PSG.LGD victorious as the final boss of the WePlay AniMajor

The finale of the WePlay AniMajor took place on Sunday in Kyiv, as PSG.LGD awaited a challenger in the Grand Finals having come through the Upper Bracket by dismantling every opponent presented before them in the Playoffs. Having also won the group stages in strong fashion, PSG.LGD were positioned as the true final Boss of the WePlay AniMajor.

Evil Geniuses on the other hand had underperformed in the Group Stages, finding themselves beginning the Playoffs in a lower bracket berth, where elimination was never more than one series away.

Not only this, but they faced a bracket filled with challengers who had yet to book their own ticket to The International (TI), and thus would be playing with an intensity and ferocity unmatched by those in the tournament who had already booked their tickets to TI.

Despite these challenges, Evil Geniuses held their composure and showed enough mettle to run through their opponents no matter their region or drafts.

With five series won in the Playoffs for EG, their momentum was building up strongly to look competitive in the finale of the tournament.

With TI qualification already decided, the stage was set for one of the most important games of any of these player’s lives!

Game 1

The game began with a draft from Evil Geniuses that prioritised the heroes that had been performing well for them till this point in the tournament, in particular their “IceIceIce” Timbersaw and “Cr1t” Lion to open their draft. Capping it off with the “Arteezy” Nature’s Prophet, EG looked to be just as aggressive and menacing in the early game as they had been for many other teams in the tournament.

PSG.LGD weren’t favourites in the tournament for nothing however, as they shifted the Axe they had opened the draft with to be played by “Ame” in the safelane role, and picked up a final “Faith_Bian” Sand king to round out the draft.

What this did was allow for PSG.LGD to play an early laning phase that could absorb all the pressure that Evil Geniuses attempted to apply. And given that neither line-up had the appetite for pushing early aggression before they were ready, this gave ample time to PSG.LGD to farm up their key items.

Once they felt that they had accomplished enough with their early game farm to start moving on the Map; PSG.LGD began their aggression and simply would not stop.

Having blink daggers on both the Axe and Sand King by 16 minutes into the game, PSG.LGD were able to hunt absolutely everyone on the EG side no matter where on the map they found themselves.

Try splitpushing? Get caught out on the map. Try teamfighting? We are much stronger than you and you won’t even kill supports.

EG simply had no answers to deal with how beefy the PSG.LGD lineup was, even their physical damage being taken away by the “NothingToSay” Razor from the midlane.

Ultimately, it all proved too much for the NA side, and they would drop down the “GG” call at 33 minutes, giving a dominant victory to PSG.LGD to start the Grand Finals.

Game 2

Attempting to regain their composure for Game 2, EG reconfigured their draft around the idea of being able to skirmish early on in the game. With stronger lanes, this time around the win condition for EG would come in the form of the “Abed” Storm Spirit, who would need to open up the map so that the “Arteezy” Terrorblade could take down structures.

PSG.LGD though, would try a strategy revolving around very strong teamfight primarily focused on the “Faith_Bian” Brewmaster. Following up this idea with the “XinQ” Shadow Shaman and the “NothingToSay” Death Prophet which would allow them to then push quickly for objectives on the map. All of this would also have the “Ame” Terrorblade in position as the big boss of the game if EG couldn’t end the game in time.

Starting off, PSG.LGD made an aggressive move to gain a first blood and secure multiple bounty runes for themselves. EG were undeterred however, and starting clapping back hard when the laning phase truly began. Finding multiple kills in every lane, EG were able to exit the laning stage looking so strong that it seemed PSG.LGD could do nothing.

The pressure from EG was so oppressive that they managed to find five kills on the Death Prophet before the 15-minute mark had even hit. Normally in these situations, we would see the Terrorblade getting some semblance of farm on the map but EG made sure to depress the TB’s farm as well, leading to a period of the game where PSG.LGD did not feel that they could fight, so they would decide to try and turtle for as long as possible for “Ame” to get online.

Holding on to the game for as long as they could, PSG.LGD could do little but watch as EG tore the map apart. Taking early towers, claiming the outpost, diving past tier 2s to find kills, and generally making the game impossible.

