Gaimin Gladiators are the winners of the Lima Major

The Lima Major is finally over and the second-best team in Western Europe won. Gaimin Gladiators would have probably finished second or third under normal circumstances, but Team Liquid’s misfortune offered them an opportunity that they could not miss.

Liquid proved to be strong enough to play in the Grand Final, which was a remarkable feat given how strong Talon Esports had been until the lower bracket Final. But in that last match of the tournament, there was simply no way of beating Quinn “Quinn” Callahan’s team. The match was a quick 3-0 in their favor.

Gaimin Gladiator’s road to victory

Gaimin Gladiators started the Lima Major with a good but unimpressive record: 4 W – 3 D – 1 L. The fact that they lost against Evil Geniuses in group A seemed to suggest that they weren’t going to do anything spectacular. They were expected to finish in the top 6 ahead of the tournament, but certainly not to win the trophy.

Strangely enough, Talon drew against Execration and TSM, which proved to be the weaker teams in the group. But they won against Tundra Esports, Team Spirit, and PSG.LGD, despite their reputations and former victories.

In the playoffs stage, Gaimin Gladiators encountered Team Aster, Entity, and then Team Liquid. In all three matches, the result was a quick 2-0. This series of victories demonstrated that Gaiming Gladiators were now one of the best teams in the world.

Are they better than Liquid? Probably not. We know this because Liquid played the last three matches of the tournament without Samuel “Boxy” Svahn, who has been instrumental in their success since the very beginning.

We saw what happened when these two teams faced each other regionally. Liquid were much stronger and would have won the Lima Major under normal circumstances. But despite the incident involving Boxi, it’s clear that Gaimin Gladiators have made tremendous progress since they signed Quinn.

He’s probably very happy right now that he left North America and joined GG. He’s not the only top player on the roster. Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard is also here and the former Team Secret member is playing exceptionally well in his new role. He used to play as position 1, but now he plays as position 3.

In the upper bracket Final and the Grand Final, Gaimin Gladiators showed a clear preference for heroes that become strong very early and can go as 5. This was the strategy that won them the tournament.

Header: Gaimin Gladiators