The Evil Geniuses That Actually Win

Incredibly intelligent villains were all the rage during our childhoods. However, they never won, did they? This time, however, the Evil Geniuses won, and it was a display of masterful plays. There is a land separated by a river, and each side is radically different. One side is beautiful and floral; the other is dark and rocky. Ten heroes battle in order to destroy the most precious thing on the each side, the Ancient. This is DotA 2. DotA 2 is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) released on July 9, 2013. It follows the basic guidelines as its predecessors, DotA 1, and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Being a hugely popular game, a tournament is held every year where the biggest and best teams in the world compete in a grueling one week tournament to win a large sum of money, and the Aegis of Champions. This tournament is called The International. The fifth annual International, (TI5), was held on August 3 to August 8 in Seattle, Washington. The prize pool was over 18 million dollars, and the winning team would take home approximately 6.6 million dollars. That team was Evil Geniuses. Evil Geniuses was formed in 1999 as Counter-Strike Team, but was made a DotA 1 team in 2008. A few years later, a DotA 2 team was formed. While EG would have trouble with the first 4 Internationals, they would take the fifth. No one suspected for EG to win The International, or even DAC, (DotA Asian Championships), they would pull ahead. Speaking about his predictions for EG at the beginning of TI5, English 3 teacher and DotA fanatic Brett Coleman said, “I didn’t really know. I knew Secret was a fan favorite, but I knew EG would be a high flyer.” Junior Chris Jackson and DotA expert simply replied with, “Top 8.” Even more incredible than the entirety of the EG company, is the DotA 2 team and its players. ppd: Peter Dager, the captain of EG, is one of the many players to come to DotA after Heroes of Newerth, and is normally known for playing position 5 supports. In 2014, ppd proved himself at the Monster Energy Invitational, and began to lead his team to become one of the greatest teams in North America. Though often referred to as salty, ppd is exceptionally talented at most supports, and often leads his team to victory by setting up amazing plays. According to Jackson, his best hero is Winter Wyvern. Fear: ​​Clinton Loomis, also known as “Old Man DotA”, is by far one of the most experienced and respected players in DotA. His origins go back to 2006 in DotA 1, where he was part of one of the first teams to be sponsored. Fear is known for playing position 1 hard carries. In 2011, his team, Online Kingdom, was invited to the very first International. Only winning 25 thousand dollars and coming in seventh place, Loomis went home to Oregon with a heavy heart, and lots of thinking to do. Things were looking great before the start of TI4, Evil Geniuses had a great team, and were dominating the scene. However, Fear had a terrible case of tennis elbow, causing him to not partake in the TI4, rendering him to only coach. They won third place. However, at the start of TI5, the team was already showing great promise. When asked Jackson said, “It’s kind of generic, but my favorite hero he played at TI was Clinkz.” When asked about Fear’s TI experience and injuries Coleman spoke about Loomis’ past saying, “ He really is making a huge comeback.” Jackson said, “He won this year, and if he wasn’t injured last year, he would have won as well.” Loomis was also one of three subjects in Valve’s “Free To Play” documentary. UNiVeRsE: Saahil Arora is not only one of the best offlaners in the world, but is one of the only players to have been at every International. He was also a part of Online Kingdom at the first TI along with Fear. He is known for playing position 3 offlaners, and is often called of the most skilled Dark Seers in the world. Despite leaving EG and joining many different teams, UNiVeRsE rejoined EG in 2013, and the team has greatly benefitted ever since. He is credited with winning the team TI5 by executing the “6 Million Dollar Echo Slam”, with Earthshaker. SumaiL: At 16 years old, Syed Sumail Hassan is the youngest professional on the DotA scene, and also hold the record for being the youngest player to win over a million dollars in e-sports. When Coleman and Jackson were asked about such a feat, Jackson responded with, “Great job. It really proves that it’s [DotA] a viable career choice.” However, Coleman was skeptical and responded with, “He’s 16? Wow, I didn’t know that. I don’t know, it kind of discourages people from going to college. It’s like why drop 25 thousand dollars when you can play a video game and get a million.” SumaiL is the position 2 mid laner for EG. Starting DotA 2 at just eight years old and quickly becoming the highest rated in-house player, SumaiL is a force to be reckoned with. He is also known for his signature neck pillow. Aui_2000: Kurtis Daniel Ling was a support and jungler for EG, often being the position 4 support. Aui began playing DotA 1 at nine years old. In 2012, he showed his skills by creating new and innovative builds for heroes. While his best hero is Naga Siren, Ling showed his skill and knowledge of Techies at TI5, giving a massive gain to EG. Jackson commented on this saying, “A factor EG really had going for them was that Aui could play Naga and Techies. That made CDEC has to ban those two heroes out in the first phase, which really opened up some space for other heroes.” However, shortly after TI5, Aui_2000 was kicked from the team and replaced with previous Team Secret and EG member, Arteezy. Coleman spoke about this matter by saying, “It really just all comes down to money, I don’t think it was anything personal.” Jackson had a similar response saying, “This entire reshuffle drama is just overhyped and over dramatic.” However, Aui_2000 was extremely saddened by this, tweeting “ i have been kicked from eg after winning ti. i actually hate people.” EG proved themselves many times at TI5. While many people, including Coleman thought Team Secret would take them out, other people, including Jackson, thought wildcard team CDEC would take them out in the Grand Finals. Jackson had the same opinion as many people at TI, saying that EG shone through when “they beat LGD in the lower bracket.” The Grand Finals would be a best of 5 games series. It was EG versus the wildcard team CDEC. CDEC had been unheard of until the qualifiers of TI5, going undefeated until the grand finals. Their plays were calculated, and with ppd calling gg (which means the game will end) at 20 minutes in the first game, it did not look good EG. However, while there were not many mistakes made by CDEC, there were a few that would cost them the title of TI5 champions. Jackson pointed out a major flaw in CDEC play that was one of the most prominent, “They used Leshrac as a roaming support. He was used incorrectly and ineffectively. If they had used him properly, they would have had that game for sure.” Coleman pointed out a flaw that was small at first, but would create chaos later in the game, “I noticed that CDEC messed up a lot of stacked camps. EG’s mid laner handled the stacked camps very well, and I can’t say the same for the other team. It caused a huge gold swing that just won them the game.” When the two DotA players were asked if EG would win next year, Coleman responded with certainty, “No, of course not. Nobody ever comes back to TI and wins again.” Jackson was unsure and responded with, “I honestly can’t say. With Arteezy back Fear will support and I have never seen that.” Will the North American champions return to TI next year and reclaim their title? Only time will tell. Photos courtesy of: BeyondTheSummit, Turtle Entertainment, Twitter: @UniverseDota, Twitter: @Aui_2000, Twitter: @SumaaaaiL, Ben Barrett