A slow start to Dota 2’s The International has turned into a dominant lower bracket run for Gaimin Gladiators who have now won three straight rounds without dropping a game and shattered North America’s dream of an underdog victory at The International 2023.
Nouns pulled off some of the biggest upsets at TI12 including a 2-0 victory over TSM to claim the highest placement for NA at the event and continue their Cinderella story into the top eight. Unfortunately, they stood no chance against Gaimin and got stomped in the second-fastest series of the playoffs.
Game one had no bright spots for nouns, who couldn’t control the game’s pace due to Gaimin’s offlane dominance, even after killing dyrachyo’s Weaver several times early. Drafting one of Moo’s signature heroes, Brewmaster, nouns were in the position to take down towers and assert map dominance, but they could only take down Gaimin’s tier ones before the three-time major champions cornered NA’s final hope in its base.
With all Gaimin heroes taking over the net worth chart, almost every fight ended up being one-sided, even when nouns had the element of surprise at the end of game one.
Coming into the second match, nouns stuck to its guns, allowing Gaimin to draft another “death-ball push” strategy revolved around Seleri’s Chen. Gaimin also improved its game two draft with heroes like Alchemist and Dazzle that came online even faster.
Gaimin was knocking on nouns’ base before they could take their core items for a spin at the 20-minute mark. When all hope seemed lost for nouns, Moo’s Dark Seer pulled off the best initiation possible for the team, though Gaimin quickly shrugged off the damage and marched on to seal the victory.
With NA’s last guard falling, Gaimin guaranteed a top-six finish at TI 2023, but the road to the Aegis of Champions is still a long one. While three major wins were enough to establish Gaimin as one of the most dominant teams of 2023, Tofu highlighted every tournament was a new journey for the squad where they would constantly learn new strategies and lessons.
On the other side of the spectrum, nouns exited TI 2023 with a top eight placement and “no regrets” according to Astini in the team’s post-match interview. Coming into the tournament from the regional qualifiers, attending TI was a dream for nouns, which turned into a reality with a story to tell that includes knocking out the TI11 champions and becoming the best NA team in the meantime.
