Photo Credit: Dot Esports
From our previous article, Gambit Gaming continued their surprisingly impressive streak of wins to remain undefeated and win the PGL major. Gambit made it out of the Swiss format group stages with a 3-0 record to secure for themselves a top seed. Their first opponents were the Swedish veterans of Fnatic who were one of the most dominant teams of all time during the 2014 and 2015 eras. Although Gambit managed to defeat the Swedes 2-0, both maps were hard fought victories as Fnatic brought their super star power to bear to keep the map difference to within 4 on both maps.
Semifinals
During the semifinals, Gambit’s opponents was the Danish juggernaut of Astralis, the heavy favorites to win the tournament. This time, Gambit would suffer their first map loss of the tournament as Astralis managed to win Gambit’s map pick of Inferno to tie up to score at 1-1 after Gambit won the first map, Overpass. It all came down to Train, but with 3 of the 5 Gambit players having a strong game, Gambit was able to close out the map 16-12 to advance to the finals.
Grand Finals
Gambit played against another surprise finalist, Immortals, for the title of PGL Major champions. Things looked grim for the CIS and Kazakhstan mix team when Immortals drew first blood as they crushed Gambit on Cobblestone 16-4. AdreN in particular severely underperformed on the first map when he is usually their strongest player. However, Gambit were able to bounce back when mou with help from AdreN put on a fantastic performance on Train to tie the score at 1 apiece sending the fate of the tournament to Inferno. Gambit came out of the gates strong after a brutal early trade of rounds to take the half 11-4. From there, Immortals showed signs of a comeback as they pulled the score to 12-9, but Gambit were able to take control from there on out as they won the next 4/5 rounds to win the major. Congratulations to Gambit Gaming for winning their first major and AdreN for his MVP award.
