The Riyadh Masters at the eSports World Cup has ended with Gaimin Gladiators comfortably beating their Dota 2 arch-rivals Team Liquid 3-0, thus completing the playoff run flawlessly. The competition is also their first tournament victory in 2024.
Perhaps it has come at the best time for Gaimin with the TI 2024 approaches, as they can take that good form into the next competition. They started the Dota 2 calendar poorly after a successful end to a good 2023 season, where they had a TI final appearance and three Major wins.
After starting slowly as they struggled to get an upper bracket playoffs, Gaming got into the groove and never backed down on their way to winning the tournament and the USD 1.5 million prize.
Players on the roster Quinn and TOfu explained that the team put a lot of time into boot camp in order to transform their poor form into a good one at this tournament. TOfu especially stated that he’s proud of the team1111’s first top-four finish on LAN this year after putting in the effort to get better weeks prior.
“We’ve been trying for weeks and months, and especially in this last stretch, we’ve been putting so much time, effort, and passion into this whole project,” TOfu said.
Gaimin was leveled with OG and Team Spirit to make the playoffs from the upper bracket. Gaimin beat Entity (now Cloud9) and Falcons before facing TL, where they won five straight. It is the first time in the year that Gaimin Gladiators will end in the top four in Dota 2.
Interestingly, Team Liquid had defeated Gaimin at PGL Wallachia and Elite League, to break the one-sided results that were frequent in the head-to-head between the two teams.
The next time Gaimin Gladiators will be in action will be in September at Tl 2024 while Team Liquid will feature at Elite League Season Two.
