Gambit secures top seed in day 1 of Kyiv minor, thanks to Gpk’s return

It’s Gambit Esports, a team that has met many bumps in their journey through DPC seasons since last year. From getting so close to qualifying for the International 2019, only to be disappointed by their own teammate’s rage quit midgame, to having their mid player seemingly poached by a nasty organization (though unsuccessfully). However, the effects of it was devastating as Gambit was forced to bench the player and play with a stand-in, causing them to lose in the CIS regional qualifiers for the Los Angeles major. Fortunately, the boys were still able to secure their spot in the Kyiv minor, bringing us to today’s epic performance with the return of the one and only, Gpk.

Gambit starts off the day with a series against CR4ZY, formerly known as Fighting PandaS and also formerly captained by the infamous EternalEnvy. The series begins with a first pick Riki by Gambit, an unusual pick to say the least, especially when it is the first pick, where not only does this give CR4ZY the opportunity to counter but no one knows whether if it’s a support pick or not. Turns out Gambit really played the mind game on CR4ZY as Riki pick is actually their hard carry pick for Gpk.

While CR4ZY was played into picking a counter, Slardar as offlaner, which would have been a decent pick 2 updates ago, it was a bad decision in this game. Regardless, CR4ZY was able to keep up with Gambit’s pace till midgame, before Gambit take full control as they have an Arc Warden dealing immense damage from a safe distance. Even CR4ZY’s strongest core, Medusa, just evaporates to the damage output.

“The Queen is dead” (Video credits goes to Youtuber, Dota 2 Player):

Looking at the second game, Gambit once again picked an odd carry pick, this time being Naga Siren. Yet, they executed their play systematically, allowing Dream on Naga Siren, to just snowball out of control. There was just no control over on the side of CR4ZY, so it was only a matter of time before Gambit cleans up the enemy heroes. With a clean sweep to start off the day, Gambit looked impenetrable when it comes to drafts and just overall performance to top it off. Facing the biggest threat in the tournament, Alliance, things did not go as expected for Alliance despite their reputation after defeating Nigma in the minor qualifiers.

In game 1, we were able to once again see Riki in action, featuring dream, while Gpk plays a perfect Shadow Fiend game. Thanks to his team, Gpk was able to secure multiple kills and could casually walk off Alliance’s attacks without much worries of dying. Instead, Alliance was playing under the anxiety that there is a nearby Riki with Diffusal Blade waiting for an opportunity to kill them. That’s exactly what happened when NikoBaby cockily walked into the top region of their jungle alone, only to be preyed by dream’s Riki, followed with a global Ice Blast. That aside, the game is already very one-sided, with over 12,000 gold lead in favor of Gambit. As Gambit knocks on Alliance’s base, they had no answers to Gambit’s overwhelming teamfight potential.

Game 2, Gambit went for a very durable draft, having picked multiple strength heroes. Even with NikoBaby’s signature hero, Faceless Void, Alliance still could not secure a quick kill on Gambit’s cores and overextending the fight led to multiple deaths of Alliance heroes. Frankly, the outcome of this game has already been determined since the drafts as Alliance’s objective when picking Faceless Void is for the quick kills but that failed miserably.

NikoBaby does no damage (Video credits goes to Youtuber, NoobFromUA):

With a clean 4-win streak, Gambit secures the indisputable top seed in their groups and the upper bracket spot in the playoffs. Of course, the reward is a well-deserved day of rest as they watch the other teams fight later today. Gpk returning to Gambit’s active line-up might just be their ticket to the LA major, stay tuned.