Dota 2 Arlington Major: EG mount incredible comeback over Spirit behind Nightfall's Enigma

Evil Geniuses (EG) mounted the biggest comeback of the Dota 2 PGL Arlington Major yet in game one of their Group Stage match against The International 10 (TI10) champions Team Spirit.

Despite being over 25,000 gold behind and losing their top barracks, EG managed to win an incredible teamfight on the back of offlaner Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko's Enigma catching Spirit's two biggest cores.

That play let EG secure their first win of the Arlington Major in style and eventually led to a huge 2-0 sweep over the TI10 champions.

There are a lot of things that happen in that 40-second teamfight, so here's a breakdown of what EG did that allowed them to mount that massive comeback over Team Spirit:

EG fought in vision while Team Spirit went in blind

It's easy to forget when watching tournament games, but players in Dota 2 always have to contend with the Fog of War and need to adjust to the vision situation of both teams.

EG were massively behind in game one, but they had the advantage of playing on their side of the map, letting them set up the perfect area for what ended up being the decisive clash of the game: right next to a cliff ward and with several choke points around them.

This is what EG were working with at 47:41, right before the teamfight erupted:

Team Spirit did have two factors that helped them in the vision department, Zeus' Thundergod's Wrath ultimate and Monkey King's increased vision whenever he perches atop trees.

While those two spells are good to have in fights, they don't provide sustained vision. Thundergod's Wrath only lasts three seconds while Monkey King spends most of his time in teamfights on the ground.

Here's what Team Spirit was seeing when the fight began at 47:41:

The vision advantage for EG allowed them to easily spot all of the Spirit heroes and cast their spells accordingly, especially for Nightfall. The opposite was true for Team Spirit, as their offlaner, Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov, had huge issues entering the fight due to the lack of information.

EG took the fight in the best location possible for them, but that's not the only thing they did that allowed them to make a comeback.

Nightfall had the perfect item build for the game

The MVP of the fight was Nightfall on Enigma.

He started the engagement with a perfect Black Hole that catches Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk's Monkey King and Alexander "TORONTOTOKYO" Khertek's Void Spirit, while also dragging Collapse towards them thanks to his Aghanim's Shard.

All the items Nightfall had purchased in the game paid off massively during the teamfight.

His Linken's Sphere prevented Collapse from using Doom on him while his Black King Bar was instrumental in preventing the rest of Team Spirit from stopping his Black Hole.

Wraith Pact also severely reduced the damage from Team Spirit and, lastly, Refresher Orb doubled the value of all his items.

Nightfall didn't purchase anything that wasn't on the usual Enigma shopping list. But the way he used his items perfectly was one of the main factors in EG's victory in that game.

Amazing target prioritisation by Abed and Cr1t-

Watching the fight, it's clear that EG had a game plan on how to approach engagements. A big factor in their comeback was thanks to Abed "Abed" Yusop's Puck focusing on the Team Spirit supports and zoning them out of the fight.

Thanks to Abed's aggressive jump on the supports, Yaroslav "Miposhka" Naidenov's Dazzle could only get one volley of spells off during the fight. Miroslaw "Mira" Kolpakov fared slightly better on Zeus but he was also zoned out by Abed's Puck.

Abed wasn't alone in his efforts, as Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen's Tusk joined him as the fight was winding down and secured the killing blow on the supports of Team Spirit.

Thanks to their efforts, Mira and Miposhka were non-factors in the most critical teamfight of the game.

After a rough 0-4 start on the first day of the Arlington Major, EG hit back hard on day two, winning three of their four matches. Time will tell if the team can ride their current momentum and qualify for the playoffs.

The PGL Arlington Major will take place from 4 to 14 August and features 17 of the best Dota 2 teams in the world fighting for their slice of the US$500,000 prize pool and 4,570 DPC point pool.

For everything you need to know about the Arlington Major, check here.

Evil Geniuses roster

1. Artour "Arteezy" Babaev

2. Abed "Abed" Yusop

3. Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko

4. Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen

5. Tal "Fly" Aizik

Team Spirit roster

1. Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk

2. Alexander "TORONTOTOKYO" Khertek

3. Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov

4. Miroslaw "Mira" Kolpakov

5. Yaroslav "Miposhka" Naidenov

Otomo is a long-time gaming enthusiast and caster. He has been playing games since he was 10 and is the biggest Dota 2 fan.

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