It’s Evil Geniuses again, this time against the formal Business Associates (BA). Although the EG players enjoy a friendly banter with their former teammate/old man, Fear, nobody is going soft on anyone.

The first game went one-sided in favor of EG. Sporting a classic combo of Mirana Arrow into Winter Wyvern’s Winter Curse, EG gets multiple easy kills on BA. At only 10 minutes, EG already has a 5K gold lead as Arteezy’s Naga Siren and Ryoya’s Invoker are free-farming happily. On the other side, BA’s Wraith King just gets kited every time he gets caught and dies miserably without Reincarnation. Thanks to Ryoya’s EMP, Wraith King has no mana for anything.

Game 1 was definitely hard to watch if you are a BA fan but good news, BA turns around in the second game. EG once again went for a similar yet slightly different strategy. Still picking Mirana for her Arrow, they set it up with the help of Shadow Demon played by Fly. While EG were able to secure multiple kills even on BA’s elusive Morphling, Moo decides to go all in and buys Divine Rapier as EG attempt to push high ground into BA’s base. With rapier on Weaver, he hits like a truck and managed to teamwipes the entire EG squad. Thanks to KOTL’s Will-O-Wisp, Arteezy could not escape the pull as BA kills him.

Arteezy dies back: https://youtu.be/MbFAKazEecE?t=888.

With the series tied after an incredible second game, game 3 is just as intense too. It was a back-and-forth tug-of-war, both sides had their shot at winning teamfights and losing too. But eventually, BA’s teamfight was too strong for Arteezy’s Terrorblade to fight against. With 8K gold lead on BA, EG knows they could not fight another teamfight and risk not having buyback.

This is when Arteezy heard the voices of s4 and AdmiralBulldog yelling at him to just rat it out. As soon as EG realized that BA is in their base instead of defending, they rushed into BA’s lonely Ancient. Arteezy’s Terrorblade overwhelmed the backdoor protection (what the hell, Icefrog, we need to talk about this broken item) with the neutral item, The Leveller, which grants a 25% bonus building damage. As if Terrorblade with Daedalus and Butterfly isn’t hitting hard enough. BA desperately tries to teleport back to their base to defend but it was too late.

Unexpected Ending:

With that, EG survives to enter the playoffs while BA is eliminated. Is EG viable with Ryoya and Bulba? Well, we will have to wait till the grand finals of ESL One’s LA 2020 North America. Stay tuned.