Virtus Pro put on a dominant showing at ESL One Los Angeles today with a clutch victory over OG in the grand finals to claim the online Dota 2 Major title.
Every game ended in a stomp. One side dominated the other until the final round, where both sides clashed evenly and No[o]ne carried his team to the promised land after three weeks of competition.
VP crushed OG in the opening game, losing only one teamfight as the CIS roster ran behind Resolut1on’s Axe that went 18/3/12 and countered nearly everything OG tried to do. All three core players for VP dealt more than 20,000 damage and iLTW had a strong performance on Bristleback after his squad overcame SumaiL’s Terrorblade and took the lead.
OG fired back in game two with SumaiL’s Ember Spirit and Saksa’s Shadow Demon at the core of the team’s plan. Despite VP having a strong sustain-based draft, OG were able to overcome them in every conflict, losing only four heroes in total through the entire round.
No[o]ne and iLTW were completely shut down and SumaiL capitalized on all of the space provided by N0tail, Saksa, and Ceb, going 10/1/13 as his team evened up the series.
Game three was the first time a match came close to being competitive, with neither side taking a dominant lead through the first 20 minutes—though OG held an advantage for most of that time. A draft built around control was OG’s play, taking a Centaur Warrunner and Pangolier with hopes laning individually and letting SumaiL farm up his Morphling.
VP tried to match their controlling draft, but they didn’t have a hero that could match the Morphling once SumaiL properly joined the fray. His Morphling went 16/2/4, doubling the damage of VP’s core and setting his team up for the series victory.
But VP had an excellent game four draft, setting up iLTW on Ember Spirit, Resolut1on with a Batrider, and No[o]ne with a perfect last pick Templar Assassin.
A slow start nearly cost VP the series, but No[o]ne stayed alive throughout all of the lost interactions, farming up, and reaching a point where he could melt any OG player he faced. In the final big fight, No[o]ne went Godlike as they all but team-wiped OG and pushed the high ground for the win.
Game five was one of the best displays of high level Dota 2 shown this season, with both sides in peak form and battling five-on-five for the Major title. OG had an Ember Spirit, Tusk, and an odd Silencer pick, while iLTW chose Bristleback, Resolut1on grabbed Pangolier, and No[o]ne was shoved onto a seemingly game-losing Storm Spirit.
Up until that point, Storm Spirit had lost more than half of its matches when drafted at ESL One LA; to pick it last was putting most of the game on No[o]ne’s shoulders. And he more than delivered, over-performing on the nerfed hero as he and iLTW led the charge for VP late in the game.
As OG led going into the late game, VP suffered a team-wipe and nearly lost the game. But because of how tanky iLTW was and the excellent late play from Solo and Bakyt “Zayac” Emilzhanov in keeping their team alive, the core players flipped the fate of the game around.
It didn’t matter that Ceb landed a BKB Blackhole in the middle of VP—the team shrugged it off and took the fight back to OG, taking out four kills, including a dieback from Ceb himself.
That led to the last push, with Resolut1on melting structures and iLTW dealing with the tier-four towers, No[o]ne dove into the backlines and took down SumaiL, sealing the win for his team.
This is VP’s biggest tournament win of the season after struggling early on and going through multiple roster changes before today. They walk away from ESL One Los Angeles Online with $60,000. But because of the uncertainty surrounding the Dota Pro Circuit, there are no DPC points being rewarded.
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