Image Credits: Dreamhack | Adela Sznajder
Vici Gaming is finally back. Just two weeks after securing the championship at the StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor, the Chinese organisation managed to take the Dreamleague: Season 11 title and $1,000,000 after winning over Virtus.Pro in the grand finals.
CORSAIR DREAMLEAGUE SEASON 11 CHAMPIONS - @VICI!#DreamLeagueMajor pic.twitter.com/3TIJmhIEgM
— DreamHack Dota (@DreamHackDota) March 24, 2019
The series stretched out to five games, with neither team conceding any ground to their opponents the whole time. It was a showcase of some incredible Dota 2 skill by 2 of the top three teams in the world—at least, in terms of points on the DPC leaderboard.
The Chinese team struck first in the best-of-five series, making good use of Paparazzi’s Morphling to decimate the Russian team. The second game went much better for Virtus.Pro, thanks to an incredible performance by Ramzes666 on his signature Anti Mage. He had 11 kills and just 1 death, as well as a 1000 GPM performance to his name.
Game 2 goes to @Virtuspro! Anti-Mage too stronk #DreamLeagueMajor pic.twitter.com/htAziP2Txy
— DreamHack Dota (@DreamHackDota) March 24, 2019
Paparazzi got his hands on his signature Terrorblade in the third game. Amped up in damage thanks to Ori’s Bloodseeker and Fade’s Vengeful Spirit, the Terrorblade just melted whatever was put in front of him and secured an easy 22 minute victory for Vici Gaming.
Venge + TB = BIG DAMAGE for @ViCi! #DreamLeagueMajor
— DreamHack Dota (@DreamHackDota) March 24, 2019
https://t.co/rGGXvKge1Y
https://t.co/sl3BSJGveF pic.twitter.com/IxWBeZnkEH
Nevertheless, VP quickly recovered and in a tense game four, the CIS juggernauts managed to snap the victory and tie the score 2-2
Finally, Vici Gaming picked up a Razor and Medusa as cores in the fifth map and somehow managed to win all three lanes—and in this metagame, we all know just how effective such an overwhelming advantage in the laning face is. Virtus.Pro’s teamfight-focused lineup caused them to fall behind significantly early on, which is bad news when going up against a lategame hero like Medusa. The game ended in just over 21 minutes.
With this victory run, Vici Gaming have also guaranteed their place at The International 9 which will be held on China’s home turf for the first time in history.
Gfreak's thoughts: It looks like that time of the year, where the Chinese giants wake up from their slumber, is finally here. Vici Gaming and RotK have just proven their tenacity by winning a Minor, take a break for 1 day and then winning a Major.
It'll be interesting to see how well PSG.LGD performs when Somnus ' M returns and whether we'll have 2 dominant Chinese powerhouses this year. Keen Gaming looks like a team to be taken seriously as well. This is going to be an interesting road to the Chinese TI9.
