The Evil Geniuses, one of the top favorites for the title this year, is out of contention after Round 2 of the lower bracket best-of-three encounters in The International.
Filipino gamer Abed Yusop and his teammates took a 1-2 loss from Vici Gaming Thursday night at the National Arena in Bucharest, Romania.
The exit of the Evil Geniuses came as T1 swept its best-of-three series with Alliance, 2-0, to reach the second round and earn a Round 3 showdown with Vici Gaming.
EG, which tried to hold its ground through the characters of core players Yusop and Artour “Arteezy” Babaev, settled for a tie from 9th to 12th places, their worst finish in three years.
Vici’s main player, Chinese pro Yang “poyoyo” Shaohan, played with a level 23 Spectre and came up with 12 kills and 12 assists against just three deaths in Game 3, which went on for just 37 minutes and 43 seconds.
Shaohan was effective in using the character Mercurial the Spectre, a melee agility hero most effective in dealing pure damage to lone targets and has powerful abilities, both offensively and defensively.
Mercurial proved to be challenge to the high level characters of Yusop and Babaev, who employed a level 24 Troll Warlord and a level 23 Storm Spirit.
The Troll Warlord, is a ranged agility hero, which gives out great damage competitively at range and in melee, while the Storm Spirit, is a ranged intelligence hero, which specializes in the elemental power of lightning
With Yusop and EG out of contention, T1’s Carlo “Kuku” Palad and Karl “Karl” Jayme remained as the only Pinoy gamers left fighting for their teams.
The Evil Geniuses went on to earn $800,400 with their effort.
Meanwhile, T1 banked on Karl Baldovino’s big moves with his playing character, a level 25 Ember Spirit, and help in their win over Alliance.
Baldovino’s character possessed two main abilities which became handy when T1 took the game. He led scoring in Game 2 with 18 kills, after his character died twice.
Baldovino maximized his use of the skills of Xin the Ember Spirit, described as mechanically demanding hero, which is often played as either the safe lane core or midlaner in a game of Dota 2.
His character had the ability a Fire Remnant attack within 12 seconds, instead of the usual 35 seconds, and his two charges of the Sleight of Fist gave him the opportunity to deal physical damage to all enemy units within range.
Palad had eight kills with a level 22 Earthshaker, Raigor Stonehoof, a melee strength hero with several area of effect (AoE) disables.
After dying four times in the game, Palad made good use to gain damage and chainstun multiple enemies at once, disrupting skirmishes and team fights.
Alliance is one of the top European gaming teams and is led by Nikolay “Nikobaby Nikolov.
In Game 1, Thai gamer Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon and Palad provided the needed points for T1 to bounce back from their stinging setback in the upper bracket the other day.