The StarSeries & i-League Season 8 finals have concluded with Evil Geniuses redeeming themselves with a 2-0 victory. Evil Geniuses managed to come back all the way from the losers bracket after an early defeat setting them into the lower bracket. In the final, they met the revived Fnatic who had a fantastic final to close out the tournament.
Evil Geniuses won the Grand Final vs Fnatic with a 2-0 scoreline. However, the result tells a very different story to how the maps actually played out, Fnatic held a promising Dust II vs Evil Geniuses, who has had a mixed tournament on that map. Fnatic began steamrolling Dust II with a 9-0 head start. Although, Evil Geniuses pulled off a comeback to take the map 16-12 after a heavily contested second half.
Moving on, Mirage followed a similar storyline to Dust II. Fnatic once again took a strong first half with a 9-6 opening half. But, Evil Geniuses had found their grand final momentum. Evil Geniuses took back-to-back rounds, bring them from 6 rounds to 16 on the second half. It is safe to say the NA roster flipped the narrative of the game on its head. This is truly an impressive feat since Fnatic has returned to being a top-level team.
Considering Evil Geniuses made it into our surprises article earlier in the week, it is very important to comment on this final. Earlier in the tournament, Evil Geniuses lost Inferno and Dust II to Ninjas in Pyjamas earlier on in the week. This made Evil Geniuses enter the lower bracket, with their 3-month winning spree broken.
Although, the story for EG throughout the entire week was about regaining their glory on their maps. Evil Geniuses faced a rematch with NiP later on in the tournament, where they defeated them on Inferno and Dust II, showing they knew how to come back on the map.
Jumping back into the Grand Final, Evil Geniuses now has proven their consistency on Dust II. Once again, EG was down on the map they have made their own. Their ability to come back on their map pick, read how the enemy shut them down, to then take the win is impressive. No matter how many set pieces teams use to counter start EG, EG will work it out and win.
With this win, EG now has an 85% win ratio in the last three months. In comparison, Astralis has an 81% win ratio, whilst Team Liquid has a 65% win ratio. Evil Geniuses may well have cemented late 2019 as the EG era, and that is nothing to scoff at.
For EG, this tournament win rounds out their storyline for the month ina great victory. Last month, Evil Geniuses surprised with a final victory at ESL One New York, whilst their DreamHack Malmo ended in disaster the week later. With this win at the StarSeries & i-League Season 8 finals, Evil Geniuses has redeemed themselves, whilst once again showing the world they are the new top dog.
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