Gaimin Gladiators win DreamLeague S20

At the start of DreamLeague S20, people were skeptical of Gaimin Gladiators’ ability to continue to dominate Dota 2’s professional scene. The team had lost two matches in Tour 3 and finished 2^nd.

During the first two days of the tournament, Gladiators looked very strong. They won against 9Pandas and drew against three other teams: Shopify Rebellion, beastcoast, and Team Aster. Then came another victory against Entity, followed by a draw against OG. The final match, against BetBoom Team, was a defeat.

With a record of 2 W – 4 D – 1 L, Gladiators finished third in group B and advanced to stage 2 of the tournament. In this stage, the match format was best-of-three, and Gladiators started with two consecutive defeats.

It looked like the beginning of the end for Quinn “Quinn” Callahan’s team, but the next five days were the exact opposite of the first two. Eventually, Gladiators finished 3^rd with 5 wins and 2 defeats. BetBoom had the same record but won the tiebreaker for 2^nd place.

The teams that defeated Gladiators during stage 2 of DreamLeague S20 were BetBoom (twice) and PSG.LGD. The Western European team was going to encounter both of them in the playoffs.

We are the champions, my friends
And we’ll keep on fighting till the end ♪

W INTERVIEW IS UP! #ESLProTour pic.twitter.com/KPaUGSvKSA

— GG | Gaimin Gladiators ⚔️ (@GaiminGladiator) June 25, 2023

DreamLeague S20 playoffs results

Gladiators started this final stage of the tournament in the lower bracket. Their first match was against Talon Esports, who looked really strong and won the first game in 46 minutes using an Anti-Mage strategy.

But in the second and third games, Gladiators proved to be much stronger. They picked heroes like Undying, Techies, Beastmaster, Bloodseeker, Underlord, and Terrorblade. In other words, they stayed within the meta and relied on their superior tactics to win.

In the lower bracket Final awaited PSG.LGD, who had lost against BetBoom (0-2). Once again, Gladiators lost the first game and had to make an epic comeback in game 2. They were at an 8000 gold disadvantage at the 25-minute mark and won the game less than 10 minutes later.

In the third game of the match, PSG.LGD were once again ahead, having a 4000 gold lead at the 23-minute mark. But once again, Gladiators proved to be better.

In the Grand Final, BetBoom looked much stronger initially and had a 2-1 lead. But in the end, Gladiators managed to win by spamming Undying in every single game of the bo5 series, as well as Techies (three times), Dragon Knight (twice), Bloodseeker (twice), and Beastmaster (twice).

Header: Gaimin Gladiators