It seemed it would only be a matter of time until EG broke through and secured victory. With an Aegis in tow on “Arteezy”, EG would go for a pick off on Shadow Shaman which might open up space to push the top tier 3 tower. Unfortunately for them, XinQ was not only ready for the move, but baited EG into overextending with both of these heroes to try and kill him. And though he died, he allowed his team to take the Aegis away from “Arteezy”, buying enough time for “Ame” to come in on his Terrorblade to finish the job for real.

At this point, the kill gave away a massive chunk of gold to the Terrorblade, and allowed him to turn this gold into a SwiftBlink for mobility and damage that he was lacking before.

EG, realizing that their prospects of Victory would be massively impacted by a farmed Terrorblade, attempted to double down on their aggression and force a way to go up the hill into the Dire base. Whilst his team ran interference on the map, “Arteezy” managed to take out the bottom Tier 3 tower before “Ame” could come back to defend it. Once he had returned, EG made the decision to try jump him before his allies could arrive to help him.

However the “Ame” Terrorblade was now online.

Standing his ground against EG, he bought time for the Death Prophet to come in and clean up the back of the fight with the Exorcism ghosts running. Now with a strong Terrorblade and Death Prophet to deal with, EG saw the writing on the wall and tried to disengage but their heroes were simply dying too quickly. Unable to retreat, “Abed” leapt forward to at least take “Ame” with him, which he was able to do but only at the cost of his own life.

After this fight, the momentum and farm advantage on map was massively swung towards PSG.LGD, and with them recognizing how little threat EG presented to their Terroblade, they immediately began playing more adventurously and aggressively on the map. “Arteezy” farmed a Divine Rapier as a last ditch attempt to carry the game, but even he farmed, PSG.LGD were beginning to barrel down the bottom lane. He tried to show it off by teleporting behind the Terroblade and dishing in the damage from there, but it was in vain as he barely tickled Ame.

Once they claimed the easy kill on him, the rest of PSG.LGD were able to waltz into the base and decisively close out game 2, coming back massively from the early game and putting themselves on Tournament Point leading into Game 3.

Game 3

Coming into game 3, EG decided to go back to what got them to this point in the tournament. Lion, Templar Assassin and Terrorblade emerged once more as favoured in the EG draft; whilst PSG.LGD seemed to be also preferring comfort, having their Axe, Death Prophet and Mirana in tow. However, the notion of a comfortable, routine game were shattered by the last overall pick Naga Siren for “Ame”.

The early game started off relatively evenly with both teams trading kills. Abed winning his lane strongly and getting some key kills. As we saw in game 1 however, PSG.LGD continually responded to the aggression from EG at a pace EG could not match. XinQ, on his signature Mirana eventually set up a kill on the Terrorblade, however EG would immediately kill the Naga Siren in response to this move. Since at this time Abed was the strongest on the map, EG decided to turn it into a Roshan play to secure the Aegis for the TA.

PSG.LGD, now playing into an Aegis, would bide their time and mute their aggression for a while. Soon after however, PSG.LGD swooped in to demolish EG just as the Aegis was ticking down. With four members of EG gone, the momentum of the game swung back immediately into their favour.

As the game went on, PSG.LGD were effectively hunting EG for sport. With calls from Faith_bian and silences from Nothingtosay catching out EG several times on the map, often finding the Terrorblade as a primary target.

As the game fell further out of hand for EG, we once again found a crucial moment where they would need to fight around the Roshan pit, or give up a crucial Aegis. Although EG put up a fight, the incredible teamfight coordination from PSG.LGD was able to continuously force EG away from the area and deny them taking the Aegis.

EG would attempt one last teamfight to potentially wrest back control, but with the Naga Siren’s advantage too large, EG simply could not find success in the fight, the game, or the series!

PSG.LGD were able to three-game sweep EG to claim victory at the Animajor Grand Finals!

Taking home $200,000, PSG.LGD will have a huge target on their back as they go into the next Valve-sponsored Dota 2 event (The International), as the best team in the world!