Tundra Esports won Dota 2's ESL One Fall 2021 without dropping a series in the playoffs, demonstrating that they can fight with the greatest teams in the world.
With higher records than Alliance and Team Liquid coming out
of the group round, the European squad was the only team from the region to
make it into the top bracket of the playoffs. After breaking into the main
event, Tundra proceeded on a run, sweeping both Beastcoast and Virtus.pro to
reach the grand finals. VP was one of the early favorites, and they would go
on to be the only team to defeat Tundra during the tournament, winning their
group stage encounter 2-0.
Tundra faced a PSG in the final series. The LGD team is doing well despite the fact that its coach, xiao8, is filling in for Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang. LGD struggled early on despite being considered the best team in the tournament, winning three straight rounds against Team Spirit, T1, and VP to go to the finals.
Tundra dominated game one, out-skilling the opposition 43-9
in kills and never behind after the fifth minute. Despite Tundra's continued
strong play, LGD came back, winning the next two games and taking a 2-1 lead. Despite
being down a game, Tundra forced a game five because to some outstanding
performance from both Skiter and Nine, who combined for 31 kills, 98,000
damage, and over 60k net value, more than any other duo on LGD. That high-level
performance continued in the championship game, with the duo combining for more
kills than the whole LGD team once again.
LGD did have a lead and control of game five for around 20
minutes, but Tundra took their time, remained patient, and capitalized on their
advantages when they needed to to win 3-2.
Tundra earned $175,000 for their victory,
cementing their position as one of the strongest teams in EU. Given that they
barely missed qualifying for TI10 and no other Majors have been announced
before of the October event, they still have plenty of time to play in other
competitions.