China’s Invictus Gaming dominates ESL One Frankfurt 2014

China once again emerged victorious in the latest East-versus-West Dota 2 tournament. Invictus Gaming (iG) took first place at the Electronic Sports League (ESL) One Frankfurt with a 2-1 win over American team Evil Geniuses in a best-of-three grand finals.

Check out the VoDs here:

Game 1

[fve]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKPOE2GEGdo&list=PLhCH_nPE4JToRMgyNFaPk5EbLD6YNrxW2&index=4[/fve]

Game 2

[fve]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZPbwhWxG5E&list=PLhCH_nPE4JToRMgyNFaPk5EbLD6YNrxW2&index=5[/fve]

Game 3

[fve]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_vZlF8iEEA&list=PLhCH_nPE4JToRMgyNFaPk5EbLD6YNrxW2&index=6[/fve]

ESL One Frankfurt is one of the biggest Dota 2 tournaments this year and featured eight of the world’s top teams including previous International champions Natus Vincere (Na’Vi), iG, and Alliance. Asia was also represented by Vici Gaming (VG), but it fell 2-1 to Fnatic in its first and last series. ESL One followed a single elimination format, meaning there was no loser’s bracket and one loss meant dropping out of the tournament.

(See: Winter to coach Team Alliance for ESL One Frankfurt 2014 and The International 2014)

ESL One Frankfurt had a base prize pool of $150,000 and an additional $52,245 from the community. The total prize pool of $202,245 was distributed as follows:

First – Invictus Gaming – $80,900
Second – Evil Geniuses – $40,450
Third – Fnatic – $20,225
Fourth – Alliance – $20,225
Fifth to eight – Mousesports, Vici Gaming, Cloud 9, Natus Vincere – $10,113

Although iG’s performance seemed quite shaky in the past few months, especially during Starladder IX, the champion of The International 2 (TI2) has definitely grown stronger heading to TI4. Should iG win this year’s International, it will be the first team to win The International twice.

Results and replays of ESL One Frankfurt can be found here.

(Image source)