Dota 2: The Bucharest Minor Grand Final Recap

Being the second Minor of the 2018-2019 Pro Circuit, the tournament featured eight of the best teams in the world. We saw some incredible games, astonishing comebacks, and even better plays. Having said that, it is time to do a quick recap of the two finalists that faced each other in gruesome best of five games.

EHOME

The first game for the Chinese team after the group stage was against Keen Gaming. In the first game of the series, Keen Gaming had to pretty much play against the clock, because EHOME had the superior late game. Despite taking a good early lead, Keen Gaming was unable to take advantage of that, and after a bad roshan fight, it was pretty much GG.

In game two Keen took a relatively early lead; however, they failed to capitalize on it once again as yet another decisive fight around Roshan was the end of them. With the fantastic push power that they had, EHOME managed to close the game at around the 18th-minute mark, which meant that they were going further in the bracket to meet their next enemies – Gambit Esports

Both EHOME and Gambit Esports were unbeaten until this game, which means that we were in an incredible series between the two giants. Having that Grand Final at stake, both of them threw everything they have, however, EHOME was the team which stood its ground.

Many people expected this to be a very fast paced series, considering the past games, but they were wrong. Game one turned out to be a classic Chinese late game in which a single find could decide everything. Gambit was doing a pretty good job in the vast majority of the game having that Dusa pick, however, Terrorblade and Sniper on the side of EHOME proved to be a little bit too much. After 72 minutes of Dota, game one went to the Chinese team.

Having their backs against the wall, the CIS powerhouse tried to pull off a Gyro-Wisp combo to catch EHOME off-guard. Unfortunately, this did not work either. EHOME’s Antimage had an excellent game and pushed xiao8 and co. to the Grand Final.

Gambit Esports

The first big challenge for the CIS team was the current TI champion OG. In the first game, n0tail, and co. seemed to have the upper hand. However, Gambit managed to play their cards right and eventually won the game.

Game two was pretty much a sort of a replay of the first one. Gambit Esports did a very aggressive tri-lane, which pretty much destroyed their enemies. What’s more, OG lost their other lanes as well, which resulted in a 20 minutes victory for the CIS team

After the loss to EHOME in the Upper bracket finals, Gambit Esports had to face Keen Gaming in the Lower Bracket. The first game between them was pretty much one-sided. The CIS team drafted around Antimage, who played a nearly perfect game. Keen Gaming tried to counter the AM with a PA pick, but having a very hard lane against him pretty much stopped the hero from doing much. After realizing their situation, the Chinese called GG 28 minutes in.

The second game between the two saw a different approach from Keen Gaming, while Gambit went with nearly the same lineup – Kunkka and Antimate as cores. The Chinese went with Timbersaw and Void, which are their “safe” heroes. This game had many back and forths, and there were some pretty memorable solo plays from the plays. In the end, after 71 minutes of high-quality Dota, Gambit’s Antimage managed to close the game and took his team to the Grand Final, where they had to meet EHOME yet again.

The Grand Final

Eager to get revenge on the Chinese, Gambit Esports had all the motivation they needed to grab first place and a ticker for the Chongqing Major, which is coming up in just a few days.
The first game between the two powerhouses was pretty equal, until a crucial team fight that pretty much ended the game in favor of the Chinese. Having that farmed Huskar was a bite that Gambit could not deal with, despite picking one of the biggest counters for the hero – Phantom Lancer. After 43 minutes GG was called, and EHOME grabbed the first game.

Having their backs against the wall, Gambit Esports decided to bet yet again on their Antimage plus a Razor to go along with him. EHOME went with a classic Sven + Magnus combo as well as LC, who is generally considered as one of the biggest counters for Antimage. The game was exhilarating to watch because there were many fights going on even early into the game, despite having all those late game cores. At one point in the game, Gambit was miles ahead of EHOME and was able to secure themselves mega creeps. However, having that empower on Sven and LC was enough to defend their base at that point. Gambit just had to wait for the next Roshan spawn and pushed to claim their victory, making the game a tie.

The third game was yet again another roller coaster. Gambit decided to pick Meepo against a line up which was pretty team-fight based. Naturally, the hero struggled a lot but managed to secure some farm and did pretty well for the most part. However, after a terrific Roshan fight for Gambit, Meepo died solo two times, losing the aegis and the momentum that they had. Having no buyback, Luna and Shadow Fiend quickly decided to end the game in a single push and successfully did it, giving the lead to EHOME in the series yet again.

Being one game away from victory, the Chinese powerhouse went with a little bit different pick, getting a Leshrac, a.k.a the disco pony for mid, which is one of the most stalwart heroes for their mid laner. EHOME completely outlaned their enemies, which resulted in winning all three of them. The Leshrac and PA snowballed out of control, and just 28 minutes in, the GG was called, and the Chinese were crown the Bucharest Minor Champions.

Besides getting the juicy $125,000 prize pool, EHOME got 125 DPC points and most importantly, an invite for the Chongqing Major.

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Image Via: JoinDota