OG are the deserving winners of the first ever Dota 2 Major

History was to be made today in the Grand Finals of the first-ever Dota 2 Major, regardless of the victor. Team Secret reached the final via the upper-bracket, to secure their four Grand Finals in a row. Meanwhile OG, a team from the regional qualifiers, had made it through the entire lower-bracket starting from the first round bo1s, to reach the Grand Final, even dismissing TI5 champions Evil Geniuses in the process.

OG formed in the aftermath of TI5, went all the way in the Fall Major disposing of the likes of VP, both of the TI5 Grand finalists CDEC and EG, before finally defeating Team Secret 3-1 in the Grand Finals to win over $1 million. OG were a regional qualifier team, and were not even one of the direct invites, but they eliminated 4 of the direct invites. This marks the end of the first Major season and the final standings can be found below, along with a summary of the finale of the Frankfurt Fall Majors.

Final Standings

1.  OG 1,025,130 EUR ($1,090,000)
2.  Team Secret 374, 035 EUR ($398,000)
3.  Evil Geniuses 290,916 EUR ($309,000)
4.  EHOME 235,503 EUR ($250,000)

Place 5-6 187,017 EUR ($199,000)
5-6th:  Vici Gaming
5-6th:  CDEC Gaming
Place 7-8 96,972 EUR ($103,000)
7-8th:  LGD-Gaming
7-8th:  Virtus.Pro
Place 9-12 41,559 EUR ($44,300)
9-12th:  The Alliance
9-12th:  Mineski
9-12th:  Unknown.xiu
9-12th:  Vega Squadron
Place 13-16 27,706 EUR ($29,500)
13-16th:  Fnatic
13-16th:  Newbee.Young
13-16th:  Newbee
13-16th:  Cloud9 G2A

View Grid

Game 1

Secret

    

    

OG

    

    

vs.
Game 1

OG came out guns blazing and Team Secret were caught up in a whirlwind of a game with  Amer 'Miracle-' Barqawi causing all sorts of problems for Secret as Invoker. The Grand Finals kicked off with a adrenaline fueled first battle just on the horn with 5 heroes dying, 3-2 in favour of OG, which got the crowd and the finale of the first-ever Majors off to a great start.

 David 'Moonmeander' Tan, well-known for his motivation speeches, seemed to be pumped and continued his great run of form he showed against Evil Geniuses in the opening game, jumping in just at the right time to save his allies on Tusk with Snowball and Ice Shards.

Secret had brought out support Tiny, something they played earlier in the upper-bracket in their match versus against Vici Gaming, which worked out exceptionally well for them in game 2 against the Chinese team. This time around  Johan 'pieliedie' Åström was far less impactful, ending the 32 minute game with 10 deaths. Secret were not given room to breathe, with constant skirmishes leaving Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao's Antimage scrambling for farm.

At the end of the game Team Secret made an odd decision to simply camp at their fountain as OG destroyed their base. It is not uncommon to see in pub games when a team has decided to forfeit, but on reflection it became apparent to the analyst desk that Secret did so in order to collect their thoughts and discuss what went wrong, with Maelk suggesting it made the long walk off the stage-area far less depressing.

Merlini also said the decision to call GG while sitting in the fountain instead of doing so following a battle, made the victory more hollow for OG. Irrespective of the reasoning behind the fountain and chill, OG were by far the stronger team in game 1.

Game 2

Secret

    

    

OG

    

    

vs.
Game 2

Slark made an appearance in Game Two, the "pub counter" to Alchemist according to Synderen on the commentary desk. However, it was not until much later viewers realised why. Game two was far more even than its predecessor, and it wasn't until the start of the mid-game that things got particular interesting.

A three-man crush set up by Misery's Slardar without an initation item in the top lane, paved the way for  Omar 'w33haa' Aliwi's Queen of Pain ultimate at 17 minutes, which was a pivotal moment of game two. It led to a 4-1 trade for Secret, but OG took Roshan a minute later to put them level.

Misery and w33haa combined beautifully to help take down 4 of OG

OG was not without a following in the crowd

 Johan 'pieliedie' Åström's influence on the second game as Rubick was important, catching 3-4 of OG's line-up with Fade Bolt in most battles as well as using Telekenis on  David 'Moonmeander' Tan's Clockwerk following his hookshots to avoid him casting cogs on the Secret line-up.

In the Secret line-up it was  Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov making the sacrifices for his team as Bane, and was only level 8 by 26 minutes in. At this level of play even the slightest slip could cost your team, and  Omar 'w33haa' Aliwi's blink into the enemy team to try to get a nice angle for his Sonic Wave a minute later, cost him his life and let Secret engage OG with poor positioning. Four of Secret fell and OG went for highground, taking the tier 3 tower bottom lane but not the rax.

The next ten minutes was an intense back and forth between Secret and OG, with  Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao's Slark becoming increasingly difficult to deal with. EternalEnvy went for Shadow Blade into Linkens' Sphere, later adding an Eye of Skadi.

OG's playstyle revolves around dragging fights out with heals and Shallow Graves, and Slark only benefits from drawn out fights thanks to Essence Shift, stealing almost 100 agility in one fight later on in the game. Furthermore, his Death Pact and Pounce go through Winter Wyvern's heals, making Andreas 'Cr1t-' Nielsen less of a factor in battles. A solid pick by Puppey.

