Gaimin Gladiators ended an excellent performance at Dota 2 Lima Major with a sweep of Team Liquid to claim the championship. We say excellent because Gaimin was undefeated in their entire run of the playoffs stage. With the win, they took home $200,000 and 400 DPC Points.
The Journey
The run of Gaimin Gladiators started with a second-place finish in Tour 1 in Western Europe. In the group stage, the team ended on top in a tie with Team Spirit having a 11-5 win-loss record.
It was in the playoffs that the team started to shine. In the upper bracket, they faced off against Team Aster. The first game was a blowout with Gaimin ending with 19 team kills versus nine from Aster. The second game was a close one with Gaimin eventually getting the upper hand to close the match at 2-0. The next match was against Entity but Gaimin didn't have that much trouble and easily obtained the win.
The upper bracket final was against Team Liquid. Much like its match against Entity, Gaimin had a strong showing to secure a spot at the grand final.
A Rematch
For the grand final, it was Gaimin against Liquid once again. In the first game, Gaimin was able to take advantage of the fact that the lineup of Liquid was rather fragile. This allowed Marcus "Ace" Christensen on Primal Beast and Quinn "Quinn" Callahan on Timbersaw to dominate. As a result, Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov on Lina was able to hit his timings.
In the second game, Gaimin went with Pangolier for Quinn. With the mobility this hero has, Quinn was able to wreak havoc against Liquid all over the map, ending the game in a little over 21 minutes with 27 kills against six by Liquid.
The third game had Gaimin go for the combo of Witch Doctor and Io on the offlane. To try and offset this healing combo, Liquid decided to choose Ancient Apparition, Earthshaker, and Tiny. Eventually, the healing from Gaimin's duo was just too much and whatever damage Liquid could do wasn't enough.
A Substitution
Considering that the upper bracket final and grand final had two teams from Western Europe, there was the expectation of a good fight. However, it was clear that expectations didn't meet reality. Part of the reason is Samuel "Boxi" Svahn missing those two matches due to a medical emergency and having Liquid analyst Mathis "Jabbz" Friesel serve as a stand-in.
Even with the loss and second-place finish at Lima Major, Liquid sustains the number one spot in the rankings for the current DPC season.
What was your favorite part of the Lima Major? Dota 2 is available on PC through Steam
