There's a vod of the series here

The games were nice, very confident play against a lesser team, Arteezy showed strong carry plays too. There were a few moments of scrappy fighting and unnecessary deaths, but from the way Sumail spammed emotes I'd guess that they weren't in a full tryhard mode

Gaial

United States313 Posts

September 21 2017 20:11 GMT

#2923

FYI EG is supposed to play CoL today in 2 hours, but I don't see it on the upcoming events.

http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/StarLadder/i-League_Invitational/3/North_America

JGwinworth

45 Posts

September 22 2017 03:10 GMT

#2924

OK no excuses guys, EG looks bad right now. I dont want to hear, "Well they're a new team," b/c they're not. This is 5 pros that look like they arent prepared and also getting styled on by other supports. I'm worried for my boys in blue, b/c this kind of play might allow them to squeak by in NA but once international play happens, they will get wiped.

JGwinworth

45 Posts

September 22 2017 03:15 GMT

#2925

This is what happened when Fear was the 4 and Aui2000 was the 1 2 years ago and they looked just plain without any intelligent 5 plays. The team play just looks uninspired but they need to find a real 5.

JGwinworth

45 Posts

September 22 2017 06:45 GMT

#2926

Also, has everyone thought about what happens if they actually get knocked out of either of these current qualifiers early? Which is an actual possibility at this point.

Gaial

United States313 Posts

September 22 2017 11:27 GMT

#2927

On September 22 2017 15:45 JGwinworth wrote:
Also, has everyone thought about what happens if they actually get knocked out of either of these current qualifiers early? Which is an actual possibility at this point.

Yes, I have. Still think you're jumping the gun.

EG plays 2 matches today, both against Immortals.

Match 1: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/ESL_One/Hamburg/2017/North_America

Match 2: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/StarLadder/i-League_Invitational/3/North_America

PoulsenB

Poland7729 Posts

September 22 2017 15:15 GMT

#2928

Just because they're five pro players doesn't mean they will instantly work together perfectly, if things worked like that then any pro team would be instantly good (like in football and other team games, you can have a star-studded lineup and still need months for things to click between them). They've just switched captains and I'd imagine that Fear is a different captain than Crit both in and outside the game, and he's still adjusting to the role. So far they played 5 games, they won 3 and lost 2. I'll give them the benefit of doubt before jumping to any conclusions.

JGwinworth

45 Posts

September 22 2017 22:11 GMT

#2929

OK, that makes sense actually. I think the best excample of this in other professional sports would be the 2003-2004 LA Lakers of the NBA. They had Kobe, Shaq, Karl Malone, and Gary Peyton, and when they faced Detroit at the end, they couldnt even win a game. Just saying I've seen that happen before it does seem to be a thing across almost all professional team sports.

Gaial

United States313 Posts

September 23 2017 13:29 GMT

#2930

I think the quals are good for EG. Even though they straight up won every NA qualifier for 18 months (ppd), I still think they suffered from lack of games.

Voronoff

United States302 Posts

September 23 2017 19:03 GMT

#2931

Then they miss a Minor tournament. Even EG's TI winning roster had a couple bad tournaments.

Big question: are EG gathered on lan yet?

JGwinworth

45 Posts

September 24 2017 00:42 GMT

#2932

OK so I'm still convinced after watching the Leviathan series that EG just looks uninterested. I feel like you have to have some sort of progressive 5 or 5/4 combo to be highly successful in Dota today and Fear just is'nt that. I just dont know why ppd and Zai didnt stay and play the 5 and 4 and that team would have been way more solid theres just no arguing that at least. Another thing, I read a previous comment about EG not playing a lot of games and there is some truth to that but it's also that they were just getting direct invites to a lot of eventsnow that they are up against the other people in NA, which clearly seems to have finally caught up. Still, EGs problems are much bigger b/c this is just still NA no matter how much theyve caught up, if any of these teams go against a Newbie or OG or Liquid, they would just lose in all likelihood. Hell even some of the newly shuffled Chinese teams would win like the new VG and EHOME. I know this is just my opinion and everything but I stand by that EG definitely looks like they have taken a few steps back behind other more hungry teams/players. Fat and happy I think is the saying, and also how you could sum up EGs 2016-17 leading up to TI7.

