1l’s 24 games in DAC, he dealt an average of 15,153 hero damage, according to Dota 2 statistician, Nahaz.

Suma1l has been the middle lane player for EG for at least a month now. EG lost its two players early in January this year.

The International 4.5

The $3 million DAC tournament  has been dubbed by some personalities in the Dota 2 gaming community as “The International 4.5”. The International (TI) is an annual Dota 2 tournament organized by the game’s publisher and developer, Valve Corporation.

There have been four The Internationals with the fifth installment happening in August this year.

The last international — TI 4 — had an enormous prize pool of $10.9 million, the record holder for the largest prize pool in all of eSports.

DAC surpassed TI3’s prize pot of $2.8 million.

Earlier in the tournament, Rave Dota (Rave) — the lone Filipino team — placed fifth/sixth in the tournament, taking home at least P6.6 million prize money.

The prize pool had a base prize money of $250,000 but was raised by the Dota 2 community through ticket sales and in-game item merchandise tied into the event. A portion (25%) of every ticket and item bought went directly into the prize pool.

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