It was one of the most hotly anticipated series of the entire TI12 tournament: Gaimin Gladiators vs. nouns. The North American underdogs really had their work cut out for them against western EU’s titans Gaimin Gladiators. With the home crowd behind them, nouns stepped up.

No one saw nouns becoming the final standing NA team at TI12 coming. After placing third in the groups, behind LGD Gaming and GG themselves, they were the team to send defending champions Tundra Esports to the lower bracket. But in the end, the Gladiators reminded everyone why they won every Major this year.

Source: Dota 2 Youtube

Game 1 – Gaimin Gladiators Dominated

GG are known for their calm and collected play style and game one proved that is the way to go. The combination of coordinated team fights and hard pushing power put them ahead from pretty early on in the game. Despite Moo picking up his signature Brewmaster, there simply wasn’t enough damage on the team to combat the chain stuns.

The combination of Ravage, Rolling Thunder and Meteor Hammer proved too much. Along with a significant damage problem, nouns simply find enough space on the map to get the farm they so badly needed. Brew didn’t manage to pick up his Radiance until 25 minutes into the game and by then, it was simply too late.

Game 2 – Gaimin Gladiators…Dominated

Not content with one put down, GG came into game 2 with a plan. We saw Dazzle go up against KotL but Quinn is a real force to be reckoned with. Nouns’ carry Spectre simply wasn’t given the space to farm the GG’s Alchemist.

GG were sieging the Radiant base by 19 minutes but to absolutely no one’s surprise, their main push power came from Lone Druid’s bear.

It’s the end of the road for the North American teams at TI12. Gaimin Gladiators vs. nouns was the true David and Goliath game of the tournament and while everyone loves an underdog, today Goliath won. Next up, they’ll need to beat the winners of Betboom Team vs. Virtus.Pro.