Team OG just won the biggest Dota 2 tournament in the world, The International 2019 (TI 2019). The Europe-based team retain their title as the champions, walking away with an eye-catching prize of US$15,583,015 (~RM65,308,415).
Team OG’s victory also marks the first time in the history of TI where the previous champions have won with the same roster in a grand final. Coming in strong and undefeated from the upper bracket, Team OG fought their way into the grand finals, beating last year’s runner up, Team PSG.LGD with a score of 2-1 in the upper bracket finals. Followed by TI 2017 champions, Team Liquid in the grand final.
One of the game-deciding strategies used by OG occurred when the middle laner for Team OG, Topson, decided to go for Diffusal Blade on his Gyrocopter during the final game of grand finals. During team fight, the Diffusal Blade is able to totally burn off their opponent’s mana, namely Liquid’s Miracle-‘s Bristleback, rendering the hero useless as Bristleback is a hero that needs at least some mana in order to fight back.
Team Liquid initially took the first game of the grand final after a very close call. However, Team OG was able to snowball their way into crushing Team Liquid to victory after the first game.
Team OG’s roster consists of team captain Johan “N0tail” Sundstein, Sébastien “Ceb” Debs, Anathan “ana” Pham, Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen, and Jesse “Jerax” Vainikka. For seasoned Dota 2 players, it’s clear that the team comprises a mixture of long-time competitive Dota players and some rising star players.
With the highest recorded prize pool of US$34,238,478 (~RM143,493,461) that is increasing every year, the first runner up, Team Liquid will still be taking home an impressive US$4,451,002 (~RM18,654,149). All 18 teams will also take a slice of the prize pool.
This marks the first time for any Dota 2 players who have ever won TI twice. During the previous years, several players such as Puppey and Faith also had chances at winning TI for the second time, but were unable to.
The grand finals of TI 2019 marked the end of a 6-day event of the annual Dota 2 tournament after an intense series of close games and comebacks. The next Pro Circuit Tournaments will commence on 18 October.
(Source: Dota 2 TI via Twitter)
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