Team Secret has been crowned champion in the recently concluded Dota 2 ESL One Katowice 2019. The Chongqing Major Champion dominated the tournament from day one.
Team Secret played the opener of the ESL One Katowice 2019 against OG. Team Secret would initially lead the match before OG took over and claimed victory in around 54 minutes. That ended up as the only defeat Team Secret had as the team won the second match with MidOne's Pangolier taking in 14 kills and Nisha's Spectre bringing in 12 kills. Team Secret had a resounding 40-12 victory in just a little over 30 minutes.
Team Secret showed its dominance against Forward Gaming, finishing both matches within 30 minutes. Forward Gaming didn't even reach double digits in terms of kills. Team Secret repeated the performance for its next two games against Mineski and For The Dream. It was the same story against Gambit Esports as Team Secret only needed 36 minutes to finish the first match and almost 24 minutes for the second match.
Team Secret's momentum continued in the Playoffs, beating Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 to move to the Upper Bracket Finals. The team faced Gambit Esports again before beating them to earn a place in the Grand Finals and secure a runner-up finish.
To reach the Grand Finals, Gambit beat Fnatic 2-1 before sweeping OG in the Lower Bracket Finals. The Grand Finals played stage to the third time Team Secret and Gambit faced off and the story was the same. While it would take Team Secret a bit longer to beat Gambit, the result was still a sweep.
With the win, Team Secret took home $125,000 with Gambit Esports earning $65,000.
Telepathic conversation between @midonedota2 & @zai_2002:
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) February 24, 2019
MidOne: 'Welcome to the club bro.'
Zai: 'Thanks, let's go out for a spin.'#ESLOne #MBmvp pic.twitter.com/Nbo4DPgKlT
TI8 Champion OG won one game against Team Secret in the opening matches and had a strong showing despite being defeated by Gambit 0-2 in the Group Stage. This resulted in OG going to the lower bracket against Team Aster. OG sweep Team Aster before beating Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-1. The team also beat out Fnatic 2-0 before succumbing to Gambit in the Upper Bracket Finals. The finish lets OG claim $35,000 of the prize pool.
Fnatic had a strong showing in the Group Stage, dropping only one game each to Ninjas in Pyjamas and compLexity Gaming. Its lower bracket match would be against another SEA Team, Mineski, who Fnatic would beat 2-1. Fnatic however could not find an answer to OG's play and dropped to fourth place and a $20,000 prize.
