The grand finals of Dota Pit Season 5 saw two titans of modern Dota clash for the top prize in Split, Croatia. Evil Geniuses and OG are no strangers, having faced off in the top three at both the Boston Major and The Summit 6. Dota Pit would be the two teams' first clash on patch 7.01, and though OG had often been the victor in months past, a winner's bracket final that saw EG emerge the victor set the tone for a heated contest.
Boston Major champions OG pulled out a last-pick Alchemist for Anathan "ana" Pham in game 1. OG quickly swamped EG's Shadow Demon/Luna composition in net worth, taking advantage of the new jungle camps and bounty rune spawns to keep Pham farmed despite early pressure. Utilizing the wealth of auras OG's draft provided, alongside some clutch spell-stealing by OG's Jesse "JerAx" Vainikka's Rubick, turning the potent crowd-control of EG against itself, OG secured the first win of the series.
After a several hour-long server issue delay, the draft for game 2 went underway. EG took the Lone Druid for itself, a pick that had seen mild success in OG's hands the game prior, while picking up an offlane Enigma and mid-lane Ember Spirit for its other cores. In a gradual rout of OG, Evil Geniuses exerted pressure on all three picks, but the real star was team captain Andreas Franck "Cr1t-" Nielsen on Rubick, participating in 33 of EG's 37 kills. At 38 minutes in, EG closed the game out and evened the series to 1-1.
Evil Geniuses went back to the well in game 3, drafting Shadow Demon, Luna and Centaur Warrunner. In response, OG took advantage of Earth Spirit slipping through the bans, picking up a signature hero for Vainikka. Once OG had cemented a lead, EG fell gradually into net worth disadvantage, with OG's Gustav "s4" Magnusson standing out on the patch-favored Underlord. Combined with Johan "n0tail" Sundstein's brutally effective Slark, a game three victory put OG on match point to win the series, 2-1.
Game 4 was a faster paced match, with both teams coming out swinging with aggressive picks in their drafts. A combined 21 kills had been tallied up at 10 minutes in, with advantage to EG's aggression. Heavy control from EG Nielsen's Earth Spirit and Saahil "UNiVeRsE" Arora's Dark Seer paved the way for Artour "Arteezy" Babaev to snowball on Weaver, alongside Sumail "Suma1L" Hassan's Quas/Wex Invoker. OG stalled out the inevitable, but despite finding space for Pham to farm on Ember, the European squad could not hold back the North American tide, and EG took the series to a fifth game.
Due to delays and server issues, the games had gone well into the night, as the final match between OG and EG started close to 3 a.m. local time, and fatigue was becoming a real issue. On the last pick of the draft, OG captain Tal "Fly" Aizik called an audible and put Sundstein on a safe-lane Sniper and Pham back on Ember Spirit mid, a move that threw off EG's lanes and garnered OG all three tier-one towers before EG took a single one in response.
EG's Babaev's Lone Druid kept pace with Sundstein however, and despite the deficit, EG seemed to take two for every one advantage OG gained in the early game. A critical ward spotting OG in the Radiant top lane trees led to a disastrous fight and signaled the end. EG methodically sieged the OG high ground, eliminating any and all avenues of comeback, and in a marathon 50-minute final game, EG won the Dota Pit Season 5 grand finals, 3-2.