Team Secret utterly dominated Virtus.pro Prodigy (VP.P), 3-0, in the grand final of the OGA Dota PIT online EU/CIS league Season 3 to win the grand prize of US$70,873 and their eighth-straight championship in just four months.
Secret dropped just one game, the first one of their quarterfinals match against VP.P, throughout their run in the event to further cement their place as the best team in Dota right now, and possibly one of the greatest of all time.
This is also the second time during their streak that Secret has faced VP.P in a grand final and swept them. Their first meeting was at the WePlay! Pushka League Season 1 back in May, when Secret started their unbelievable streak of eight-straight championships and grand final sweeps.
Finishing behind a historically-dominant Team Secret should not be taken as a knock against VP.P, especially when considering they just added Danil “gpk” Skutin and Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk as stand-ins prior to the tournament.
Here’s a breakdown of the grand finals:
Game 1
Secret opened the finals with a balanced draft headlined by Lasse “Matumbaman” Urpalainen on Faceless Void and Michal “Nisha” Jankowski on Templar Assassin. Meanwhile, Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg on an offlane Elder Titan, Yazied “YapzOr” Jaradat on Skywrath Mage, and Clement “Puppey” Ivanov on Vengeful Spirit brought up the rear.
VP.P countered with a four-protect-one strategy with Egor “epileptick1d” Grigorenko on Troll Warlord, while gpk on Lina, Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin on an offlane Magnus, Lil on Shadow Demon, and Vitaly “Save-” Melnik on Disruptor comprised the supporting cast.
Both teams were on relatively even footing for much of the early-to-mid game. However, Secret were able to kite and neutralize epileptick1d’s Troll Warlord to win crucial fights and build a lead they would never relinquish.
Nisha started the series strong with a game-high 10 kills against three deaths in a 36-minute victory, while Matumbaman pitched in 7 kills of his own also against three deaths.
Game 2
VP.P looked to bounce back in game two with a strong teamfight tri-core of Faceless Void for epileptick1d, Viper for gpk, and Mars for DM, with Lil on Dark Willow and Save on Enchantress for support.
Secret countered with an unorthodox yet hard-hitting tri-core of their own, with Matumbaman on Lone Druid, Nisha on Pugna, and zai on an offlane Silencer. YapzOr and Puppey provided their team some crowd control as Clockwerk and Crystal Maiden, respectively.
Despite their unusual hero and lane setup, Secret exhibited their signature laning phase dominance to steadily build a gold lead while choking out their opponents. With their cores starved for gold and items, VP.P were barely able to fight off Secret and were forced to call GG after 33 minutes.
Nisha continued his excellent showing with a series-high 11 kills against four deaths as Secret took a commanding 2-0 series lead in a game that ended with a lopsided 25-11 kill score.
Game 3
Secret looked to close out the series with a strong midgame tri-core of Luna for Matumbaman, mid Monkey King for Nisha, and an offlane Bloodseeker for zai. YapzOr and Puppey secured the lanes with Clockwerk and Chen, respectively.
A desperate VP.P pulled out a draft that featured two tanky cores protecting three glass cannon heroes. Epileptick1d on Kunkka and DM on Underlord manned the front lines, while gpk on a mid Drow Ranger, Lil on Mirana, and Save on Enchantress were entrusted with dishing out the damage.
Once again, Secret dominated the laning phase to build a lead and never looked back. VP.P’s draft failed to even leave the ground as their gold-starved heroes couldn’t stand up to or even deal damage against a Secret lineup that quickly hit its power spike.
Despite their opponents’ best efforts, Secret cruised to a 22-minute victory to complete the sweep and win yet another championship. As further proof that Secret excelled both as a team and as individuals, zai and YapzOr tied for the game-high six kills in the closeout game.
READ MORE: This year’s Team Secret is statistically the most dominant Dota 2 team of all time
