This article is part of our Dota 2 Recap series.
The third day of the Dota Pit Season 5 final began in the best-of-one lower bracket, where four of the six remaining teams would be eliminated. Evil Geniuses rose to the top after an exciting 3-2 series win over OG in the grand finals, taking home a prize of $62,937 and their second event win since the Boston Major.
In the first matchup of the day, Virtus.pro took on Team Faceless in what was widely expected to be an easy victory for VP. This proved to be just the opposite, and Faceless took a slow, steady approach en route to a well-executed win. Dueling for the right to meet Team Faceless in the loser's bracket finals was Invictus Gaming and Team Secret. The game was very close for almost the entirety of the match, but iG's explosive teamfighting lineup eventually managed to win a fight close enough to Secret's base to take the game. With the loss, Secret joined Virtus.pro in 5th/6th place.
Faceless vs. iG was an all-out brawl, with both teams constantly trying to find fights and get an edge on the enemy. This game was highlighted by some absolutely insane Timbersaw play by Daryl Koh "iceiceice" Pei Xiang, and an impressive Slark game from Dominik "Black^" Reitmeier. The pair combined for a total of 23 kills and 54,000 damage done between them. Finishing in fourth place, iG will return home with $15,000.
In the upper bracket clash to determine who would advance to the grand finals, it was Evil Geniuses that handed OG a very one-sided loss.
In Game 1, Evil Geniuses picked Lone Druid for Artour "Arteezy" Babaev, who went for the new ranged form build. With 200 bonus attack range from his level 10 talent and another 140 from Dragon Lance, Arteezy was seemingly attacking from an entire screen away. With a Slardar and Enigma on the front lines, EG was unstoppable in Game 1. The second game of the series featured the first Meepo of Dota Pit. EG did a great job applying early pressure, and Johan "n0tail" Sunstein was never able to get the early gold and levels a Meepo needs to dominate a game. OG's only other damage source was Anathan "ana" Pham's Queen of Pain, who had a similarly difficult early game. With both of OG's carries crippled, EG secured one of the most one-sided wins of Dota Pit.
With a trip to the finals and a rematch against EG on the line, OG stifled Faceless in their lower bracket finals match. Relying on a conservative lineup, OG did a good job mitigating their losses from Faceless' early pressure while n0tail's Anti-Mage acquired a huge net worth lead. This came at the cost of ana having a miserable game, but it secured OG's trip to the finals. Despite the loss, Faceless' third place finish was a massive improvement after its disappointing showing at the Boston Major.
OG seemed to rebound from their devastating upper bracket loss to EG, riding a convincing Alchemist performance from ana to a Game 1 win. But the momentum ended after the next game was delayed nearly three hours. When the servers came back up, EG took an explosive lead in Game 2. OG went for a very risky position one Brewmaster for n0tail, which failed spectacularly. He quickly fell behind, leaving OG fighting essentially four vs. five. EG were happy to take advantage of this, and on the back of some awesome Black Holes from Saahil "Universe" Arora's Enigma, they evened up the series 1-1. Game 3 was a much more even contest between the two teams.
Game 3 was a much more even contest between the two teams. The breaking point for OG was largely s4's Underlord performance. Although Underlord isn't the flashiest hero, his presence in fights and s4's well placed Pits of Malice were a massive part of OG's survivability and damage. With both ana and n0tail playing well, OG were unstoppable in five-on-five fights. It took them almost an hour, but thanks to its huge early advantage, OG were able to close out the win and gain the series advantage. The fourth game was a complete change of pace for EG, while OG went for a relatively greedy Sven pick for n0tail. EG quickly took control of the game, and by 20, minutes SumaiL, Universe and Arteezy were the top three net worths. OG did manage to pull the game back with some excellent scrappy fighting, but EG's lead was just too much in the end.
In the deciding game of the series, both teams went back for their comfort picks from this event. Ember Spirit for OG, with EG taking Lone Druid and Enigma for themselves. S4 got a few nice early pickoffs on his Batrider, but in a real five-on-five, EG's draft reigned supreme. Through a combination of excellent vision and execution, EG were able to constantly be the ones initiating the fight. After a well-deserved win, EG secured the series 3-2 and claimed first place.
