After nearly a week of intense competition, the WePlay! Dota 2 Valentine Madness event saw a few familiar faces competing in the grand finals.
Two of the finalists from the WePlay! Dota 2 Winter Madness event that happened in December fought their way into the top three once again. The defending champions, Gambit Esports, and Ninjas In Pyjamas collided in the third round of the winners bracket.
Heading into that match, NiP were rolling along, while Gambit struggled through a tough series against The Pango to move on. Their match was extremely competitive, but behind the stellar play of their captain, Peter “ppd” Dager, NiP clinched the tight sweep.
After besting Gambit, NiP moved on and did the same to Natus Vincere. With an undefeated record heading into the grand finals, they awaited the winner of Na’Vi vs. Gambit in the lower bracket. Gambit defeated Alliance 2-1 to get another chance at the finals, but Na’Vi weren’t going to make it easy.
Two of the CIS’ finest teams split the first two matches despite some early dominance from Na’Vi. Once Gambit got some momentum behind them, though, they pushed right on through their opponent to force a rematch with NiP.
The best-of-five rematch in the grand finals was a battle of decisive calls and overwhelming offense. In all but the last round, the losing team failed to get double-digit kills, showing that they were on the defensive due to the other team pressing an advantage.
The first two games were 20-minute sprints, with each squad taking one game. Gambit came out in game three and set themselves up perfectly to win the whole thing in game four with another victory.
NiP tried to halt Gambit’s momentum, but even dragging the match out to 35 minutes didn’t do much to change things. With a K/D advantage of 30-15, Gambit claimed their second WePlay! title in the current Dota 2 season.
Both Gambit and NiP will compete at ESL One Katowice from Feb. 19 to 24.
Published: Feb 17, 2019 06:37 pm