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Dota 2 Stockholm Major Day 8: OG, Gladiators stay alive; Beastcoast, Fnatic bow out

After a one-day break, the ESL One Dota 2 Stockholm Major resumed on Friday (20 May) with the playoff matches being held in front of a live audience at the Hovet Arena — the first time in over two years that a top tier Dota 2 tournament featured a crowd of fans.

It was only fitting that some of the best Dota of the Major thus far was played in front of the returning crowd.

The day opened with South America's Beastcoast taking down Eastern Europe's BetBoom Team 2-1 to face Gaimin Gladiators later in the day.

Western Europe's OG then knocked out the last Southeast Asian team from Stockholm after they outlasted Fnatic in a 2-1 thriller.

Finally, Beastcoast's run in the Major was ended by Western Europe's Gaimin Gladiators in a 2-0 sweep.

OG celebrate after a thrilling 2-1 victory over Fnatic to keep their title hopes alive in the ESL One Dota 2 Stockholm Major. (Photo: ESL)
OG celebrate after a thrilling 2-1 victory over Fnatic to keep their title hopes alive in the ESL One Dota 2 Stockholm Major. (Photo: ESL)

Beastcoast 2-1 BetBoom Team

Day eight of the Stockholm Major kicked off with a heated best-of-three elimination match between Beastcoast and BetBoom Team.

BetBoom came out swinging to start the series. Behind Nikita "Daxak" Kuzmin's signature carry Nature's Prophet, the Eastern European squad notched 11-straight kills before conceding their first death.

They also got their first tower at the 5-minute mark and their first melee barracks at just 18 minutes into the game.

Despite BetBoom's dominant start, Beastcoast still managed to hold on for 44-minutes before conceding the first game of the series.

The South Americans flipped the script in a 35-minute game two, as Héctor "K1" Rodríguez on Wraith King and Jean Pierre "C. smile" Gonzales on Storm Spirit led Beastcoast in forcing the series to a decider.

Game three was a closely-contested affair, with BetBoom once again getting off to a flying start behind Daxak's Ursa and Denis "Larl" Sigitov's Leshrac.

However, Beastcoast took back control by dominating the midgame clashes thanks to K1 on Juggernaut and C. smile on Storm Spirit once again.

Despite BetBoom's best efforts to mount a comeback, they were forced to call GG after 49 minutes of action. With their victory, Beastcoast knocked out BetBoom and earned a meeting with the Gaimin Gladiators in the final match of the day.

OG 2-1 Fnatic

The second series of the day saw fan-favorites OG kick Fnatic out of the Major after emerging victorious in one of the best matches of the tournament thus far.

OG hit the ground running to start the match, taking a convincing 44-minute victory thanks to standout performances from Artiem "Yuragi" Golubiev on Juggernaut and Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov on a mid Pangolier.

Yuragi paced OG's 34-16 kill lead with a series-high 15 kills against two deaths while bzm pitched in with 10 kills of his own against two deaths.

Fnatic quickly bounced back and tied up the series with a methodical 36-minute win in game two. OG had no answers for a rock-solid draft by the Southeast Asian team that was anchored by the hard carry Medusa of Marc Polo "Raven" Fausto, who finished with a clean five kills and 11 assists.

Game three of this elimination match between OG and Fnatic may end up being the best game of the entire Stockholm Major.

Fnatic kicked off the decider by bludgeoning OG to the tune of 14-straight unanswered kills by the 15-minute mark courtesy of Armel "Armel" Tabios' mid Keeper of the Light and Djardel "DJ" Mampusti's position 4 Hoodwink.

After the first 20 minutes of the game, things were looking bleak for OG as they were down 22-1 in kills and faced a gold deficit of almost 8,000.

But even as they gave up kills left and right, OG held on in the hopes that their fearsome teamfight lineup of Morphling for Yuragi, Pangolier for bzm, Tidehunter for Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf, Enigma for Tommy "Taiga" Le, and Jakiro for Sébastien "Ceb" Debs would win in the late game.

OG found their window for a comeback at the 43-minute mark, when they managed to score three huge kills against Fnatic, including a crucial takedown of Raven's Chaos Knight. With both ATF and Taiga having Refresher Orbs, OG made good use of multiple casts of Ravage and Black Hole to stunlock Raven and kill him despite the protection of the Aegis of the Immortal.

With his teammates providing a barrage of disables, Yuragi was free to wreak havoc on Fnatic's heroes and lead the siege of the Southeast Asian squad's base.

And with Tier 5 neutral items adding to their already overwhelming firepower, OG finally broke through Fnatic's stubborn defense of their Ancient to complete the comeback after a thrilling 64 minutes of action.

The second-longest game of the Stockholm Major ended with Fnatic holding a 40-26 kill lead in their defeat. As that old saying in Dota goes, "Kills mean nothing, the throne means everything."

Yuragi topped the kill board for game three, tying the series-high in kills with 15 takedowns against eight deaths.

Meanwhile, DJ put up a monstrous 14-kill, 15-assist line against just three deaths in an ultimately wasted effort to give Fnatic the series victory.

OG live to fight another day in the Stockholm Major as the last Southeast Asian team bow out of the tournament.

Gaimin Gladiators 2-0 Beastcoast

The day ended with Gaimin Gladiators putting a stop to Beastcoast's lower bracket run in a 2-0 sweep. Miroslav "BOOM" Bičan had back-to-back showstopping performances on Ember Spirit to keep his team's Major hopes alive.

BOOM notched a series-high 18 kills against one death to pace the Gladiators' 43-12 kill lead in a 30-minute game one. He then followed that up with a 10-kill, two-death outing in a 32-minute game two to secure the series sweep.

With their victory over Beastcoast, Gladiators extend their winning streak in games at the Stockholm Major where BOOM played Ember Spirit to a clean six.

With the day's results, Fnatic and Beastcoast exit the Stockholm Major in 7th-8th place and with US$12,500 and 240 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) points in consolation apiece.

Meanwhile, Beastcoast bow out in 5th-6th place and will take home US$25,000 and 385 DPC points for their efforts.

Only five teams remain standing in Stockholm: Tundra Esports, TSM FTX, Gaimin Gladiators, OG, and Thunder Awaken.

Day nine of the Major on Saturday (21 May) will open with the second lower bracket quarterfinals match between OG and Thunder Awaken.

That will be followed by the upper bracket finals between Tundra and TSM, with the winner taking the first spot in the grand finals while the loser will drop to the lower bracket finals.

The day will end with Gaimin Gladiators taking on the winner of the OG-versus-Thunder Awaken match in the lower bracket semifinals.

Here is the bracket after the fourth day of the Stockholm Major playoffs:

After the fourth day of the playoffs, only five teams remain standing in the ESL One Dota 2 Stockholm Major: Tundra Esports, TSM FTX, Gaimin Gladiators, OG, and Thunder Awaken. (Photo: Wykrhm Reddy)
After the fourth day of the playoffs, only five teams remain standing in the ESL One Dota 2 Stockholm Major: Tundra Esports, TSM FTX, Gaimin Gladiators, OG, and Thunder Awaken. (Photo: Wykrhm Reddy)

For everything you need to know about the Stockholm Major, check here.

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