Tundra 3-0 Secret to win The International 11

What an amazing run and what a dominant performance for Tundra Esports at The International 11! This team had almost no chance of winning in our eyes, and yet they emerged victorious.

It seems that the TI tradition, according to which underdogs are more likely to win than the top favorites, has been preserved. PSG.LGD, Team Spirit, and OG were supposed to fight for the Aegis of Champions.

Instead, two teams from the Last Chance Qualifier, Team Liquid and Team Secret, along with Tundra, were the ones that got the best results.

Tundra won The Internationa without losing a single game in the Grand Final and with an almost perfect run overall in the playoffs. They only lost one game in total. A 3-0 result in the Grand Final of The International only happened once before, in 2017.

At that edition, Team Liquid smashed Newbee and won their first Aegis of Champions. At TI11, Liquid had another chance, but they lost in the lower bracket Final and finished third.

The Grand Final of The International 11

The Grand Final of TI11 was played between Tundra and Secret. The two teams had already met each other twice at this tournament, in the group stage and in the upper bracket Final. Both times, Tundra won.

Before the match even started, everyone knew, including Clement “Puppey” Ivanov, that Tundra were almost certainly going to win. Still, Secret tried their best and managed to resist for more than 40 minutes in every single game.

What nobody can understand, except Puppey, is why Secret’s captain chose to pick Leshrac in all three games. Sure, the hero is very strong, but after game one it was obvious that Tundra knew exactly how to play against him.

Even though Secret survived for 20 more minutes, the game was practically over at minute 20, when Tundra’s advantage had reached 6000 gold.

The second game was very similar to the first, albeit a bit slower. The two teams were relatively equal in networth and Secret had a significant advantage at one point. But this only lasted until around the 23-minute mark. As soon as Tundra’s cores reached their power peaks, there was no hope for Secret.

Tundra played Arc Warden in this match and the hero finished with a KDA of 8-0-9 and over 900 GPM.

The third game was tough for both sides and until minute 30, the teams were equal in networth. But then, in just five minutes, a series of deaths ruined Secret’s chances.

With this victory, Tundra won The International for the first time. Secret upgraded their last year’s result by one place. Perhaps next year they will finally win the Aegis of Champions.

Header: Tundra / Twitter