It is a sweet dream that turns into reality for Gaimin Gladiators as they win another championship this year in the recent Dota 2 ESL DreamLeague Season 20. This is their second ESL trophy in 2023, along with their fourth consecutive win of the season.
This year, Gaimin Gladiators have been vicious gladiators, eliminating every enemy along the way. They won the Lima Major, followed by another win in the Berlin Major. Gaimin Gladiators previously won the ESL DreamLeague Season 19, securing their invites to the upcoming Riyadh Masters in Dubai.
With DreamLeague Season 20 in their hands, they have broken a new record for an organization winning four LAN Tier 1 tournaments in a row. The record was previously held by the 2012 Natus Vincere and 2013 Alliance with three consecutive events won in a row.
Rough start but a perfect ending for GG
Gaimin Gladiators started their DreamLeague Season 20 in Group B together with 9Pandas, betBoom Team, Team Aster, beastcoast, Shopify Rebellion, OG and Entity. It was an intense group stage with them ending up drawing four series, losing one against BetBoom and winning 2-0 against 9Pandas and Entity.
They managed to accumulate the points needed to end up in third place in the group and move forward into the next group stage.
Gaimin Gladiators then had to go against seven other teams in a seven-day round-robin stage. Group stage two was better for GG as they won four series and lost only two against PSG.LGD and BetBoom.
They then proceed to the final stage of DreamLeague Season 20 among the four top teams in the tournament.
Final DreamLeague Season 20 playoffs with four different regions
Gaimin Gladiators had to go against BetBoom Team, PSG.LGD, and Talon Esports in the last stage of DreamLeague Season 20. This is a colorful highlight of the tournament as we witness representatives from four different regions: China, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and Western Europe.
Gaimin Gladiators went into the Lower Bracket Semifinal against Talon Esports. The SEA team was a force from the beginning, proving themselves to be among the top teams in the world regardless of their disappointing performance in the last Dota Pro Circuit tour.
Talon Esports bow out from the tournament after Gaimin Gladiators took them down in Game 3. The European team then had to go against PSG.LGD, who previously lost to BetBoom in the Upper Bracket.
PSG.LGD seems to find its flare once again in the DreamLeague Season 20. The Chinese team dominates the China DPC region. Unfortunately, they have it hard in both Majors this season, ending up at 9th-12th place for both.
With PSG.LGD looking strong, Gaimin Gladiators have to pull out all their guns in bringing them down. PSG.LGD went out in third place and will bring home $120,000 USD.
Gaimin Gladiators proceeded to their fourth Tier 1 grand final of the season. They have to defeat BetBoom in order to break the record of most Tier 1 events won in a row.
BetBoom went from not being invited to the grand finalist
BetBoom playing the grand final was a pleasant surprise. They were not even supposed to be in the 20th season of DreamLeague. Since DreamLeague follows a certain invitation format, the invitation quota only goes to two Eastern European teams which are Team Spirit and 9Pandas.
Execration from South East Asia was supposed to be playing in DreamLeague Season 20 but they couldn’t attend due to visa issues. BetBoom joined the tournament to replace the SEA team. Flash forward, they ended up at the grand final ready to bring down the European giant.
In a best-of-five series, both sides of the European region fought their hardest battle. Gaimin Gladiators had a pretty rough start in the first game but managed to gain the momentum needed to win.
BetBoom, however, has gone so far and they did not go down easily. They demolished Gaimin Gladiators in the second and third games, getting so close to being the champion.
In Game 4, Gaimin Gladiators didn’t give any chance for BetBoom to breathe and managed to force a Game 5. The last game was a close one for both teams, desperately swinging the graph on their sides to secure their win. Gaimin Gladiators then ended DreamLeague Season 20 with a boom.
Gaimin Gladiators lift another ESL DreamLeague trophy and they are now eyeing the magnificent trophy of the Bali Major which is happening on July 29.
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