Mục Lục
Evil Geniuses vs Gaimin Gladiators – Dota TI12 Playoffs Analysis
Gaimin Gladiators and Evil Geniuses have found themselves in the lower bracket side of the International 2023 (TI12) Playoffs after losing to nouns and TL respectively.
This match presents one of the many potential upsets that could happen at TI12 this weekend, so here’s our deep dive into it.
TI12 Playoffs Lower Bracket Match: Gaimin Gladiators vs Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses vs Gaimin Gladiators – Matchup Analysis
When two fan favorites end up in the lower bracket first round, you just know that the competitive landscape in TI12 has shifted heavily in favor of the underdogs. Regardless, one of these teams will be ending their tournament life in the first round.
Gaimin need no introduction, being the first Dota 2 team to win three consecutive majors in a Dota Pro Circuit. Without a doubt their strength and consistency throughout the season that has put them in the spotlight at TI12. Some may argue that they eventually fell out, after at Riyadh Masters 2023 and DreamLeague. However, GG still made their way into the top seeds in Group C of TI12 Group Stage, and were only overshadowed by LGD Gaming.
Evil Geniuses had high expectations riding on them as well. Despite the early signs of dominance earlier this season, they have completely gone downhill since then. The most indicative sign of that is when they placed last at Bali Major 2023. The series of poor performance continued, and even in TI12 groups, where they barely won the tiebreaker to advance into Group Stage’s Phase Two.
Going into their duel, both teams are trying to score a “reset” and shake out their bad streaks.
Hero Picks and Meta
As it stands, EG should not survive the overwhelming strength of Gaimin’s drafts. On paper, EG’s drafts are textbook pick with various meta-oriented carry heroes, and a fairly standard playstyle. They limit themselves to basic support heroes (Vengeful Spirit and Grimstroke), both simple and easily executable, which one could say is foolproof.
However, this lacks the wow factor that many dominant teams at TI12 brought to the table. The EG supports need to do more than safety measures to truly bring out the team fight capabilities that the current meta heroes have to offer.
If there’s one team that puts heavy emphasis on picking cheese picks, it’s Gaimin. But, they often do it with great success, taking into account the combo and disruptive impact that their hero picks can deliver. Coupled with peerless in-game execution, it’s difficult to find any fault in Gaimin’s methods besides the fact that they get outplayed by certain opponents.
This brings a crucial discussion into what we can expect the two teams to pick. Considering how versatile they are at rotating their hard carry picks, there are multiple strong contenders.
- Expect Muerta to make the cut somehow if EG don’t ban it early. As a hard carry in the safe lane, Muerta can be relatively independent with her diverse skills, enabling the supports to do more rotation across the map. Other viable options include Chaos Knight, which also has good lane sustain.
- Primal Beast, Phoenix and Treant Protector are next in line, and it will be interesting to see who EG decides to ban.
- JCnkka seems to be EG’s signature, which gave them decent success in some matches. Since they also like playing closer to the meta, expect Phantom Assassin, CK or Terrorblade for their hard carries.
Who will win Gaimin Gladiators or Evil Geniuses?
Gaimin Gladiators is simply a much better team overall, despite their unprecedented loss to Talon Esports. It was also a relatively close series to lose, given that Talon also isn’t flawless themselves.
Due to EG’s poor record, the odds favor Gaimin heavily in this match-up.
Read also: Dota 2 The International Fantasy: TI12 Picks You Can't Miss
Bet Now
Bet Now
