Team Liquid has defeated Gaimin Gladiators in the Upper Bracket Finals of TI13 to advance to the Grand Finals of The International 2024. In a quick 2-0 on Sep. 14, Team Liquid broke the long-time curse of them being unable to defeat Gaimin Gladiators when it really mattered.
Liquid has just five playoff victories over Gaimin in the past two years, and is yet to defeat the Gladiators in any grand final. Still, Team Liquid took the first step towards ending that curse by topping GG in a best-of-three today.
Image Credit: Valve
Game One, a confident set of picks by Gaimin with Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov picking up Clinkz for himself. The invisible skeleton archer is an unusual selection, but even so, it didn’t prove effective, as Michał “Nisha” Jankowski took over the game.
Even Quinn Callahan’s Dragon Knight couldn’t slow down a dominant Team Liquid. In Game Two, Nisha’s Puck was a constant menace. But the real thorn in Gaimin Gladiator’s side was a Tusk/Visage combo – turns out Familiars make great drinking buddies, who knew?
As as result, Gaimin fall to the lower bracket of TI13, and will have to face the winner of Tundra versus Team Falcons. But we all hope that GG makes it back to the Grand Finals, for a rematch, and the chance for Team Liquid to finally put to bed the curse of not being able to defeat Gaimin.
Team Liquid take on an unknown opponent in the Grand Finals of Dota 2′s TI13 on Sep. 15. Stick with Esports.net for more TI13 and Dota 2 news!
