Fnatic convincingly defeated tournament favorites Evil Geniuses, 2-1, to become the first team to advance to the Grand Finals of the Dota Summit 12, with the Southeast Asian squad shutting down their opponents with excellent teamfight execution in the deciding game three.

After each team took quick wins in the first two games of the series, both opted to run strong teamfight compositions in the decider.

EG drafted a lineup with strong teamfight ultimates with long cooldowns, with Artour “Arteezy” Babaev on Faceless Void, Abed Azel “Abed” Yusop on Shadow Fiend, Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev on Mars, Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen on a support Clockwerk, and Tal “Fly” Aizik on Snapfire.

Meanwhile, Fnatic’s teamfight revolved around abilities with shorter cooldowns compared to their opponents. Nuengnara “23 Savage” Teeramahanon was put on Riki, Kam “Moon” Boon Seng on Death Prophet, Daryl “iceiceice” Koh Pei Xiang on Pangolier, Djardel “DJ” Mampusti on Earthshaker, and Anucha “Jabz” Jirawong on Oracle.

Fnatic held a significant lead after the laning phase after they heavily pressured Abed on the mid lane and prevent him from having much of an impact early. After enjoying a free lane, Iceiceice’s Pangolier was able to control much of the midgame fights for his team and further their lead.

Fnatic continued to outlast EG’s big teamfight ultimates and dominated the fights, including one huge clash by the southeastern outpost at the 23-minute mark that allowed the Southeast Asian squad to destroy their opponents’ middle melee barracks.

However, EG were finally able to take a good teamfight at the 28-minute mark that gave them some breathing room and stalled Fnatic’s push.

As both teams were probing each other for weakness, Moon was able to set up a huge pickoff on Arteezy that secured them the top melee barracks. As Fnatic was on the retreat from that push, Arteezy bought back and EG tried to force a fight to give themselves a fighting chance.

That only ended in disaster for EG, as Fnatic expertly split up the fight so that their opponents’ ultimates were rendered useless, then picked off Abed and Arteezy. Without their two big cores, EG called GG at the 34-minute mark and conceded the series.

23savage and Moon combined for a great KDA line of 19/5/32 to lead their team in what is arguably Fnatic’s biggest series win so far this season. They now advance to the Grand Finals of the Dota Summit 12 and guarantee themselves at least US$25,000.

Meanwhile, EG drop down to the Lower Bracket Finals where they will face off against OG Seed for the chance to take on Fnatic for the championship.

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