Evil Geniuses take on Team Empire on the second day of The International 2017 Dota 2 tournament.
Evil Geniuses
They are the strongest team in the North American region and one of the favorites for winning The International 2017. After three consecutive top three finishes at the last three editions of The International (3rd in 2014, 1st in 2015 and 3rd in 2016), Evil Geniuses are expected to get a good result this year as well.
The American team has had strong performances in the last six months, taking 1st place at Dota Pit League Season 5, 1st place at The Manila Masters, 3rd-4th place at The Kiev Major, and 2nd place at EPICENTER 2017. As a result, it received a direct invite at the current edition of The International.
Evil Geniuses are coached by Clinton “Fear” Loomis (a former EG player and winner of The International 2015) and lead by Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen (a former OG player and winner of two Majors). The entire roster is composed of star players, so the team is prepared in every respect to face the strongest line-ups in the world at this year’s TI.
Team Empire
Team Empire was one of the four CIS teams that moved into the second phase of the CIS regional qualifier with an identical score: 7 wins, 2 losses. However, it managed to win the competition without losing a single game, and earned a spot at this year’s TI as a result.
Team Empire had some good results in small tournaments prior to The International 2017, taking 2nd place at Mr. Cat Europe Invitational and 1st place at OverPower Cup #2. However, it’s still a heavy underdog against top teams of EG’s caliber.
One thing to note about the CIS team is the fact that they are currently playing with a stand-in, due to one of their players having visa/passport problems. Usually, teams play worse when such an event occurs right before a big event, because the overall coordination and playstyle are affected. However, in this particular case, the stand-in is Roman “Resolut1on” Fominok, a world class player and former TI finalist (in 2016, with Digital Chaos). He’s also a former Team Empire player, so him being a part of the roster might actually affect the team’s strength in a positive way.
Recent Performances
Head To Head Record
Head To Head RecordWith their current rosters, the two teams have never played against each other. However, former rosters of these teams, which contained several players of the current ones on each side, met on three different occasions in 2016. Evil Geniuses won every time with the score of 2-1.
Betting Odds And Predictions
So far at this year’s TI, Evil Geniuses have played 3 matches and every one of them was a draw. One against, TNC Pro Team, one against Invictus Gaming Vitality, and another against Team Liquid. On the other side, Team Empire have 2 draws (against Team Secret and Infamous) and one loss (against LGD). You might say their results were similar, but then you need to take into account the fact that EG’s opponents were much stronger than Team Empire’s, with the exception of LGD, to which the CIS team lost anyway.
Overall, considering the two team’s performances at The International 2017 and prior to it, I see Evil Geniuses as the clear favorites in this dispute and they will most likely get a 2-0 victory over Team Empire.
Betway puts the odds at 1.80-2.30-7.70 in favor of EG. Betspawn also gives the odds in their favor: 1.68-2.53-9.16.
A lot of special bets are available for this match on websites like betway.com and betspawn.com. Among them, it’s well worth a bet that Evil Geniuses will destroy the first barracks in both games.
Top Betting Tip
My top betting tip for this match is Evil Geniuses to win 2-0. They’re a top 3 team at the moment and unless they get completely outdrafted, Team Empire should have a hard time standing in their way.