Game 1 Game 1 starts off with Evil Geniuses take Chinese giants Newbee down in a quick 28-minute slaughter. After opening the series with a Drow-Puck-Outworld Devourer draft rounded out by a 4-position Clockwerk and Crystal Maiden, the boys in blue easily dominate their lanes against Newbee’s clash-oriented Warlock and Tidehunter draft. Sumail on OD crushes Sccc’s Sniper in lane with Drow’s damage aura, and a number of good rotations by Clockwerk and CM secure the other lanes.

Newbee tries to take the game back with a number of smokes, led by Kaka’s Nightstalker for the vision. Unfortunately for them, EG plays what TobiWan likes to call “smoke and mirrors” — with both good warding and a good sense for smokes and scans, they’re never caught out. Kpii’s Tidehunter is never really able to find a good ravage, and by the time EG was knocking on their door both of EG’s big hitters already had Black King Bar.

Game 2 Newbee attempt to take back Game 2 with a number of comfort picks: Kaka’s Sandking, Faith’s Disruptor, and a classic Kpii Naga Siren. EG, on the other hand, throw a curveball and last pick the first Lone Druid of the tournament on top of their usual Puck and Phoenix. Like the previous game, Newbee’s draft had the potential for a deadly Naga Siren sleep into Disruptor ultimate or Epicenter. But much like the last game, they struggled to synchronize their ultimates, hampered by the most recent nerf to the Song of the Siren radius.

It looked good for EG for a while, with Lone Druid picking up Radiance well before Newbee’s Naga Siren. But the American team was unable to capitalize on their early lead. Once Kpii was able to farm up his Radiance, Newbee took control of the game. Rtz’s bear was more in the graveyard than on the ground, and the Naga Siren illusions plus Sccc’s long-range machine gun Lina slowly chipped down EG’s base until GG was called.

Game 3 EG claim an early 10k gold lead in Game 3, as the pressure from Zai’s Enchantress makes it difficult for Kaka’s Sand King to farm a blink dagger in time. But an unfortunate pause leads into a pick-off by Newbee on top networth Razor in the midlane, leading to a bad Rosh fight for EG and a dieback from Rtz’s Razor. He eventually falls from top networth to 6th networth as he is picked off again and again by the burst damage from Kpii’s Batrider and Moogy’s Lifestealer.

Newbee reaches critical mass with Aegis, a highly farmed Moogy, and a maxed out Death Prophet ultimate on Sccc. But they fail to breach high ground — with a double buy back from Rtz’s Razor and Universe’s Puck, and a triple Ember remnant into Warlock’s ultimate by Sumail and Crit, all 5 of Newbee’s players are wiped. A few minutes later, a bad initiation by Batrider on Enchantress leads to antoher costly death on Sccc and Moogy. Crit is able to farm up a Refresher and EG turn the tide on Newbee in Newbee’s own base.

Crowd favorite BabyRage Babaev ends the game with a record-high 12 deaths, but EG wins the game.

Game 4 Newbee finally bans the Puck in Game 4, and EG bans Kaka’s Sandking. Both line ups are highly clash-oriented for the fourth game— Newbee with Tidehunter, and EG with Darkseer and Kunkka. The early game is slow, with a couple of cheeky X plays on Zai’s Kunkka and Sumail’s Ember to prevent Newbee from pulling off Disruptor’s Glimpse. Moogy’s Ursa’s isn’t able to snowball, but Sccc on Outworld Devourer keeps up the farm and both teams stay even on the networth. Newbee plays it as safe as they can, Sccc keeping the Chinese dream alive with excellent defensive Astrals and Kpii with multi-man ravages.

Finally, an extended fight at the Roshan sees blood on both sides: EG is forced to buy back, but after 3 BKB charges are expended by Rtz’s Bristleback and two ravages thrown out by Tidehunter, EG win the fight and ride the momentum all the way to Newbee’s base. In no time at all, the two teams are taking another fight in front of Newbee’s throne— a fight Newbee loses in a 5-man wipe. EG win the game, and the series, becoming the first Manila Masters’ Champion.