Team Liquid makes history with The International 7 grand finals win

Who would’ve knew that the team many expected not to survive group stage would be the one holding the Aegis at the end of the biggest Dota 2 event ever? That’s right, Team Liquid did it, it made history.

Fans of the Dota 2 scene watched the rise of the new heroes “MinD_ContRoL“، “KuroKy-“، “Matumbaman” and the two Arab players “GH” و “Miracle-“ as they won Newbee in the grand finals 3-0, making Team Liquid the first ever to both win a clean sheet in a Valve grand final and the first champion team to come out of the lower bracket, entering the history books of Dota 2 (if there ever were ones).

The first game of the best-of-five grand finals started with a greedy lineup pick by Team Liquid players, as they had Troll Warlord, Lifestealer and Nature’s Prophet in their ranks, three heroes that require a decent amount of farm. However,playing passively was the last thing on their mind. Liquid grabbed the first blood on kpii’s Batrider with GH and Mind Control and quickly followed it up with a mid lane courier snipe and kill on the Lina with NP joining the fray. From then on it was a one-way road for Liquid towards victory, with Mind Control and GH literally present all over the map. It was quite a flawless game for Liquid as they racked up a 20k net worth lead in 27 minutes and with 2 sets of racks down.

Newbee were looking for revenge after a humiliating first game and it seemed that was just what they were having. Starting with an 8-0 lead in kills, Newbee managed to hunt down the Alchemist twice in the laning phase. The Chinese were dominating Team Liquid with the Anti Mage farming on his own. Maybe it was Newbee getting a bit overconfident or it was Liquid playing a cautious game and getting the perfect pickoffs, but the tides were eventually turned with Liquid having the perfect pickoff tools with Fissure, Ice Blast, and the Reaper’s Scythe. The key moment was probably when Liquid sneaked a Roshan and then followed it up with a two for three exchange in their favor with Kuroky being denied by Mind Contol.

In the defense that followed, kpii jumped in to duel Matumbaman, but he activated Ghost Shroud and before kpii knew what was happening, he had lost a lot of HP with the Sythe on him! Anti Mage died to the ticking Ice Blast damage and had to buy back and while the Alchemist died as well, he had the aegis. Players did bring Miracle down after that, but only after he had destroyed the bottom melee racks and Newbee’s spirits. Newbee tried to get Miracle- in the next defence with kpii going in with a duel, but all he ended up doing was giving the Alchemist extra damage. Newbee called the ‘gg’ just before losing the second set of barracks, and the second game was won

With Newbee’s tournament dreams on the line, there wasn’t any room for mistake as a third round would mean the overall win of their opponents. This game seemed more even until a crucial pickoff in the game. Liquid managed to take down Death Prophet after a smart attack, and the DP had to extend her buy back for due to that death. In the next fight near the Roshan, Newbee got to attack the Jugg and just as they were about to kill him, GH came to save the day with a game saving Echoslam! Juggernaut survived, popped up his BKB and Liquid took down Newbee players. The only problem this time was, Newbee did not have the buybacks available. Liquid marched down with the aegis to get the ‘gg’ from Newbee, becoming the first team ever in a Valve finals to do a clean sweep win.

And so it was Team Liquid the latest champion of the Aegis, winning Dota 2’s biggest event yet and the lion share of the $25+ million prize pool with their 1st place finish. Congratulations to all and better luck next time Newbee, it’s time for Liquid to celebrate.