Gaimin Gladiators emerged from the lower bracket to take down Team Liquid in Sunday’s grand final and claim the title at DreamLeague Season 19.
Gaimin Gladiators began their day by sweeping Shopify Rebellion 2-0 in the best-of-three lower-bracket final, advancing to the title match. In the best-of-five grand final, they defeated Liquid 3-2.
Liquid had previously beaten Gladiators on Saturday in the upper-bracket final to secure their grand final berth.
Gladiators received a $300,000 first prize and qualified for the Riyadh Masters in Saudi Arabia this July. Liquid settled for a $175,000 second prize and Shopify Rebellion won $120,000 for third place.
Based out of Europe, Gladiators also won the Lima Major earlier this year in Peru.
In the lower-bracket final, Gladiators beat Shopify Rebellion in 32 minutes on green and 30 minutes on red. Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov of Russia led Gladiators with a total of 22 kills, 17 assists and just one death in the series.
Gladiators and Liquid took turns grabbing victories during the grand final, with all wins coming on green. Gladiators won the first map in 52 minutes, and Liquid responded with a 36-minute win. Gladiators nabbed a 57-minute triumph to move ahead 2-1, but Liquid tied it once more with a quick 28-minute win.
But Gladiators prevailed in 41 minutes on the fifth and final map to decide the championship. Dyrachyo posted a 9/1/11 kills-deaths-assists ratio in the fifth map and American teammate Quinn “Quinn” Callahan went 8/1/13 to help guide the team to victory.
Sixteen teams began the $1 million Dota 2 event. Two groups, each consisting of eight teams, battled in Group Stage 1. The top four teams from each group moved on to Group Stage 2, while the bottom four teams were eliminated.
Group Stage 2 merged the eight remaining teams into one group and featured best-of-three matches. Four teams advanced to the playoffs, with the top two teams (Team Liquid, Gaimin Gladiators) moving into the upper bracket and the third- and fourth-place finishers (Shopify Rebellion, Tundra Esports) competing in the lower bracket.
DreamLeague Season 19 prize pool
1. $300,000, berth in Riyadh Masters — Gaimin Gladiators
2. $175,000 — Team Liquid
3. $120,000 — Shopify Rebellion
4. $85,000 — Tundra Esports
5. $52,500 — OG
6. $47,500 — beastcoast
7. $42,500 — Evil Geniuses
8. $37,500 — TSM
9-10. $25,000 — Execration, Team Spirit
11-12. $20,000 — Team Aster, Talon Esports
13-14. $15,000 — ex-HellRaisers, Nigma Galaxy
15-16. $10,000 — Entity, nouns
–Field Level Media