Lima Major, the first major of the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit, is quickly approaching the final act and Gaimin Gladiators are the first secure a spot in the grand finals.

Only three series are keeping us away from finding out who are the ultimate champions of the Winter Tour. The upper bracket finals pitted two Western European teams for a secured top 2 finish in Peru, but unfortunately it wasn’t the battle fans hoped for, as Team Liquid is dealing with an emergency.

Before day 4 was over in the Lima Major playoffs, Team Liquid announced that Samuel "Boxi" Svahn will be “flying home immediately due to a medical emergency” and that the team’s analyst, Mathis "Jabbz" Friesel.

Read more: A medical emergency forces Boxi to fly home before Lima Major finals

With no time to practice with Jabbz, who hasn’t been actively playing in the pro scene for a couple of years already, the upper bracket finals had pretty much a foretold outcome.

Gaimin GladiatorsvsTeam Liquid

Liquid did their best to play around their cores, but in game one it was Gladiators’ Quinn "Quinn" Callahan popping off hard on Leshrac. GG had incredible sustain power on their side to relentlessly hunt down Liquid and claim the victory with an over 40K gold lead.

Quinn’s Leshrac had such a powerful impact, that Liquid felt the need to first ban it in the second game. That opened both Broodmother and Lina, the two most contested heroes of the tournament to make it to the pick phase.

Gladiators chose the Brood for Marcus "Ace" Christensen while Liquid placed Lina in the hands of Michael "miCKe" Vu. Although Lina is a direct counter to the Brood by having an easy way to clear the spiderlings, GG played on a very fast pace with an Ursa leading the charge and Quinn once again making the difference on Batrider to take a very fast and convincing 2-0 victory.

Team Liquid will have another shot at making it to the grand finals through the lower bracket. They will be playing versus the winner of Talon EsportsvsShopify Rebellion in the opening series of the final day at the Lima Major.

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Gaimin Gladiators are Lima Major first grand finalists