Speed Gaming are the champions of MLG Columbus 2013

Speed Gaming entered the competition as the underdogs only to later emerge as the champion of the Major League Gaming Championship Dota 2 Pro-Circuit in Columbus (MLG Columbus). It won 2-1 against Chinese powerhouse Team DK in the grand finals. Make no mistake about this being an easy feat; the team had to fight against top international teams such as Natus Vincere (Na’Vi), Alliance in the group stages, and even went 0-3 on the first day.

Team DK has had a rather unsteady performance since the 6.79 patch. Nonetheless, it was still one of the favorites alongside Na’Vi and Alliance. While Alliance was not able to make it to the playoffs due to their lackluster performance in the group stages, Na’Vi came through, but was immediately knocked out by Team DK. On the other hand, Speed Gaming entered this tournament with a stand-in after their original member Pittner ‘bOne7’ Armand was unable to secure a visa for this trip.

MLG’s first ever Dota 2 offline event

There was a total of nine teams that participated in the first ever offline Dota 2 event by MLG —Alliance, Na’Vi, Fnatic, Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid, Speed Gaming, Sigma.int (replacement for Team Dignitas), and online qualifier winner Pretty Boy Swag. These teams met in a best of one round-robin competition in the group stages, which was dominated by the Chinese powerhouse Team DK. Team DK suffered just a single loss to Speed Gaming before the play offs, where they were joined by Natus Vincere and Sigma.int.

MLG Columbus was held in Columbus, Ohio, and had an initial prize pool of $50,000. The community added on to the prize pool through purchases of the $9.99 MLG Championship Bundle, which contributed an additional $2.50 to the pot for every sale. The MLG Championship Bundle included an in-game ticket eligible for item drops, a courier, an HUD skin, a cosmetic ward, and Battle Point Bonus. Approximately $86,000 was added to the pot, bringing the total prize pool to $136,000.

Game 1: The 80-minute slug fest

The first game of the grand finals kicked off with a grueling 85.35-minute slugfest between Team DK and Speed Gaming. DK ran an offensive trilane with Chai Yee ‘Mushi’ Fung’s Pugna, Lei ‘MMY’ Zeng Rong’s Crystal Maiden (CM) and Zhi ‘LaNm’ Cheng Zhang’s Earthshaker from the Dire against Johan ‘pieliedie’ Åström’s Windranger and Jacky ’EternaLEnVy’ Mao’s Doom. Top lane had Daryl ‘iceiceice’ Koh’s Clockwerk faced against Kurtis ‘Aui_2000’ Ling and Weh Sing ‘Sing Sing’ Yuen’s Kunkka. On the other hand, Xu ‘BurNIng’ Zhi Lei’s Lone Druid met Artour ‘Arteezy’ Babaev’s Outworld Devourer (OD) in the mid lane.

The match resulted in back-and-forth aggression with Speed Gaming taking the upper hand, but Team DK was able to hold on long enough and farm items. LaNm turned the tides in their favor multiple times thanks to his well-executed Echoslams. With one successful team fight after the other towards the late game, the sole Asian team in the tournament proceeded to push into high ground with Mushi’s Pugna and a very farmed bear on BurNIng’s Lone Druid.

As Team DK proceeded to take one set of barracks after the other, SingSing was forced to pick up a Divine Rapier, which he eventually dropped just moments before the Radiant Ancient fell. The match ended with a 36-30 score in favor of Speed Gaming, but was won by Team DK.

Game 2: Amazing arrows and a Blink Dagger on Clinkz

Speed Gaming once again had 2-1-2 laning against Team DK who chose to run trilane. On the top lane from the Dire was BurNIng on the Alchemist, LaNm on Chen and MMY on Io against Aui_2000’s Visage and EternaLEnVy’s Clinkz. Iceiceice’s Windranger was sent offlane against pieliedie’s CM and SingSing’s Mirana while Mushi’s OD went against Arteezy’s Timbersaw on the mid lane.

While each player of Speed Gaming performed with exceptional skill, the highlight of the second game was SingSing’s Mirana, whose amazing arrows helped secure important kills especially during the early game. Speed Gaming opted for hunting and taking down towers with the Timbersaw and Clinkz equipped with a Blink Dagger instead of an Orchid Malevolence.

DK had been exceptionally impressive with strategies involving Io throughout MLG Columbus. This game, however, was different. BurNIng opted for what seemed to be a full tank build without any helpful core items save for a Sange on his Alchemist. However, aside from getting picked off by the enemy Clinkz, another thing that prevented them from gaining an advantage is that the damage they were expecting from Mushi’s Outworld Devourer was not enough to win them team fights. Speed Gaming held on to their advantage and forced a “GG WP” from Team DK. The match ended in 34.68 minutes with a score of 25-10 in favor of Speed Gaming.