After five enthralling games, TSM.FTX came out on top with a 3-2 win over Evil Geniuses to take first place in the North American DPC Regional Finals.
For the past many years, the name that has been at the fore of North American Dota 2 has been Evil Geniuses. But there is now a new contender for the top spot - TSM.FTX (formerly Undying). The five players, which came together just over a year ago, claimed their first ever top spot in the region with a 3-2 victory over EG in the NA DPC Regional Finals.
TSM beat EG 2-0 in the first round of the event, and then sent Quincy Crew down to the lower bracket with a 2-1 win. The grand final was a rematch with EG, and TSM showed that their first win wasn't a one off.
TSM FTX![]()
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Evil Geniuses
Evil GeniusesThe first game of the series was the most back and forth of the five games. The net worth kept switching sides, and there were five Roshans taken throughout the game. The decisive moment came when TSM decided to give the Aegis to Luna instead of Ember Spirit, who did not have a buy back. Once Ember was caught out and died, the game was all but over and EG took a 1-0 lead.
Games 2 and 4 were relatively straightforward. Both games were even for the first few minutes, after which they started tilting in favor of TSM, and eventually ended up going in their favor.
Game 3 was another game with a unexpected end. TSM built an 11,000 gold lead, but Evil Geniuses turned the tides in two fights on the back of a very farmed Terrorblade and ended up winning the game.
The last game was a very interesting one. TSM didn't engane in fights or even tower defences, and just held onto towers as much as they could with the help of Treant Protector's Living Armor. But once their three cores had BKB, which almost happened at the same time, they took the fight to EG, who had no answers to their superior team fight. Eventually, after all EG heroes were down without buy back, TSM headed towards the tier 4 towers and got EG to tap out.
It has been a long and winding road, but TSM have showed what hard work and sticking together can do for a team. The players were ecstatic after the win, which isn't too suprising. But captain David "MoonMeander" Tan was perhaps the one who's emotions poured out the most!
A contributor to the victory was former Evil Geniuses' captain, Tal "Fly" Aizak, who is now TSM's coach. While he enjoys a slice of the victory, the curse continues for his old team mate, Artour "Arteezy" Babaev, who is yet to win a Valve tournament.
TSM.FTX take a big step towards starting their TI11 qualification journey with 250 DPC points, and they will also take home $50,000. With the new organization backing them, this team can only get better. As for Evil Geniuses, it's back to the drawing board to figure out how they can re-establish their dominance in NA Dota 2.
That brings us to the end of all the Regional Finals in the six Dota 2 regions. It was two weekends of high octane Dota 2, some of the last we will witness on Dota 2 patch 7.30, as patch 7.31 will be released on the 23rd of February.
North American Regional Finals standings
1st place: $50,000 & 250 DPC Points 
TSM
2nd place: $25,000 & 130 DPC Points 
Evil Geniuses
3rd place: $15,000 
Quincy Crew
4th place: $10,000 
4 Zoomers
