Gaimin Gladiators have won the Dota 2 Bali Major after beating Team Liquid 3-1 in the grand final. This marks the third time that Gaimin Gladiators have beaten Team Liquid in the final of a Major this season and puts Gaimin as the favorites for The International 12 later this year.
The final started out with each team taking a win off the other to set up what was effectively a best-of-three to decide who would become the final Major champion of the season. Both opening matches were incredibly even with some big momentum shifts, showing just how even the teams were. But then in game three, Gaimin Gladiators dominated Liquid, winning in just 21 minutes. Game four then started out better for Liquid, but quickly turned the other way, with Gaimin taking the win to become three-time Major champions.
The win sees Gaimin take home their third Major trophy of the year and the $200,000 first-place prize. Team Liquid takes home $100,000 while Tundra Esports claims $75,000 for third place and Quest Esports gets $50,000 for fourth.
Gaimin Gladiators didn’t have the strongest start to the tournament, ending the group stage in third place with four draws. However, once they got into the playoffs they returned to the dominant team we have come to expect, they dispatched beastcoast, Quest Esports and Tundra Esports in the upper bracket before meeting Liquid in the final.
Liquid on the other hand looked great in the group stage, topping Group A without a single 2-0 loss. They edged past PSG.LGD in the first round of the upper bracket, but then lost to Tundra Esports in the upper bracket semi-final. They would then go on to have close 2-1 victories over 9Pandas and Quest Esports in the lower bracket before avenging their previous loss with an impressive 2-0 win over Tundra to book themselves into the final.
Of course, the big story of the tournament was BetBoom player Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko being disqualified for having a Twitch stream open during a game. This put BetBoom at risk of missing out on The International 12, but fortunately for them, results went their way and they still qualified. However, the tournament has also been criticized by fans for poor production quality and a number of technical issues throughout the event.
Now all eyes in the Dota world turn to The International 12 qualifiers that are due to take place in a few weeks. Eight spots are still up for grabs at the biggest tournament of the year, and in many regions, the qualifiers are stacked with teams you would expect to make TI, so they should be good.
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