RESULTS: Virtus.pro Claim Victory at ESL One Birmingham

It’s always hard going up against the tournament favorites in the Grand Final of an event, even worse when they’re coming off the back of some already very impressive victories at other events. Such was the situation facing OpTic Gaming, as they stared across the map at their opponents for the Grand Final of ESL One Birmingham, Virtus.pro. Here’s a brief breakdown of the series.

The first match saw Virtus.pro take an early lead after picking up several kills. Though both teams would trade kills for a time, Virtus.pro quickly established themselves as the stronger team, taking down members of OpTic Gaming almost as quickly as they revived. In the end, Virtus.pro was able to close out the game with a very impressive lead, 33-7 in kills largely off the back of Vladimir “No[o]ne-“ Minenko who closed out the match 11/0/13 overall.

The second match was a much closer contest between these two teams, as both teams stepped up their game. OpTic Gaming was the team to pull ahead early, though they weren’t able to amass a very large lead. Nevertheless, Virtus.pro was forced to play catch up, as the teams quickly settled into a highly combative state, trading multiple kills across the board in repeated skirmishes. It would take some time, but Virtus.pro did manage to retake the advantage at around 37 minutes, only to again lose it as OpTic Gaming rallied. The tipping point came at around 54 minutes in, with the advantage from OpTic Gaming sitting at nearly 11k, Virtus.pro managed to find back to back team fights that very quickly negated all of OpTic Gaming’s hard work, turning the 11k advantage into a 19k disadvantage in just five minutes as Virtus.pro closed out the match.

The third and final match was similar to the first, though a tad more extreme. Virtus.pro again stormed to an early lead as they found members of OpTic Gaming to take down across the map. The attacks from Virtus.pro didn’t go unanswered, but there was little that OpTic Gaming could realistically do, as the Eastern European powerhouse stormed ahead. A much shorter match than previously saw Virtus.pro claim the game and series in just 19 minutes, walking away as the champions of ESL One Birmingham.

Another #ESLOne event, another trophy for @virtuspro!!
That's just how it goes! pic.twitter.com/ilw9Kgomfv

— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) May 27, 2018

For a more detailed breakdown of the series, check out the match threads at dotabuff.com, here, and for more Esports action, check out our breakdown of the most watched Esports event so far, here.