The Dota 2 Asia Championship returned this week after taking 2016 off, and a new champion has been crowned after four days of intense match-ups. Both teams competing for the lion’s share of the $600K prize pool will be familiar to the Dota 2 community. But it was Invictus Gaming that claimed the spot with the second 3-0 Grand Finals victory in the Dota 2 Asia Championship’s relatively short history.
Fans of competitive Dota 2 probably expected a close Best of Five series when a perennial powerhouse, Invictus Gaming, met the winners of the 2016 Boston Major, Team OG, in the Grand Finals. And it looked like it would be close… for about an hour. There were some great moments during the first 50-55 minutes of Game One, despite Invictus’ consistent lead, but OG never recovered after collapsing late in the first match. It was a surprising outcome, given the squad’s recent dominance on the Dota 2 Major circuit. OG claimed top prize in three of Valve’s last six tournaments: the 2016 Boston Major, 2016 Manila Major and 2015 Frankfurt Major. But they just couldn’t pull out a win against Invictus this week.
The good news for anyone who missed out on the action is that the entire 2017 Dota 2 Asia Championship tournament can be watched for free. Most of the matches have been archived on Twitch, courtesy of The Dreamcasters, but the entire tournament can also be watched via the Dota 2 client. If you don’t have time to watch the entire Invictus-OG showdown, we’d at least recommend watching Game 1 of the Grand Finals. But there are plenty of other great matches available too, some of which we’ll undoubtedly see again when The International returns to Seattle in August.
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