Gaimin Gladiators, who won multiple majors this year, are surprisingly not doing great at The International 2023. They have to start in the lower bracket, which is tough. But while everyone’s wondering why they’re struggling, Gorgc thinks the answer is easy to see: they were the best team with the best strategies and got hit with nerfs before the event, making things harder for them.
“What happened to Gaimin Gladiators? I mean, it’s kind of simple. They played with the best shit, won with the best shit, and this shit got nerfed. So now, when it’s hard to abuse it, they’re back at square one,” he said during his Oct. 19 stream.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s happened to other top Dota 2 teams before. Team Secret and the old Virtus.Pro know it well. They’d be winning all year, then Valve would nerf their favorite heroes and items right before TI kicks off, and they’d struggle to do well.
For that reason, Gorc thinks winning a lot before TI can actually be a bad thing. But he still says the Gaimin Gladiators are one of the best teams at the tournament and have a chance to do better.
Quinn plays best on heroes like Ember Spirit, Void Spirit, Leshrac, Puck, Storm Spirit, and Templar Assassin. But these heroes aren’t the strongest right now. Also, his go-to hero this year, Pangolier, was nerfed right before Tl 2023. He’s tried to play it and some of his other favorites, but he’s had to choose different heroes like Earthshaker, Necrophos, and Sniper.
Dyrachyo and Seleri, the strongest carry and support duo in the scene all year, have had to choose new meta heroes like Chaos Knight and Phoenix or Faceless Void and Jakiro instead of their usual favorites. Beastmaster, the hero Ace was doing great with all year, was nerfed too.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for the Gaimin Gladiators. They just missed getting into the upper bracket, but not by a lot. Plus, teams in the past have gone from the lower bracket to winning everything. So, we shouldn’t count them out just yet.
