Gaimin Gladiators keeps their Lima Major hopes alive

Team Liquid became the first team from Western Europe to qualify for the Lima Major last week.

The region has become even more intense as Gaimin Gladiators secure a crucial win against ITB.shuffle.

Recapping the Action:

Going into the series, Gaimin Gladiators were anticipated to eventually come out on top, as they have shown everyone what they’re capable of by taking a convincing match against Team Liquid, who were undefeated so far in the Tour. ITB.Shuffle on the other hand were in risk of getting relegated to Division II as Team Secret took a crucial win against them prior to this series.

Both games saw the resurgence of position 1 Pudge as it was played by Anton “DyrachYO” Skredov. Gaimin Gladiators also picked Nature Prophet as their offlane hero for both games.

Game 1:

In game 1, ITB.Shuffle opted to play safelane hardcarry Marci. That decision however came back to haunt them. Even though ITB.Shuffle had a good laning stage and a solid game plan, they couldn’t achieve anything besides killing Quinn “Quinn” Callahan’s mid Pangolier at the start of every team fight.

As the game progresses, Dannay “Ace” Junget on his offlane Nature’s Prophet and Anton “DyrachYO” Skredov took over the match once they hit their item timing closing the match at 37 minutes with a networth advantage of 30K gold and the score of 15 - 38.

Game 2:

In game 2, ITB. Shuffle put up a stronger showing with their mid Ember Spirit and making a huge impact on the map with his BKB timing. However Ace on his offlane Nature Prophet was able to split the map, while efficiently pushing the waves and farming.

The game could have gone either way until around 40 minutes, when ITB.Shuffle made a crucial mistake giving Gaimin Gladiators both the Aegis and the map. Gaimin Gladiators capitalised on the opportunity presented to them to close out the match at 47 minutes with a 30K gold net worth advantage and the score of 31-24.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9U-mA3bHoQ

Glimpse of the future 

Due to the results of this match, Gaimin Gladiators are now tied with Tundra and OG with the score of 4 win(s) and 2 loss(es). Although the Lima Major still has 3 remaining spots for the Western European region, the cutthroat region have more intense series as the final week for the Division 1 Winter Tour is at its dawn. With the next 2 set of series for the region set tomorrow, fans will have to wait and see which teams will be claiming their ticket to the Lima Major and which teams will have to stay behind at Division I.

Featured Image Source: Twitter/@ccncdota2