The Gigabyte Mineski Pro-Gaming League (GMPGL) started its 5th gaming season with their biggest draw, WC3 DotA. Old names once again shine, but new bloods are definitely around. Because of its promotion-demotion class system, the main division was trimmed to only the Top 8 teams from the Branch Championship. Notably absent were MSIEvoGT.TnC, Mineski and Dreamz.LedionSS - who had all already committed to Dota 2 either before or during the tournament. Making their presence felt are the veterans iZONE.Gigabyte and Pacific.eMaxx, the top 2 finishers of last year's SMM. The other competitors made it clear though, that these 2 established teams will not have it easy. Pacific.eMaxx was able to advance with CDO's team, Dmokafarm (direct translation: 'you can't farm'), as they both held a superior time rating over another team with a 2-1 record, LedionRae. iZONE, on the other hand, rampaged through Group B en route to a 3-0 record, and was followed by Noypi's 2-1. Noypi kicked-off the exciting playoffs with a win against Pacific, and iZONE followed through with an even more exciting victory against Dmokafarm. The bigger upsets happened at the Loser's Bracket though, where the underdog team from CDO scored a victory against both Pacific and Noypi to secure the championship match against iZONE. iZONE.Gigabyte was not to let any upset hit them though, as they did not even need their twice-to-beat advantage to grab the title. With the win, they become the Champions on the first installment of GMPGL on the year 2013.
Skyville and Hailey's Grounds ended on the bottom 2 of the Division, and are thus demoted back to Class B. While several teams had already made 'the switch', it was clear that there won't be shortage of DotA players anytime soon, as more than 400 teams reportedly joined the tournament.
GMPGL 5-2 | |
Class S - Seeded Teams | |
iZONE.GIGABYTE | Dmokafarm |
Noypi | Pacific.eMaxx |
Ledion Rae | Pacific Revitalize |