TI12 Lower Bracket: Gladiators and nouns secure their top 8

The lower bracket of any major Dota 2 event is scary because one bad day is enough to get yourself eliminated from the race. The best teams in the world always try to secure at least a top 6 in the upper bracket before dropping to the lower bracket. But sometimes, that’s just not possible.

In the case of Gaimin Gladiators, their journey started in the lower bracket after the unexpected defeat against Talon Esports in the second phase of the group stage.

Other important teams that started in the lower bracket are TSM and Shopify Rebellion. Both of them got eliminated from the tournament. What’s strange is that the three North American teams had to play against each other in two consecutive matches.

In the first match, the supposedly weaker team, TSM, defeated the number one team in the region, Shopify. In the second match, the supposedly weaker team, nouns, defeated TSM. This is a very unusual situation but anyone who has been watching TI for many years understands that at this tournament, anything is possible.

LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO#TI12 #AgainstAllOdds #BNBGameOn pic.twitter.com/rHTrI6mMo9

— GG | Gaimin Gladiators ⚔️ (@GaiminGladiator) October 22, 2023

Results

The first half of the lower bracket matches for round 1 and round 2 were played yesterday. Nouns, as mentioned before, succeeded in securing a top 8 result. Most likely, they will go down in their next match against Gladiators. But it’s still very impressive to see them doing so well. It’s been quite a few years since we last saw Moo in such great shape.

Of course, his best TI to date remains the one from 2016, in which he reached the Grand Final with Digital Chaos. That was an absolute spectacle to watch. This time, even as a mere top 8 team, Nouns should be proud of themselves. Their achievement is solid. Too bad the reward will not be the one they deserve because the total prize pool is just $3 million.

In the other lower bracket matches, Gaimin Gladiators defeated both Evil Geniuses and 9Pandas without losing a single game.

Against EG, both games were difficult to win. The first one lasted nearly 70 minutes, while the second one lasted 43 minutes. Gladiators’ drafts were relatively standard but they picked some heroes that are supposed to be dead at the moment, such as Pangolier.

Against 9Pandas, the match was won with ease. Game 1 lasted less than 20 minutes and game 2 ended after just 32.

Header: Quinn