Day 3 of The International 2022 Main Event started with what can be regarded as a WEU Dota Pro Circuit brawl in the lower bracket rounds.
Gaimin Gladiators and OG opened the day with a best-of-three battle for survival at the most important tournament of the year and delivered the first series on the TI11 stage that went the distance and featured a decisive game three.
OG took the first game of the series on the back of a flawless Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov Invoker and a carry Monkey King. They slowed down Gaimin Gladiaors from the early laning stage by finding two kills on Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov’s carry Shadow Fiend, forcing him to play defensively while he was light on regen options. The slow start for them transitioned into a complete disaster, but coming to game two they managed to compose themselves to properly challenge OG.
While bzm still outshined all his teammates in game two, it looked like OG were not on the same page with their Faceless Void initiation, which allowed Gaimin to punish them with every engagement and crawl their way back into the game. Although OG had a strong late game potential, GG had a core Primal Beast with Aghanim’s Scepter who was able to fight 1 vs 5 when needed and and that made a huge difference in team fights with the Aghs Break mechanic.
OG opened the final draft of the series with a Naga Siren, which in game one they placed in the position 4 support and followed her with a Jakiro to confuse the opposite team. In the group stage matches, OG had also defeated GG with a Naga, but in the carry role. It turned out that they were looking for a similar game on the main stage as they brought back bzm’s Signature Invoker and secured an overall draft with multiple team fight combos and set-ups.
The laning stage went in Gladiators’ favor, who around the 18-minute mark were already pushing tier-three towers, but couldn’t commit to a full high ground push. Stalling the game, meant that OG’s carry Naga would eventually become impossible to be killed, and past the 30-minute mark, Gaimin Gladiators ran out of steam having to bow out of the competition in the 9th-12th place with $344,861 earned at their first-ever TI.
