Evil Geniuses Are in the Playoffs of the Singapore Major

The first season of Dota Pro Circuit 2021 proved to be challenging for a lot of teams. In Europe, FATA and Ceb missed the boat, while in China EHOME and PSG.LGD seem to be doomed as well. The tournament’s not over yet in that region, but there’s little hope left. In North America, the competition was extremely unusual. Three teams dominated all opposition from the start and ended up with the same score: 6 wins – 1 loss. This led to a thrilling Tiebreaker that was won by Evil Geniuses, followed by Quincy Crew.

DPC 2021 Season 1 North America Upper Division Results

After a ruined season in 2020, during which EG mostly played with stand-ins and then decided to stop playing altogether for more than 4 months, Fly’s team started the new year with a strong roster and big ambitions. Abed was back as their midlaner and RAMZES had been replaced by iceiceice, a genuine offlaner. There was only one question: could EG finish ahead of Quincy Crew?

In the absence of EG, Quinn’s squad had dominated the North American region in 2020, much like Secret did in Europe. And the team grew stronger and stronger. This became obvious when the two competitors first encountered each other in the Upper Division of the first Season of Dota Pro Circuit 2021. This happened on February 18^th and Quincy Crew actually won that battle after being one game down.

Luckily for EG, a third team, named Undying, that nobody had expected to play as well as they did, managed to beat QC in the last match of the tournament. This must have been heartbreaking for YawaR, who was now required to compete in a tiebreaker not just for the 1^st place, against EG, but also for a ticket to the Singapore Major, against Undying.

This 3^rd team that seemed to appear out of nowhere is led by a South Korean (Dubu) and features some important names in it, such as Moonmeander (Major champion with OG) and Timado (one of Peru’s most talented youngsters). And the only competitor that managed to beat them during the round-robin was Evil Geniuses. Based on what they showed us this season, I’m confident we’ll see them at The International 2021.

Complete Results

The complete results of Season 1 are the following:

• 1^st place: Evil Geniuses: 6 W – 1 L
• 2^nd place: Quincy Crew: 6 W – 1 L
• 3^rd place: Undying: 6 W – 1 L
• 4^th place: 4 Zoomers: 4 W – 3 L
• 5^th place: Sadboys: 2 W – 5 L
• 6^th place: Black N Yellow: 2 W – 5 L
• 7^th place: A-Team: 2 W – 5 L
• 8^th place: 5ManMidas: 0 W – 7 L

Possible Roster Changes

One team that totally disappointed in Season 1 was Sadboys. Led by ppd, a former TI champion, had featuring big names like Fear, Moo, and Sneyking, Sadboys was expected to finish 2^nd or 3^rd. Instead, they finished 5^th and almost got relegated. Their 2 W – 5 L record certainly calls for one or two roster changes. But I’m not sure who can be removed and who can be brought in to replace that player. The most obvious move that everyone anticipates is dnm out, SumaiL in. But we all know that ppd and SumaiL aren’t exactly close friends.

 

Photo credit: Valve