Gaimin Gladiators make an undefeated upper bracket run to claim the Lima Major title

Lima Major has come to an end with a one sided grand finals between the top two Western European teams in the Winter Tour, Team Liquid and Gaimin Gladiators.

Unfortunately for Team Liquid, the final days at the Lima Major brought them a difficult situation. The WEU top seed team, who was down in everyone’s book to claim the title in Peru, had to play on the final two days with their analyst, Mathis "Jabbz" Friesel standing in for Samuel "Boxi" Svahn, who had a medical emergency and flew back home before the upper bracket finals.

Without Boxi, Liquid looked truly weakened in the battle with Gaimin Gladiators for a spot in the grand finals straight from the upper bracket. However, the silver lining came on the very last day of the Major when they managed to defeat 2-0 Talon Esports in the lower bracket finals and bounced back for a rematch with GG in the grand finals.

Gaimin GladiatorsvsTeam Liquid

In their series against Talon, Liquid could walk away without first phase banning Lina. They ignored her against Gaimin Gladiators as well, prioritizing Broodmother and Leshrac instead and allowed Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov to carry his team three games in a row with her.

In the first game of the series, Liquid hoped to find the initiations on Lina with an offlane Magnus and a mid lane Tusk, but they found themselves run over from the laning stage. Game two was an even bigger stomp from Gladiators, who countered Liquid’s Batrider initiation plan with a Shadow Demon.

Quinn "Quinn" Callahan and dyrachyo stole the show in the first two games, so in the third one, Gaimin Gladiators gave the spotlight to Marcus "Ace" Christensen and Melchior "Seleri" Hillenkamp. For that, they brought to the Lima Major stage a strategy that they used just once in the regional leagues and with great success. Gladiators ran an offlane Witch Doctor - Io combo with an Undying in support 5 position for even more healing power. Liquid tried to counter everything with a mid lane Ancient Apparition but to no avail.

Gaimin Gladiators walk home from Lima, Peru with their first-ever Major trophy claimed in a spectacular fashion. They had an undefeated upper bracket run and became the major champions without dropping a single game in the playoffs.