Cr1t's Winter Wyvern in game 2 was world class

At 40 minutes OG found their moment, as EternalEnvy wasted a bkb charge to try to escape following his Shadow Dance, Secret tried to withdraw and OG were hot on their tail. A successful hook into cogs did not catch W33haa's QoP long enough, who then survived through an Alchemist stun and narrowly escape another hookshot from Moonmeander.

As W33haa ran to his base on under 100hp, BigDaddynoTail's rocket was hot in pursuit through the Secret base, but cool as a cucumber Puppey nightmared w33haa just miliseconds before the rocket hit to help w33haa cheat death.

After one hour of play it was all on EternalEnvy. "EternalEnvy is tanking it all," said Synderen. "They can't kill him fast enough, their heroes are not built to deal that kind of damage. Against his armour, and the solar crest Puppey can put on him you just can't do it".

However, OG did do it. OG had already taken two sets of rax and a costly death for EternalEnvy at OG's Secret Shop followed by a unfortunate death by W33haa, was the last roll of the dice for Team Secret. With EternalEnvy already using his buyback in a previous engagement, Secret could not fend off OG with one core down. As OG ransacked Secret's tier 4s, their opponent called "GG", making it 2-0 for OG.

Game 3

Secret

    

    

OG

    

    

vs.
Game 3

The third game featured a 2 on 2 mid lane, with  Andreas 'Cr1t-' Nielsen's Tusk and  Johan 'pieliedie' Åström's Ancient Apparition supporting their mid players. In terms of picks, Sven made an appearance in game 3 for  Johan 'BigDaddyN0tail' Sundstein, a hero we've seen him use before but not in this competition, and BigDaddyNoTail came into the game with a 1-2 record on the Rogue Knight. Meanwhile,  Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao had a 5-2 record in competitive matches on his Wraith King.

The 16 minute Roshan fight was the turning point for Team Secret

Pieliedie was fortunate to get some early farming time bottom lane, and his ultimate was the perfect counter for  Amer 'Miracle-' Barqawi's Shadow Fiend Mekansm. In fact it was the AA ulti which proved the decisive factor in the first big battle of the game at 16 minutes after a rather peaceful early game.

The fight broke out near Roshan, and the Ancient Apparition's Ice Blast left Miracle- unable to do anything following his ultimate and was forced to try to flee. Secret were having none of it though, and OG lost four in the process, with only  Tal 'Fly' Aizik's Bane surviving. OG were not out of the game, but they were definitely behind, and a lovely little 4-man smoke at 27 minutes to take out OG's Sven and Earthshaker, made room for an easy Secret Roshan. Secret now had a 7.5k networth lead and the scoreline was 14-7 in their favour at the half-an-hour mark.

The game was over soon after with a very obscure scenario. Both teams smoked and missed each other in the mid lane. OG camped in the mid lane, with Cr1t using Tusk's Sigil to scout, and Pieliedie seemed to do a blind Ice Blast onto OG's invisible line-up, with EternalEnvy and the rest of Secret then jumping on the OG line-up to kill four. There was a battle in OG's base following this, but the fight mid-lane was the straw that broke OG's back. The score was now 2-1 for OG, with potentially 2 games left.

Secret took one game to make the score 2:1 in the Grand Finals best-of-5

Game 4

Secret

    

    

OG

    

    

vs.
Game 4

The fourth game was the first to include a Doom as well as a Brewmaster, which were both picked by OG.  Johan 'BigDaddyN0tail' Sundstein had a rough game 3 on Sven, and based on the draft it seemed he should have a big part to play if OG were to have any hopes of winning the game and securing the title.

W33haa went for a greed build on Alchemist by not skilling concoction early on, which worked heavily in OG's favour early on, especially for Miracle's Shadow Fiend, who led the networth chart and had 5 kills and no deaths at 10 minutes in. The greedy last pick Alchemist meant Secret had to play it safe, and left OG to take Roshan uncontested at 13 minutes.

By 16 minutes OG were already pushing highground, and EternalEnvy gambled, cancelling his tp home to continue pushing the top tier 2 while his team-mates tried to fend off OG 4 v 5. Secret lost one rax before OG retreated, while EternalEnvy walked towards their Radiant jungle with an invis rune, looking for an OG hero to OmniSlash on. He found the Doom and although Misery was there to help with a stun, he simply wasn't fast enough to chase the Doom after the Omnislash, and in the end EternalEnvy had to tp out, leaving Misery to die to the OG Brewmaster and Doom.

Fortunately for Secret there was an oversight by OG fighting without BigDaddyNoTail's Brewmaster ulti near the Secret shop, which cost OG two of their heroes and allowed EternalEnvy to complete his BattleFury on Juggernaut at 20 minutes. An unnecessary fight for OG, but at 25 minutes they were pushing high ground again, this time with an Aegis on Shadow Fiend top lane, taking out a second Secret tier 3 tower, and a third just three minutes later.

The crucial fight at 28 minutes actually could have gone terribly wrong for Secret.  Amer 'Miracle-' Barqawi's Aegis ran out when he was on 100hp just outside Secret's mid tier 3, forcing OG to draw back to avoid him falling. However, as Secret pursued OG sniped  Rasmus 'MiSeRy' Fillipsen's Slardar. Secret then pursued OG all the way into OG's jungle, but by the end of the engagement had lost 3 of their heroes, and all lanes were pushing in on Secret's base. Secret were now on the ropes with their base being under seige and OG just stormed in with little Puppey and his team-mates could do nothing to stop them. OG had done it, all the way from the regional qualifiers to the Grand Finals, to become the first ever Dota 2 Major champions.