Gaimin Gladiators win BetBoom Dacha

BetBoom Dacha ended today with the victory of the number one favorite in the race, Gaimin Gladiators. The team led by Melchior “Seleri” Hillenkamp had a relatively easy tournament, or at least that’s how it felt from the outside.

The event featured eight strong teams, many of which will compete in The International 12. This makes Gladiators’ victory extremely relevant and may suggest that Quinn “Quinn” Callahan and his teammates are getting ready to win the Aegis of Champions in Seattle.

BetBoom Dacha champions! 🥳

Thanks to Fissure and BetBoom for organizing a summit like tournament!

Shoutout to our sponsors and everyone who cheered for us, I hope you enjoyed the IO+Lesh finish <3 pic.twitter.com/n42DUe9bNU

— Melchior Hillenkamp (@Seleri4096) September 16, 2023

Gladiators’ run

Gaimin Gladiators started the competition in group B, where they had to play against 9Pandas, beastcoast, and Nigma Galaxy. They won the first matches but drew against Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi’s squad. This was a very surprising result given that the two teams are dozens of positions apart from each other in the global rankings.

One reason why Nigma might have one has to do with their decision to pick Meepo, a hero we don’t see very often at the highest level because he’s so risky.

Gladiators won the group with 7 points and went on to win every playoffs battle. Their first opponent was TSM. In game 1, Gladiators’ Sven pick proved to be too strong for TSM to handle.

But in game 2, the North American team found a way to disrupt Gladiators’ timings and won in just 31 minutes with a Templar Assassin and a Monkey King. In game 3, once again, Quinn’s team picked Sven and had very little to do to win. TSM’s Troll and Templar Assassin didn’t stand a chance.

In the upper bracket Final, Team Secret played well but was bested in two games that were nearly identical. In game 1, Gladiators picked Gyrocopter and Brewmaster into a Sven and a Razor, and completely destroyed them in the late-game.

In game 2, both Secret’s cores from game 1 were picked by Gladiators, who demonstrated that their understanding of the current meta is better than everyone else’s.

In the Grand Final, Gladiators faced TSM for the second time and apart from game 3, which was won by TSM, the match looked very easy for them. Game 1 lasted just 25 minutes, while game 4 was over in 24. It seemed that no matter how much Gladiators varied their drafts, they knew what they had to do to win.

Header: FISSURE, BetBoom