WePlay! Dota 2 Winter Madness Final day Recap

Congratulations to Gambit Esports who started 2019 with a sweet victory. The finalists of Winter Madness showed how strong CIS Dota is right now and became $50.000 richer in the process.

Here is a brief recap of the games that took place today.

Ninjas in Pyjamas 0:2 Gambit Esports

Gambit Esports won the semifinals on the back of very tactical games. The team was never in a hurry to push down towers focusing on the lane control and obtaining the key artifacts. Despite the net worth deficits and other problems Gambit players were outplaying Ninjas in Pyjamas in many episodes; for example, in the first match, they showed Underlord in the bottom lane and sniped Roshan with the enemy team farming the forest nearby.

Ninjas in Pyjamas decided to play the first in a very greedy manner, with Hands of Midas on Slark and Tiny. For a while, the team looked almost invincible, especially when Slark purchased Black King Bar. They lost the momentum during the second Roshan battle when Gambit made a couple of pickoffs and almost took the barracks in the middle.

In the second game Gambit masterfully used item timings to execute a one-two punch: fight near the middle T1 tower —> kill Roshan —> initiate another fight and take control of the map plus capture every rune on the 15 min spawn. At this point, NiP were on the back foot and needed to catch up. The game ended with a splashy Rampage executed by Daxak’s Visage.

OG 0:3 Gambit Esports

In the first game of the final series, OG made a bet on carry Anti-Mage and Razor in the middle late. They were countered with last picked Meepo for Daxak and an aggressive hard lane led by Weaver. Gambit got an early advantage through controlling Anti-Mage who never got on-line and a successful Meepo, who gladly traded damage with Razor upon every opportunity.

The second game started much better for OG who decided to give Anti-Mage another shot. This time the team was reinforced by Arc Warden with Hand of Midas and a very successful early game. Gambit turned the game in their favor after a battle around minute 17 when they won a couple of fights and caught up in net worth. Then they won through very disciplined plays and calculated risks.

In the third game, Gambit managed to get their hands-on Visage again, and Daxak had a wonderful time playing Dota 2. Overall this game looked quite good for OG, and they didn’t let the CIS team get away with net worth advantage till after minute 25. Even after a devastating Roshan fight, the TI winners managed to destroy Barracks and find a way to keep some presence on the map.

In the end, Gambit prevailed and won each game of WePlay! Dota 2 Winter Madness final day.