For the 24th time this season, Gaimin Gladiators have overcome Team Liquid in a game of Dota 2, but this time the stakes were much higher as the three-time 2023 Dota Major champions sent their Western European rivals packing from The International.
From the very first Tour of the Dota Pro Circuit to the opening days of TI12, Gaimin and Liquid have been two of the strongest teams in the world, meeting 34 times over the course of the 2023 season.
Gaimin won 22 of those meetings for a 64.7 percent winrate according to datdota, and during that span the two Western European juggernauts met in the grand finals of all three DPC Majors, with Gaimin becoming the first team to ever win all three during the same season.
While Gaimin fell off slightly ahead of TI12, both teams entered the event among the favorites to win it all. Liquid looked stronger early on and made it all the way to the upper bracket seminfinals while Gaimin was left fighting for their tournament lives from the start of the playoffs.
On the back of some stellar play from Ace, Gaimin won three straight series without dropping a game while Liquid swept Talong Esports before falling to Team Spirit and dropping down themselves, setting up the ultimate DPC rematch. The final clash of WEU teams at TI12 did live up to the hype, going a full three games with plenty of trades and only one stomp.
Game one was rocky for Liquid, but Gaimin got cocky during a Roshan fight 27 minutes in that led to miCKe’s Luna getting an Aegis and the tide completely shifting. For the last 13 minutes of the game, Gaimin was only able to secure one kill on Liquid, leading to a fairly dominant close to the opener.
In a very similar fashion, Liquid played for objectives and took Roshan, giving miCKe’s Luna the Aegis once more before smoking for a fight. Things did not go the same way in game two, however, as that next fight went completely in Gaimin’s favor Ace’s Lone Druid paired with dyrachyo’s Razor proved to be too much to handle–evening up the series.
Gaimin stepped things up in game three, putting Ace on Wraith King and tOfu on Muerta so they could pressure Liquid in lanes while dyrachyo did his thing on Weaver. Liquid only led once during that game and only killed each of Gaimin’s cores once while zai’s Centaur Warrunner was completely shut down.
According to dyrachyo, he was not feeling well for most of this series after getting a bit sick the evening before, so his 10/1/9 performance in an elimination game looks even more impressive.
“During the draft [in game three] I wanted to throw up and my team was asking what we should draft,” dyrachyo said. “I’m just looking at my keyboard feeling bad, giving no response but say pick Weaver, pick Weaver [laughs.] I feel really bad myself, but we won and I’m happy.”
Getting Weaver for dyrachyo was likely a no-brainer even if he wasn’t responding much during the draft, since he has a 100 percent winrate on one of TI12’s defining heroes in the three games he has been allowed to play it.
Now dyrachyo plans to “chug medicine and sleep” before the team’s next series, where they will play for a top three spot at TI12 against Chinese squad Azure Ray who overcame BetBoom in a 2-1 victory.
For Liquid, this marks their seventh time finishing in the top eight at a TI but their first fifth-place exit. It also marks a disappointing end for the team after finishing third last year and adding Nisha to its powerhouse roster, which now leads them to an uncertain future as players like zai contemplate what is next for their professional careers.
