The rivalry between Team Liquid and Gaimin Gladiators went down in Dota 2 history last year. In 2023, GG came out on top in a grand finals against Liquid no fewer than 4 times. But today, Liquid got their revenge. They eliminated the Gladiators from the BetBoom Dacha 2024 in a decisive 2-1 game.
Credit: Betboom Dacha
Team Liquid take out Gaimin Gladiators
It’s not often we see the likes of Gaimin Gladiators making their way through the lower bracket. In 2023, they knocked out everyone on their road to victory before falling to Team Spirit in at The International grand finals. But some things are always certain in Dota: death, taxes and no one staying on top for long. Despite a strong performance in the group stage, they were knocked down by BetBoom Team, a notorious thorn in their side.
In this lower bracket quarterfinal series, Team Liquid made a surprising Sniper last pick in game one, really putting GG on the back foot. Nisha completely dominated Quinn in the early game, out CS-ing him by a country mile. But GG made their comeback in game 2 with Seleri’s Enigma earning a 3x kill streak in the first few minutes.
It all came down to a decisive game 3 and while GG did make them work for it, there wasn’t much they could do against an Alchemist, TA and Windranger line up. The lower bracket quarterfinals is a slightly anticlimactic place to finally defeat a nemesis but Liquid must be nonetheless elated that 3 series now stand between them and victory.
Next up: DreamLeague Season 22
Liquid’s revenge for the 2023 season won’t really be complete until they take down the Gladiators in a grand finals. While they didn’t get that opportunity this time, there’s plenty more Dota to come.
DreamLeague season 22 is set to kick off on February 25th. Liquid will have their chance again but it won’t be easy. They’ll still have to deal with previous TI champions Spirit, Tundra and OG (they still count!).
You must be logged in to post a comment Login