Xtreme Gaming are champions of Elite League; put an end to Team Falcons' domination

Xtreme Gaming defeated Team Falcons 3-1 in the grand final of Elite League to claim the top spot and ended Falcons' tournament winning streak.

All good things come to an end – that is exactly what Team Falcons must be thinking, as they got handed a taste of their own medicine by Xtreme Gaming in the grand final of Elite League, organized by FISSURE and ESB. Team Falcons are used to dominating grand finals, but this time, the storyline went in the opposite direction.

Falcons beat XG in the upper bracket semi-final 2-0. But XG won three series in the lower bracket to come back and set up a grand final against the team of the season so far, and they were much different team this time around.

Team FalconsvsXtreme Gaming

Game 1 was all Team Falcons. Xtreme Gaming put up a fight with their iconic Clinkz, but they were never in the driving seat. Taking a 1-0 lead in the series, it seemed like things were going as per Falcons’ last two tournament wins, where they won the grand finals 3-0.

It can’t be an easy thing, trailing against the best Dota 2 team in the world right now. But somehow, XG found the motivation to turn things around and take the game to the MENA team in Game 2. There were periods of the game where Falcons had the net worth lead, but that was only because they had the Alchemist. XG’s Leshrac and Luna draft was much better at taking objectives.

Game 3 was an absolute beatdown of Falcons by the Chinese powerhouse. It was a major outdraft as analyst Avery “SVG” Silverman suggested, and it showed with the game score ending up 29-7 in favor of XG.

The last game was possibly the best of the series. There was a lot of back and forth, not just in the game, but also in the trash talk department! Falcons had a slight early advantage, but XG took control of the game in the mid-game. But as we have seen numerous times in the last few metas, going high ground is a very daunting task, and XG handed the advantage back to Falcons while going high ground with an Aegis. But in the end, they were able to outplay Falcons in most fights. They had three Wind Wakers to counter Chronosphere and Doom! The Chinese team also went for a bold pick in the Chaos Knight, who isn’t a meta hero, because he tends to do well against Doom and Faceless Void.

(taken from Dotabuff)

After Xtreme Gaming won, things did get a little pub-like! The returning carry, Wang “Ame” Chunyu, paused the game right after and there were a few question marks and ‘ez’ calls in the chat by XG. This was retaliation for the incessant tipping by Falcons in the earlier games (including the upper bracket series between the two).

But things ended on a relatively friendly note, which is what we all like to see.

This was a brilliant performance by Xtreme Gaming. The five players seem to have a strong understanding of playing with each other, and could easily end up being one of the top contenders for the big Dota 2 tournaments at the end of the year – The International 2024 and Riyadh Masters.

The Chinese resurgence in Dota 2 is complete, and the region is once again a force to reckon with. Xtreme Gaming will take home $300,000 as their prize money for taking the top spot at Elite League. Now, we wait until patch 7.35 is replaced by patch 7.36 and Ring Master finally enters the game.