Evil Geniuses has become better than they were before in Dota 2, especially in 2019. In the grand final of ESL One Birmingham 2019, despite being defeated by Team Secret, Evil Geniuses' change in strategy created many difficulties to Team Secret during the match. The drafter this time is Tal 'Fly' Aizik, not Sam 'Bulba' Sosale.
ESL One Birmingham 2019 took place when patch 7.22 was still new to everyone and it is more challenging for gamers to adapt to it. Therefore, they find it hard to figure out a way to create unique hero combinations. Although Fly was picking this time, Bulba still had a great contribution to the match. Therefore, no one can tell what could best work out in 7.22.
However, what EG did in ESL One Birmingham 2019 was really better than expected and they nearly won over Team Secret at the Grand Final. Maybe EG has found the key element of Team Secret and figured out a method to defeat them.
Total of 34 heroes was used in the Grand Finals
In the Grand Finals, EG used 19 different heroes and repeated 3 (Leshrac, Spectre, and Mars) among them while Secret picked 23 different heroes and only used 2 (IO and Undying) of them twice. To sum up, two teams drafted a total of 34 different heroes and no heroes were picked more than two times.
Team Secret, as usual, Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov often has surprise picks that are not specifically "in meta" to take advantages over the opponent. On the opposite, Bulba usually chooses certain heroes. He is a big supporter of Drow Ranger in the previous patch.
However, when Fly is chosen to be a drafter, he showed people his diverse style of picking. In the Grand Finals, Fly and Bulba worked together and switch their styles that caught Team Secret off guard.
In game three, EG provided a stable line up but lost due to team fight-oriented draft by Puppey. In game four, Puppey tried this drafting styles again with another defensive lineup, but Fly disabled it with a flexible, defence-nullifying heroes combination
Although there are 5 heroes picked twice in both team, no hero won twice. The two teams showed that they truly adapted to the game and knew about their opponent. The dominance of Secret and the amazing improvement of EG are not only because of their wide heroes pool but also the ability to use unusual heroes.
The idea of a “meta” has changed.
Team Secret has proved their dominance regardless of any new patch. That means they reached something greater than the rest. Instead of focusing on “meta”, they use unusual picks depend on the situation.
Secret is still the best team in DOTA but they are not invincible anymore. EG’s new method nearly defeats them. Others should follow, too.
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