Tundra Esports surprised a lot of fans with its victory at the Dota 2 ESL One Fall: Bootcamp Edition. Even better, they climbed from a 1–2 deficit to win against PSG.LGD. With this, Tundra got home with $175,000.
If you look at the placements, the five teams below Tundra are playing at The International 10. Tundra actually had a chance to join TI10 with a good performance during the Western Europe Qualifiers. However, they eventually bowed to OG.
Getting First Blood
Tundra faced China’s top team in PSG.LGD in the Grand Final and for the first game, they snagged Shadow Demon for Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu and Pangolier for Adrian "Fata" Trinks. PSG.LGD meanwhile went for their usual strategy of giving Wang “Ame” Chunyu and letting him carry the team to victory. For this one, they chose Templar Assassin for Ame. However, Tundra was just too aggressive that eventually grabbed the win.
Losing the Next Two
In the second game, PSG.LGD went for another strat which was giving Vengeful Spirit to Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida. While Tundra initially had the lead, things started to look up for PSG.LGD once Vengeful Spirit got Aghanim’s Scepter. Coupled with Bane and Bloodseeker, Tundra called GG with PSG.LGD claiming the win.
The third game saw Tundra picking Vengeful Spirit for themselves but PSG.LGD had a trick up its sleeve by getting Sven for its last pick. It didn’t help that Tundra wasn’t really familiar with using Vengeful Spirit and PSG.LGD punished them for that to get a 2–1.
Ravage All Around
With a game away from losing the tournament, it was a time for Tundra to show just how good they are at adapting. PSG.LGD secured Pangolier for themselves while Tundra went for the classic pick with Sneyking on Mirana, Leon “Nine” Kirilin on Templar Assassin, and Neta “33” Shapira on Tidehunter.
The two teams went back and forth at each other until Tundra had the advantage. Afraid of TA, PSG.LGD had four members get Heaven’s Halberds. Despite Nine getting disarmed in most of the fights, it was eventually 33 who showed why Tidehunter is a team favorite. By the time 33 bought a Refresher Orb, you knew it was pretty much over.
The Decider
The championship was on the line for both teams. PSG.LGD had Zhao “XinQ” Zixing go mid-lane on Storm Spirit while Pango for Zhang “xiao8” Ning and Slark for Ame. Tundra answered this with Fata on Monkey King and Oliver “skiter” Lepko on Juggernaut. Add in 33 on Nightstalker and you knew this was going to be one great game.
There were a lot of team fights and the scales went back and forth. The one fight that made all the difference was just after the 46-minute mark. Tundra smoked and caught PSG.LGD, which tried to retreat. Of course, Tundra gave chase and killed four from PSG.LGD making it a 5v1 situation. With no buybacks for PSG.LGD, they had no choice but to call it GG.
While this is indeed good news for Tundra, it doesn’t bode that well for PSG.LGD. To be fair though, the Chinese team had to put xiao8 in play since Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang wasn’t able to join due to travel restrictions.
What about you? What was your favorite moment of the Grand Final?
Dota 2 is a MOBA developed by Valve for PC.
