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Dota 2 Frankfurt Major 2015 results: Team Secret defeats Evil Geniuses in upper bracket final

Nov 20, 2015, 4:34 PM UTC

James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.

The penultimate day in Frankfurt saw the most-anticipated series of the tournament: North America’s best team in Evil Geniuses vs. Europe’s dominant Team Secret. Both teams are so good that any discussion of “who’s the best team in Dota 2” is largely subjective.

This is the kind of series that the Internet salivates over, and it didn’t disappoint.

Team Secret defeats Evil Geniuses (2-1)

The upper bracket final had so much on the line, not only for Frankfurt but professional Dota as a whole.

One reason these teams are so entertaining is their astounding versatility at all five positions. This was on show for both teams in Game 1. We saw an Axe on Universe from EG, a Magnus played by for Secret -- it was wild. Both teams were evenly matched and traded the gold lead for the first 40 minutes. At this point things started to snowball. SumaiL’s play on Timbersaw was absolutely incredible, and Artzeezy pushed lanes so quickly on his Windranger that it seemed Secret was going to be forced to lick their wounds and fight another day. EG’s gold lead was over 12,000, they had a lane or racks -- it was over, right?

WRONG.

In the blink of an eye Eternal Envy sold his items, threw the Hail Mary -- buying not one, but TWO Divine Rapiers for his Ember Spirit. The right click damage alone was close to 1,000 and paired with a Battle Fury resulted in the evaporation of EG. Valiantly they tried to crack EE -- after all, he only had 1,800 HP with very little protection. At the 60-minute mark it should have been easy to burst him down, but his astounding mobility paired with Dazzle protection made it impossible.

We saw a similar lineup from Team Secret in Game 2, but EG made some big changes. Artzeezy took a harder carry with Juggernaut, while SumaiL switched to his oft-unseen, but stellar Storm Spirit. EG dominated the early phases of the game, successfully picking off Eternal Envy on Ember Spirit and winning all three lanes. Bad engagements from Secret caused them to lose their carries, and it left Secret searching for an opening.

That happened at the 23-minute mark when a poor engagement in the river saw a team wipe from Evil Geniuses. The scary thing about this fight is that it means Ember Spirit was slowly coming online. That was terrifying for EG, but they didn’t fall into the same trap as Game 1.

Things just clicked better with Arteezy on Juggernaut, and the whole game was more in their favor. The additional mobility SumaiL gained on Storm Spirit was a smart move. Envy did his best to keep Secret in the hunt, once again getting a Divine Rapier -- but the counters were simply too strong. Secret called gg after losing a top lane fight and we were poised for a Game 3.

Evil Geniuses tried to ensure Eternal Envy didn’t get a chance in Game 3. They took Ember Spirit for themselves and Secret brought out a pocket strat of a mid-lane pieliedie on Tiny matched up against SumaiL’s Ember. Early game this seemed to favor Secret, who had the better laning phase -- but only slightly.

Two legends of the game dueled in the bottom lane as Fear on Undying and Puppey on Dazzle traded ranged attacks with Decay. It was a beautiful back-and-forth for Dota fans who have watched these two play for the last five years. This early-game dancing happened across the board, but quickly things got bloody. Team fight after team fight was traded between Dota’s best teams but Evil Geniuses had a problem: Their carries weren’t getting enough farm.

Naturally Ember Spirit and Juggernaut took a while to come online, but at 13 minutes were firmly being out-paced by Huskar and Windranger. EG simply didn’t have a good answer to the Eternal Envy Huskar, who feasted on heroes in dire need of items and levels to control his jumps.

Team Secret needed to try and push the tempo and build off this early lead. Their enemy was the possibility of Ember and Juggernaut getting their battlefurys leaping around, decimating them with cleave damage. The problem they faced was the Huskar leap paired with a shallow grave from Dazzle that kept him low on health and thereby maximizing his damage against single targets.

Secret made one big mistake at the 20-minute mark by going for a risky Roshan. This allowed EG to run into the pit and have Undying hit them with decay and drop a tombstone to secure a much-needed fight win. This began a small EG comeback and credit really needs to go to ppd. It’s strange to say that wards almost turned a match, but in this case he had such strong coverage that there wasn’t anywhere Secret could go without being seen.

Questionable late-game itemization from EG proved to be the death knell. When Arteezy hit a full Omnislash on Huskar and did no damage (thanks to Satanic) it was clear the problems were too big. Secret gained a 16K gold lead in less than 5 minutes thanks to a buyback string in the base and it was all downhill from there.

This was one of the best series we have ever seen.

EHOME defeats Vici Gaming (2-0)

The surging return of EHOME has been one of the best stories at Frankfurt. Languishing toward the bottom of Chinese Dota, message boards and social media were brimming with rumors of unrest, infighting and things that should have meant an early exit at the major. What we’ve seen is a team operating in sync and quietly surging to the Top 4.

Game 1 was an unconventional stomp. EHOME had a lineup that featured out-of-favor heroes like Treant Protector and Dragon Knight, but they made this work to perfection by shutting down Vici’s Gyrocopter carry and taking advantage of a Tiny pick that never felt comfortable.

Vici tried their best to answer back, and to their credit played much better in Game 2 -- but it wasn’t enough. Sticking to a Lich support, they took a surprise Invoker and Timbersaw. It looked like a good lineup on paper but EHOME simply had too much push with Pugna and Bristleback lane clearing. They got the GG in 52 minutes and advanced.

OG defeats EHOME (2-1)

OG’s trademark this tournament has been early-game aggressiveness that put their opponents on tilt from the get-go. This didn’t happen against EHOME. Sure, OG had their successes early in Game 1, but EHOME retained their composure and punished over-aggressive play from OG.

Miracle never got settled against EHOME’s strong team fight lineup. The gold lead was so much in EHOME’s favor that it was insurmountable. The Bounty Hunter/ Queen of Pain combo ensured the track gold was flooding in and EHOME crushed OG in Game 1.

Call it hubris, or just confidence -- but OG went back to the well in Game 2 by once again picking Io and Tiny. It was a bold move given how badly it failed in the first game and it raised plenty of eyebrows. It ended up being a wise decision. OG won the laning phase, pressed the advantage and suddenly everything that went right for EHOME in Game 1 went horribly wrong. The series was even.

Game 3 was a disaster for EHOME. Perhaps they were on tilt following the Game 2 loss, maybe they just weren’t prepared for a Phantom Lancer on n0tail, either way they just couldn’t get their carries into a position where they could affect the game. Gyro needed too much time, which on paper he would have gotten against a PL, but instead OG played hyper-aggressive Dota and took a lane of racks at the 28 minute mark. From there it was simply ensuring the win, which they did. Now three western teams are the Top 3 of Frankfurt.