saocyn

United States937 Posts

September 24 2017 00:57 GMT

#2933

it has nothing to do with, if zai or ppd was there. in fact the change is even more beneficial to eg than the previous roster.
fear and sumail have worked closely together, fear was also the current coach and being rusty quite frankly doesn't really play a factor in a support role as much as it does on say a mid role.

regardless of which combo would have been better, this is an absolute disgrace to professional gaming in general. i applaud leviathan but anyone who's ever played a lan vs a professional team realize the reason why pros beat the amateur scene pretty badly, they have team work and coordination that is impossible to be gained that those in non pro settings can't receive. we just can't devote our lives to figuring strats that maximize the potential of every player and drafts. pub players are also not paid to win, don't have team houses, so for a pub team to beat eg, is rather shameful. ffs they lost to monkeys lmfao.

but then again it feels like the current meta is entirely over eg's head. i hope i don't sound like i'm hating on eg, i'm just extremely disappointed in the premiere team thats supposed to represent america. on one hand people who can't make pro have no say in in a pro's eyes the "quality" of their drafts. yet their intricate drafts goes and loses to a storm pick + sb. more shockingly sb...when did storm ever even go out of style is beyond me.

JGwinworth

45 Posts

September 24 2017 04:57 GMT

#2934

Yeah I 100% agree with this guy on it being shameful, nothing more to say.

LemOn

United Kingdom8629 Posts

September 24 2017 07:11 GMT

#2935

haha
they lost 2 BO3's
Just got outdrafted games 1-3 in a tourney they won't care much about after a long break (LOOOONG for fear especially)
And are crushing a Major qualifier.

Even Na'vi at it's full might dominant force around TI 2-3 time after time lost to Tier 2.5 Power Rangers and had 65% winrate overall.

Chewbacca.

United States3634 Posts

September 24 2017 19:05 GMT

#2936

Taking the ESL One games pretty handily right now at least.

spacek

United States213 Posts

September 25 2017 01:23 GMT

#2937

fear's AA was shaky at points today, otherwise i think they played pretty well

Atoissen

Norway1737 Posts

September 25 2017 06:47 GMT

#2938

Agree, atm Fear looks like the weakest player, he will probably need up to a couple of months to get back to his old form.
I think they play well overall... Crit is has had some fantastic games, setting the team up for wins in the first 10 mins in several games, we might see his SB being banned in games ahead, he's kunkka is more hit and miss :D

DucK-

Singapore11447 Posts

September 25 2017 08:32 GMT

#2939

Fear has always been a shit drafter. Yea he had weak players then, but his current drafts are still not there. I'm not convinced he is ready to lead. Hope he proves me wrong because I like him as a player

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts

September 25 2017 08:38 GMT

#2940

I thought Fear was pretty crazy, his lich ults were on point but his leveling as a 5 is nuts. He was level 10 a minute 12 vs VGJ in game 3 which i thought was pretty nuts myself! He was higher than cr1t and on par with Universe who had a tough lane and had to jungle a bit.

Also the ESL One bracket run on paper looks pretty impressive, not dropping a game to COL/Immortals/VGJ!

2/3 Lans qualified for in October is not to bad, if you forget the the blip in StarLadder EG looking very strong with a solid playstyle.

Doing the 1million LRs i have to do now cuz of 10000 qualifiers for events xD i noticed EG are not in the "direct invites" for;
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/Perfect_World_Masters/2017

Nor are the invited to the qualifiers;
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/Perfect_World_Masters/2017/North_America

So have the declined this one? I guess going to China is never "fun" for many teams as it is very far and also sometimes not the best of hospitality / lan event in general? Or did they just not get invited and will go through open qualifiers lol?