Two months after its creation, Elephant has finally reached the top. And by that I mean they have won an important regional tournament that featured the biggest teams in China. In this article, I will take a brief look at how they became the champions of China Dota2 Pro Cup Season 2.
Group Stage Results
The tournament started poorly for Elephant, with a defeat against Vici Gaming. But even in this defeat, the team still managed to win one game, which was a clear sign of strength. Because VG finished the Group Stage with 6 wins, 1 loss, and just 4 lost games in total. So it wasn’t exactly easy to steal even one game from them.
After this defeat, Elephant went on to win 3 consecutive matches against Aster, SAG, and Invictus Gaming. Then came their second loss of the tournament, against EHOME, a team they would encounter once against in the Playoffs. What’s surprising is that in the last two matches, Elephant had to fight against the strongest team in the region, PSG.LGD, as well as RNG. And they won in both cases.
In the end, Elephant finished the Group Stage of China Dota2 Pro Cup Season 2 in 3rd place (5 W – 2 L), right after Vici Gaming (6 W – 1 L) and Aster (5 W – 2 L), but ahead of EHOME, PSG.LGD, and SAG. Overall, apart from iG (0 W – 7 L) and RNG (2 W – 5 L), everyone qualified for the Playoffs.
Playoffs Results
Because they finished 3rd , Elephant started the Playoffs Stage of China Dota2 Pro Cup Season 2 in the Upper Bracket. But the first game against Aster resulted in a loss for them and they had to take the long path through the Lower Bracket. Fortunately for them, they encountered SAG first, which wasn’t a real challenge, and then had to defeat PSG.LGD, which was. The first two games of this second match ended rather quickly: 26 minutes for game one (won by Elephant) and 38 minutes for game two (won by PSG.LGD). Then came game three, which needed 94 minutes to conclude. After a lot of struggle, Elephant won and had the chance to play against EHOME for a place in the Grand Final.
Just like the previous match, against PSG.LGD, the one against EHOME started with a victory for Elephant followed by a defeat. Both games needed 40 minutes to conclude. Then, in a repeat of the situation of the third game from the battle against PSG.LGD, Elephant needed 80 minutes to defeat EHOME. Once again, their Mars did miracles in the ultra late game, when every single mistake was costly.
Grand Final
The Grand Final of China Dota2 Pro Cup Season 2 was disputed between Elephant and Aster and it ended much faster than everyone had anticipated. Since both teams had won one game against their opponent during the Group Stage and Playoffs of this tournament, people were hoping to see a balanced fight for the trophy. Instead, Elephant crushed Aster in 3 quick games (3 – 0) that took 32, 31, and 38 minutes respectively.
Thanks to this win, Elephant can now be regarded as a top 3 team in China, and possibly even the best. Of course, we still need to see how they’ll perform at future events, but I think it’s safe to say that based on their roster and how quickly they’ve managed to climb the ranks, Elephant is set for a great future.
Photo credit: Valve