The Gaimin Gladiators pulled off two sweeps Saturday to stay alive in the lower bracket of The International 2023 playoffs in Seattle.
The Gladiators advanced to a date next weekend with nouns, who won the other second-round match on Saturday. nouns defeated TSM in two maps, and the Gladiators swept 9Pandas.
Earlier Saturday, TSM survived the first round of the lower bracket by blanking Shopify Rebellion 2-0, and the Gladiators did likewise to the Evil Geniuses.
The Dota tournament annually has the largest prize pool in sports, with the amount rising throughout the competition based on in-game sales to the public. The prize pool for last year’s International began at $1.6 million but wound up at $18.9 million, with Tundra Esports claiming the $8.5 million first prize.
This year’s prize pool started at $1.6 million and is currently at $3.07 million.
The double-elimination playoffs will run over the next two weekends in Seattle. All matches will remain best-of-three until the grand final, which will be best-of-five.
The Gladiators breezed through their second-round match, playing on green and winning their maps in 20 and 33 minutes. Markus “Ace” Christensen of Denmark led the winners with a kills/deaths/assists ratio of 5.5/3.5/8.0, followed by teammate Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov of Russia at 5.0/1.5/9.0. Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev of Russia finished at 5.0/3.5/2.0.
nouns had to work considerably harder for their sweep, winning in 57 and 69 minutes while playing green each time. Nicolas “Gunnar” Lopez of the U.S. paced the winners with a KDA of 7.5/4.5/14.5, while Enzo “Timado” Gianoli of Peru finished at 5.5/5.5/5.5 for TSM.
Earlier, TSM played on green on both maps and prevailed in 48 and 27 minutes. Timado carried TSM at 8.5/1.0/5.5, while Abed “Abed” Yusop of the Philippines led Shopify at 3.5/2.5./6.0.
The Gladiators began their day playing on red and defeating the Geniuses in a map that lasted 69 minutes. They were on green for the second map and took that one in 43 minutes. Quinn “Quinn” Callahan of the U.S. posted a 10.5./3.5./14.5 KDA for the winners, while Crhistian “Pakazs” Savina of Peru paced the Geniuses at 8.0/4.0/8.5.
Playoff action continues Sunday with four more lower-bracket matches:
Round 1:
–Keyd Stars vs. BetBoom Team
–Tundra Esports vs. Entity
Round 2:
— Keyd Stars-BetBoom Team winner vs. Talon Esports
— Tundra Esports-Entity winner vs. 9Pandas
–Field Level Media