Chinese underdogs Wings Gaming have shocked the world with an astounding upset at the Summit 5, just three months after their surprise victory at ESL One Manila.
Wings took down overwhelming favorites OG in two separate series this past weekend. Their resurgent form comes roughly one-and-a-half months after their disastrous performance at the Dota 2 Manila Major, where the team was eliminated in last place. To go from a performance like the one they put on in Manila to being able to beat OG, who went on to win the Major, is a very rare occurrence.
OG made history on June 12 when they took home the Manila Major and became the first team in the game’s history to win two Valve-sponsored events. The multi-national team’s star player Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi was considered to be the best player in the world for the majority of 2016, further emphasising how surprising Wings’ victory was this weekend.
The grand final kicked off with a quick and easy 18-minute game going the way of OG, with Johan “n0tail” Sundstein and Miracle- plowing through Wings with little to no issue. The three remaining games, however, all went in the favor of Wings. With impeccable calls and star performances on the part of Chu “shadow” Zeyu and Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida, Wings were able to close the series out in convincing fashion.
Aside from the bout between OG and Wings, the Summit 5 also saw an invigorated Natus Vincere (Na`Vi) in attendance. Having showed a substantial improvement in 2016, Na`Vi is still not viewed as a top team worldwide, which caused a bit of a stir after it was revealed that the Ukrainians were directly invited to Valve’s mega-event the International 6 in favor of the Malaysian Fnatic roster—despite Fnatic’s more impressive results at Valve events throughout the year.
The Summit 5 gave the teams a chance to settle the score, as they faced each other in the second round of the loser’s bracket. While a Fnatic victory was expected, Na`Vi surprised onlookers and defeated the Malaysian team 2-1. Despite this, Na`Vi were eliminated in the following series against two-time major finalists Team Liquid.
With the Summit 5 being the one of the final tournaments heading into the almost $18 million International 6, Wings look to be one of the teams to watch in Seattle.
