Being the most dominating team through a whole season comes with a cost. Gaimin Gladiators have learned this lesson all too well.
No one could match Gaimin Gladiators in 2023. The team went on winning all three Majors of that year and a total of six tournament trophies. The world was at their feet and no team had ever went into The International being as favoured to win it all as Gaimin Gladiators were last year.
Placing second at TI is a feat that many would be content with. Not Gamin.
At TI12 last year, Gaimin Gladiators were humbled by Team Spirit, who defeated them 3-0 in the grand finals. It was the second time in the history of The International that a team would win with a clean sweep. It was also the second time in TI history that a team would win a second Aegis of Champions, but that’s a story for another time.
Gaimin Gladiators roster
Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov
Quinn “Quinn” Callahan
Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard
Erik “tOfu” Engel
Melchior “Seleri” Hillenkamp
coach: Aske "Cy-" Larsen
Immediately after TI12, Gaimin reached another grand final at ESL One Kuala Lumpur, where Dota 2 made the jump from 7.34 to 7.35 patch with items galore being poured into the game. They finished second there too and moving into the new year, Gaimin went through their toughest period.
Identity crisis
The cost Gaimin had to pay for their utter dominance in 2023 was that everyone started to study them in the tiniest details and counter them hard. It wasn’t only every single team in the competitive scene that was doing their homework on GG, but even the patches seemed to be targeting their playstyle and their heroes. In an interview with Michael Hassall at DreamLeague Season 22, Ace mentioned how the team, and more so him in particular, felt targeted by the patches. With some of their staple heroes getting nerfed and some items getting altered, Gaimin started to lose their edge.
Gaimin Gladiators’ most successful hero pairings before TI13
For a lot of the teams, constantly staying in the top 5/6 and getting a direct invite to The International courtesy of their consistency would suffice. Not for Gaimin.
With each official interview this year, the GG players were relatively open and highlighted that they are going through some serious issues. While never pointing out exactly what those issues were, it doesn’t take a genius to understand that it was the first time when they were facing multiple defeats, and that impacted the team chemistry as well. But instead of fixing the issues with quick roster changes, Gaimin stayed strong and worked on getting back in shape as a team.
Gaimin Gladiators are known as one of the few teams to not have put a strong emphasis on bootcamps. In the past, they would spend a ton of time together at LAN events, since they made it to all of them last year. This year, many of the tournaments were held in an online format, and while their competitors gathered in bootcamps around Europe for DreamLeague and Elite League, Gaimin kept on doing their thing.
The toughest times came at ESL One Birmingham 2024, where for the first time in the team’s existence GG were eliminated in the bottom four. That was the last stroke that called for a more profound shift as Riyadh Masters was approaching.
From not being fond of bootcamps, Gaimin went on ranting to a jaw-dropping mansion in the UK and gave their players the best conditions possible to help them reboot and find their groove again.
The time spent together and the hard work put in the bootcamp paid off at Riyadh and Gaimin Gladiators were finally back as the team we all know. They brought home the trophy and Quinn was awarded the tournament MVP.
They took a different path to TI this year, but that has surely taught them invaluable lessons and reminded them that no Dota 2 team or player stays at the top without an immense amount of work being put in. They’ve worked hard to become the strongest team in 2023 and made even harder efforts to find their identity again heading into TI13.
Being one of the teams with the strongest grip on the “one-man” aura stacking meta helped them get back at the top. Heading into TI, they have in dyrachyo someone who always looked into expanding his hero pool, so the new meta flavor heroes for carry players should not be a problem for him. Gaimin have already shown at Fissure Universe: Episode 3 event that they are on top of the meta trend, they just need to make it fit with their playstyle, and once all the puzzle pieces come together nothing can stop them from fulfilling their biggest dream.
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