Tundra Esports Upsets the TI 10 Champions to Win OGA Dota PIT Season 5

Despite failing to qualify for The International last season, Tundra Esports clearly proved to be a formidable team. They nearly defeated OG in the EUW Qualifier’s Grand Final and this season, they are currently ranked 4^th in the first tour of the region with 2 wins and 2 losses after the first 4 matches. These statistics, combined with the fact that the roster hasn’t changed at all in almost 9 months, clearly showed Tundra to be one of the favorites ahead of OGA Dota PIT Season 5. But nobody expected them to actually win.

OGA Dota PIT Season 5 Summary

OGA Dota PIT Season 5 featured 8 teams. But these 8 teams are some of the best in Europe and CIS.

• Team Spirit
• OG
• Natus Vincere
• Tundra Esports
• Nigma Galaxy
• Team Liquid
• Team Secret
• Alliance

Based on the most recent results, ahead of the race the tournament had 4 serious contenders: Team Spirit, Team Liquid, Team Secret, and Tundra Esports. But Tundra’s chances were thought to be slim.

The format of OGA Dota PIT Season 5 was double-elimination with Bo3 matches and a Bo5 Grand Final. All of the 8 teams started in the Upper Bracket and there was no Group Stage.

Upper Bracket Round 1

In the first round of the tournament, OG struggled against Natus Vincere but eventually won with a score of 2 – 1, Team Spirit defeated Tundra without losing a single game, Nigma Galaxy, won against Alliance (2 – 1), and Team Secret surprisingly came out victorious against the strongest team in Europe at the moment, Team Liquid (2 – 0).

Upper Bracket Round 2

In the Upper Bracket Round 2, Team Secret brought back an ancient but deadly combination: Outworld Devourer + Troll Warlord. And it worked much better than everyone expected. In fact, they picked OD in both games, signaling perhaps a change in the meta.

In the other Upper Bracket match, Spirit defeated OG with a mixture of mobility and raw physical damage. The combinations they went for were Troll + Legion Commander, and Slardar + Shadow Fiend + Beastmaster. The attempt was always to bring a target down as quickly as possible and then win every team fight because of the advantage gained at the start. It worked.

Upper Bracket Final

In the Upper Bracket Final, Team Spirit showed everyone why they won The International 10. Secret went for standard drafts and aimed for a good mixture of everything: wave clear, jungle farm, tower damage, etc. But their opponent went for very unpredictable hero combinations that made the game a lot more challenging.

In game 1, Ember + Centaur + Tidehunter gave Spirit superior initiation and the ability to quickly kill one or more enemy heroes before their teammates could react. In the 3^rd game, Miposhka chose to put a Templar Assassin in the safe lane and play with a mid Invoker. The offlane position was occupied by Spirit Breaker. With Bane and Enigma on the other side, it looked as though Spirit’s cause was lost from the start. But the team played its heroes in such a surprising manner that almost everything they did worked to perfection.

The Lower Bracket and the Grand Final

With Team Spirit in the Grand Final, the audience was eager to find out who will get the opportunity to play against the TI10 champions. Tundra’s mission seemed impossible. FATA’s roster would have to win 5 matches in a row to claim the trophy and essentially beat the best teams in Europe and CIS in the process.

And that’s exactly what happened. Furthermore, Tundra did it almost flawlessly. They lost one game against Na’Vi in the Lower Bracket Round 1 and one game against Spirit in the Grand Final. And won 11 games in total: 2 – 1 against Na’Vi, 2 – 0 against Nigma, 2 – 0 against OG, 2 – 0 against Secret, and 3 – 1 against Spirit.

It’s not yet clear how this was possible but Tundra certainly achieved something they can be proud of. In particular, the Lower Bracket Final against Secret was the kind of match you rarely get to see at this level. Tundra played both games using a Spirit Breaker mid, which is almost unheard of. And they won with it. We’ll have to wait and see if the meta will change as a result, but the fact is that Tundra made it look legit. FATA wasn’t trolling Puppey, he knew exactly what he was doing.

 

Photo credit: Valve