Cover-Credits:
AFK Gaming
On 30th January, during the ESL One Birmingham 2024 China closed qualifier, Azure Ray and G2.iG went head to head in a best-of-five (BO5) series. The enthralling series was eventually won by G2.iG but it was not an easy win. The series lasted a combined total of five hours, 34 minutes, and 40 seconds, beating the previous record of 5 hours, 16 minutes, and 55 seconds during the series between Mamas-Boys vs Stark.gg at the Esportal Dota 2 League Ticket in 2015. This interesting statistic was brought to light by Dota 2 statistician Ben "Noxville" Steenhuisen on Twitter.
Dota 2 Records Its Longest Professional Series
After the end of the ESL One Birmingham 2024 China closed qualifier, Noxville took to X to share a piece of interesting information about the G2.iG vs Azure Ray series. He tweeted “@G2esports/@invgaming vs @AzureRayDota just finished the longest series in the history of Dota 2 - over 5.5 hours of gameplay. Yes, longer than the C9/Scaryfacez epic. Yes, longer than the DK/IG bo7 reverse-sweep (that was barely 4 hours!).”
Azure Ray and G2.iG battled for the sole spot from the China region to compete in the ESL One Birmingham 2024 main tournament. The games’ lengths differed from 44 minutes to 107 minutes long.
The first game of the series started with a gruesome 83 minutes which was eventually won by G2.iG after G2.iG managed to take out Zhang "Bach" Ruida’s Primal Beast before attempting a high-ground siege. The second game of the series, another 52-minute long match, was secured by Azure Ray after G2.iG’s high-ground siege attempt went wrong.
After the second game, it was well established that both the teams were equally competent and the match-ups were very fierce.
After the loss in the second game, G2.iG opted for an early to mid-game draft while Azure Ray, anticipating another long game, chose to go for a late-game draft. Due to the out-draft from G2.iG, there was very little Azure Ray could do in the third game, and was absolutely crushed. While Azure Ray managed to defend its base till the 46th minute, it had no answer for Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang’s Primal beast and eventually called GG.
The fourth game was the longest of the series lasting a full 107 minutes. Both the teams played cautiously, ensuring not to take reckless skirmishes. But Azure Ray, feeling confident, managed to secure high-ground barracks at the 46th-minute mark after a wonderful team fight. Notably, at the 72nd-minute mark, G2.iG’s entire team disconnected due to FPS issues as per NothingToSay’s all-chat message but reconnected shortly after. While Azure Ray continuously tried to end the game, G2.iG didn’t give up as it defended its base with all its strength. Having had enough of the game, Azure Ray went for the GG push in the 107th minute and won the game.
Now with an even score of 2-2, game five was the most crucial of them all. This was also the shortest game of the series lasting only 44 minutes. With Slark’s aggressive nature, Magnus’ looming threat of a counter initiation, and Zeus' output burst damage, G2.iG simply won the game with relative ease. G2.iG emerged as the victor of the series and qualified for the ESL One Birmingham 2024.
