Evil Geniuses Defeats TNC Predator in Opening Match at WePlay AniMajor

The WePlay AniMajor Group Stage is underway and EG starts their first series of AniMajor completely dominating TNC.Predator 2-0 in their matchup. EG’s win is a major boost for them as the Group Stage features a Bo2 game format and as demonstrated by the Wild Card stage. Every 2-0 win is a big factor in deciding the team’s placement. EG took the first game smoothly and completely outdrafted TNC’s core hero picks and after a dominating laning stage, there was nothing TNC could do to stop EG. TNC showed signs of life in game two and made significant plays and took the lead for most of the game. They, however, could not handle Arteezy’s Terrorblade which secured EG the series win.

EG breeze past TNC 2-0 in The WePlay AniMajor Group Stage Day 1

Recap

Game One TNC picked a Bristleback, Dark Seer and Wraith King core trio and got completely countered by EG’s core duo pick of Templar Assassin and Bloodseeker for Abed and Arteezy respectively, who provided massive physical damage and catch for the tanky TNC cores. After dominating the laning stage in classic EG fashion, they started to snowball their lead and completely caught TNC off guard. Abed and Arteezy had stunning performances and had no issue carrying EG, taking the win exactly at the thirty-minute mark. 

Game Two saw TNC again getting outdrafted. TNC’s mid Puck was heavily countered by EG’s Dragon Knight, and Shadow Shaman with their instant disables. TNC turned the tide in the early game and took the reins of the first thirty minutes of the game. However, Arteezy, on his signature hero, made some clutch Sunder saves in the late game teamfights, which TNC had no answer for. And after losing two fights and expending buybacks in the late game, EG quickly struck fast and ended the game immediately, closing out the fifty-minute game and the series.

Highlights

Here are the highlights of the series:

On the other side of the Group, Team Liquid and Beastcoast fight to a 1-1 draw

While EG took a win off of TNC, Team Liquid and Beastcoase battled it out on the second stream of the AniMajor which ended in a draw between the two teams. The two teams were evenly matched in both matches and barely changed their drafts between the games, sticking to their core hero pick. However as mentioned, 1-1 draws, while better than a loss, definitely hurt the teams of the Group Stage as having one less series win due to a draw could be what costs them a top-two spot, or put them at the bottom two.

The Group Stage of the WePlay AniMajor will see Eight teams battle it out. The top two teams will move to the Upper Bracket of the playoffs, while the bottom two teams, unfortunately, get eliminated from the AniMajor. You can find the schedule and teams of the group stage here. 

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