What’s wrong with the Gladiators – the team has never played so badly

Before the final round of the group stage ESL One Birmingham 2024 by Dota 2 Gladiators occupy last place. In four rounds, Anton’s roster dirachyo Shkredova earned only two points, that is, out of eight maps, only two were won. Yes, the Gladiators did not shine at previous tournaments, but it is one thing to not shine and be in the top 5, but to be the worst team in the tournament is quite another. We will discuss the problems of the team in the article Cybersport.ru.

Of the six maps given to Gladiators at the tournament, only one made it into the deep late game (50+ minutes). In most cases, the team admitted defeat generally around the 35th minute, which means that it was crushed already on the lines and in the midgame.

Moreover, it is curious that sometimes laning was played where, in theory, it should not have been. Let’s take the first map against Xtreme, who is also not in the best shape right now. How, with a peak on the right, could you give up the start so much? Let’s explain now:

• The Gladiators’ light line with the powerful Io + CK combination did not realize its potential. Moreover, in a specific case, questions should be addressed to Seleri, who gave first blood out of nowhere.
• Quinn played passively, unlike his opponent on Keeper of the Light.
• Ace dominated his lane for a while, but Xtreme threw everything there and killed Ax several times.
• The Gladiators played slower and did not have time to catch the opponent’s draws. In one of the early bot lane fights, the entire Gladiators roster rushed to Ax’s aid, but arrived when the offlaner was already dead. As a result, the Chinese, having grouped in a timely manner, also took away the gift dyrachyo.
• Xtreme increased the pressure on Ax, throwing off his timing and getting a good start. Without their offlaner, the Gladiators could not fight and simply scattered across the map, dying from time to time.

There is a whole combo of both individual and team mistakes. Essentially, Gladiators’ early game should have been built around a strong composite lane and a rich Ax who would quickly get the items they needed and lead the team forward. However, the European roster was unable to provide Ace with this transition into the early midgame, selling their “three” several times without exchanging. And without a strong Ax, the Gladiators had no Plan B at all.

Here, the Gladiators partly drove themselves into a trap even in the draft: Seleri played on a character who is tied to the lane and cannot help, and Quinn played on Zeus, who, of course, can help with his ultimate, but early draws for him are fraught with a tavern. In addition, the Gladiators mid player does not play very confidently on Zeus itself. And here the problem of the narrowness of its pool appears.

• On all eight maps of the tournament, opponents banned Pangolier.
• Quinn won the only two maps of the tournament on his other signal, Leshrac.
• Now Leshrac is constantly being banned.

Gladiators tried to play with Keeper of the Light – one of the most meta mid-laners in the tournament, who is capable of becoming a playmaker at an early stage. But Quinn has only two matches with the character in his entire career, and the second was just at this tournament – as you can see, that KotL was not the most successful.

But suppose the Gladiators held the lane well and went into the midgame with an advantage, what could possibly go wrong? And here the second map against Xtreme can be a good illustration.

6 thousand advantage in the 13th minute against Chaos Knight and Slardar is a good basis for a confident victory by the 30th minute. That’s just…

• Gladiators, having Io, for some reason acted weakly in macro: the team’s first Roshan was stolen and their T3 tower was completely demolished in exchange for T2. The Chinese simply outplayed their opponent in movements.
• The team fights looked even weirder. Essentially, the task of the Gladiators was to buff Gyrocopter in every possible way, stand in the distance and watch as the dyrachyo demolishes the base, but be ready to come to its aid. Now look at the next screenshot.

• Yes, Gladiators players stood under one Echo Stomp from Elder Titan and simply fell asleep (with tOfu taking photos) while their carry died. Why this happened at all is a million-dollar question.
• And there were many such mistakes in team fights and when approaching a hill. Gladiators, for example, were unable to knock down Bane’s ultimate throughout the entire map. It would seem that Zeus could have simply assembled a fast Aghanim’s Scepter, but he only acquired this artifact when Bane also assembled his own Aghanim.
• The moment at which, in essence, the game was decided is also indicative. 50th minute. Standing near Roshan. Centaur Warrunner already has a “cart” save, which in theory could be a response to Xtreme’s burst, allowing Gyrocopter to survive the attack and shoot everyone further. But Techies exposed himself to the opponent’s skills, losing 80% of his HP – all saves were spent on him, including the “cart”, and the Chinese immediately attacked Gyrocopter. Result: support with buyback is saved, carry without buyback is lost *there should be a prehistoric wat meme here*.

As a result, it’s difficult to blame any one person for Gladaitors’ failures. The team members perform weakly individually, and they also mix this with a general team loss and disorganization. We really haven’t seen Gladaitors like this before. Even the team itself does not understand why this happens.

The Gladiators still have a theoretical shot at the playoffs, but it’s hard to imagine what they had to do overnight to completely rebuild. It feels like only a patch can help the team get out of this uncontrollable fall. Let’s hope she can actually return to her former form.