With the competitive Dota 2 season slowly coming to its exciting finale; FISSURE one of the newest and brightest organizers this Dota season provided various qualified Dota 2 teams an opportunity in the beautiful city of Yerevan, Armenia to compete against the highest levels of Dota competition, and for the Gaimin Gladiators sake, valuable practice and execution on their end goal of International 12 domination. Poised as one of the most talented rosters coming in the International 12 event later this year, the Gaimin Gladiators looked to use the year's last few events as a good starting ground with expectations of ultimate glory. Slated for a date with the historical Seattle location later this October, the Gladiators maintained their focus looking to take another BetBoom event as they have consistently throughout this 2022/2023 competitive year. Armenia was just the proving ground the Gladiators needed, and the consistency did not falter with the team firing on all cylinders, and the opportunity to win a share of the astounding $250,000 prize pool, the Gladiators didn’t take the opportunity for granted. As the year's most dominant team, BetBoom Dacha didn’t change that narrative and the Gladiators came out in strides pushing their way to yet again another tournament championship, and the valuable practice that came with it.

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With the opening group stage play the Gladiators started their journey in Armenia in a fairly familiar fashion, taking control of their fate, slating themselves for upper bracket play as they typically had done so throughout the year's highly touted season. With two 2-0 victories over Eastern Europe’s 9Panda’s and South America’s Beastcoast, alongside a 1-1 tie vs the online stage qualifying Nigma Galaxy; The Gladiators came out as the first of the four group B teams and a spot in the upper bracket semi final. With the playoff portion achieved, the Gladiators turned their attention to another International qualified opponent, North America’s TSM and their semi final match-up. 

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Gaimin Gladiators vs TSM - Upper Bracket Semi Final

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With six teams remaining in the diverse and accelerated BetBoom Dacha event, the Gladiators took to the stage, prepared and ready to conquer. With the introduction to patch 7.34c bringing various new, unique and diverse changes to the game, the Gladiators didn’t skip a beat. With exciting and fast paced games, much to the Gladiators style, the team competed with various styles of play proficiently. With a game one 31 minute victory and subsequent game two loss, the Gladiators maintained pace winning the do or die upper bracket game three in style looking like a well oiled machine as they frequently had this year thus far. Playing 14 unique characters (Sven being the only duplicate) in a three game series showcased a determined, consistent and mastery that pushed the team to greater heights, and into an interesting upper bracket final match-up with one of the longest tenured Dota franchises to exist.

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Gaimin Gladiators vs Team Secret - Upper Bracket Final 

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Next up on the Gladiators Armenia itinerary was Western Europe's Team Secret. After their unfortunate defeat in the International 12 Qualifier, Team Secret took the opportunity to compete at BetBoom Dacha, with a new revitalized roster and the loaning of Sumail for the event. Winning group A, Team Secret looked committed in making a long tournament run defeating Beastcoast in their initial semifinal matchup. The upper bracket was a different beast however, much to Team Secrets demise. Gaimin Gladiators took the series in quick succession winning games one and two both in 38 minutes, alongside 10 unique hero picks looking like the tournament's true powerhouse overall. With the win another FISSURE BetBoom Grand Final in hopes of making the three-peat in BetBoom’s 2023 tournament schedule, but their final opponent one that withstood their early defeat, and ran through the lower bracket, North America’s TSM once again looked for redemption.

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Gaimin Gladiators vs TSM - Grand Final 

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After another successful tournament run, the three time major champions, two time BetBoom tournament champions looked to add on another tournament victory hoping to win all of FISSURE’s Dota 2 tournaments for the 2023 year. With superb team play, excellent drafting and swift in game decision making, Gaimin Gladiators looked like the top dogs of Armenia, and though TSM may have taken a game earlier in the tournaments semi final competition; The Gladiators didn’t hold back, pushing TSM to the brink. After a swift 25 minute game one victory, and subsequent close 40 minute victory to the favored Gladiator roster, TSM showed resilience winning an intense game three in hopes of a reverse sweep, not often seen in competitive Dota’s history. Unfortunately for them, game four provided no such notion. Dominating the final game and making a mark on the tournament overall, the 23 minute game four defeat was the end of the road for North America’s TSM in hopes of accomplishing their first 2023 victory. The Gladiators proved to be unstoppable, winning the series 3-1 overall and with 15 unique champion picks in this series alone, the team looked like an adaptive squad and one that’s proved to be able to embrace change, especially in the sequence of patches and play throughout the competitive ecosystem. The Gaimin Gladiators continue to strive as a team on a mission to accomplish their end goal of International champions, and with already achieving  three time major championships this season, the Gladiators could turn heads as one of the finest Dota teams to ever grace the stage.

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Gaimin Gladiators are your BetBoom Dacha Champions! 

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For more information on Gaimin Gladiators Dota 2, and all our professional esports teams stay tuned here for recaps, blogs and content in all our esports ventures. We look forward to providing all our Gladiator readers much more excellent Dota to come! Thank you for reading. #AgainstAllOdds

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