Gaimin Gladiators manhandle Somnus at TI 2023 to keep Dota 2 curse at bay

Five days of surging through The International 2023’s lower bracket has paid off for Gaimin Gladiators as they completed their fourth sweep of the playoffs with a SUNSfan-patented “Gaben Shellacking” of Somnus and Azure Ray. 

Gaimin faced their first true challenge of the TI12 main event earlier today when they took on regional rivals Team Liquid for the 12th time this year—eliminating them from the event with a 2-1 victory. Heading into a matchup with a lineup of Chinese veterans, many fans expected a similar back-and-forth battle, but fans instead witnessed a 2-0 that didn’t even hit 46 minutes in total. 

Game one was nothing flashy out of the gates, but Quinn put on a show with his Pangolier, taking control of the tempo for his team as Gaimin pushed against a greedy AR draft for an early 1-0 series lead. 

The second game, however, was basically over right away, with Gaimin locking AR down with a full team wipe in just over a minute—three kills of which went to Ace’s Lone Druid before the pre-match interview with LaNm was even over.

Pair that with dyrachyo’s still undefeated Weaver being an absolute menace on AR’s side of the map and nearly landing a Rampage, and from there the Chinese team folded quickly. 

“Many people complain that it’s too much late game, it’s too hard to get high ground. I don’t think it’s hard,” Seleri said cheekily post-game. 

According to datdota statistician Noxville, this is the fifth fastest non-best-of-one series in TI history at 45 minutes and 50 seconds, with the fastest Evil Geniuses’ sweep of Fnatic in the TI7 group stage that lasted just 39 minutes and 42 seconds. 

With this win, Gaimin is one step closer to breaking two long-standing TI streaks—though they will need to lift the Aegis for both to truly be erased. 

Since the Dota Pro Circuit began, no team has ever won a Major and TI in the same season. The closest any team has come is PSG.LGD twice, winning the MDL Changsha Major and finishing second at TI8 before doing the same with the WePlay AniMajor and TI10.

Additionally, no team has ever claimed the Aegis from the lower bracket, meaning Gaimin has the chance to be the first to do both and also become the only team to ever complete a “Dota Grand Slam” by taking home all four titles in a single year.

While this series, and most of their lower bracket run, has been easy so far, Seleri maintains it was good they had a rough group stage and were beaten by Talon Esports before the playoffs because they “learned a lot” and are now a different team.

Now they only have to beat LGD Gaming for a chance to play Team Spirit in the grand finals, which Gaimin seems pretty confident in their ability to do. “Getting there will be the hardest,” Seleri said. “If we are [in grand finals] we definitely aren’t losing.”