Gaimin Gladiators are DreamLeague Season 20 Champions

Dota 2

26 Jun

Harrison Htet

The DreamLeague Season 20 has reached its climax as Gaimin Gladiators again comes out triumphed. Despite being the favourites, Gaimin had a shaky start during the first stages of the group, but in the later stages, Gaimin Gladiators found their footing.

However, unlike the previous tournaments, their opponent at the grand finals was not Team Liquid; instead, it was a last-minute replacement team, BetBoom Team. Unlike Gaimin Gladiators, BetBoom Team was a dark horse coming into DreamLeague Season 20.

However, BetBoom Team displayed a strong performance in the tournament dominating their way to the grand finals. The grand finals was a rematch for Gaimin Gladiators, where they successfully avenged their defeat at the upper bracket finals.

Game 1

In game 1, both teams traded blows during the laning stage. They also had a similar game plan, but Gaimin Gladiators had an adaptive safelane Bloodseeker. It was overall a very close match. However, Gaimin Gladiators play methodically and secure objectives faster than BetBoom, giving them a slight advantage. As the game progressed, Gaimin Gladiators forced some terrible fights from BetBoom Team, allowing them to take game 1.

Game 2

BetBoom Team came back with a vengeance in game 2. Drafting a similar draft to Gaimin Gladiators, BetBoom Team applied relentless pressure to Gaimin Gladiators during the laning stage and built themselves an early gold advantage. They snowballed their laning advantage perfectly, giving no chance for Gaimin to come back into the game. Eventually, at 37 minutes, Gaimin tapped out from game 2.

Game 3

In game 3, BetBoom played a fast-paced game with an offlane Legion Commander, midlane Storm Spirit and a safelane Bloodseeker. Gaimin, however, opted for a late game-oriented draft with a Shadow Fied safelane and a Dragon Knight midlane. BetBoom capitalised on their draft advantage, heavily pressuring GG throughout the game. Although Gaimin tried to stop their bleeding, they couldn’t, as BetBoom outpaced them in every aspect. At 28 minutes, BetBoom Team took game 3.

Game 4

Gaimin Gladiators came back with a plan in game 4. Unlike their previous matches, Gaimin drafted a four-protect-one draft that allows them to play a high-tempo game as soon as their midlane Storm Spirit hits level 6. Their support duo with perfect rotations enables their midlane, and with offlane Lycan and safelane Terrorblade, Gaimin Gladiators took the objectives with ease. Although BetBoom Team got some window to come back into the game, a 30-minute high-ground attempt caught them off guard, eventually costing them the match at 36 minutes.

Game 5

Gaimin went with a Medusa draft backed by their signature midlane Huskar and an offlane Broodmother for game 5. Gaimin Gladiators had a terrific start. Their midlane Huskar completely countered BetBoom’s midlane Ember Spirit.

Moreover, their side lanes also went well, as BetBoom can’t seem to answer both the Medusa lane and Broodmother lane when their midlane needs help. Capitalising on Huskar’s item timing, BetBoom took crucial objectives and waited for Medusa’s item timing for the high-ground attempt.

Although BetBoom fended off the first high-ground attempt by Gaimin Gladiators, a crucial mistake by their offlane Doom in the second high-ground attempt gave the game and the series to Gaimin Gladiators.