With a 3-1 series win over Ad Finem, OG won their third Major title and the grand prize of $1 million. OG has literally won more than half (3 out of 5) of Major titles since the Frankfurt Major a year ago. They plowed through their competition, only once at the edge of elimination in their series against WG.Unity. The Green Dream never looked back since, following up with a 2-0 sweep over EG, then a quick 2-0 lead over Ad Finem in the Grand Finals, before sealing off the series win.
Congrats to OG for their Boston Major victory
— IceFrog (@IceFrog) December 11, 2016
Icefrog’s first tweet, ever.
OG vs. EG
It’s a new era for EG, without surefire hall of famers ppd and Fear. EG had the hardest path in their arm of the bracket, starting with TI6 champions Wings Gaming and recent Summit 6 winner, Virtus.Pro. OG has always played EG tough in their head to head matchups (9-1 in OG’s favor), and this series proved no different.
Clockwerk is one of those heroes that’s situational, and a little weak in the meta, but he’s godlike in the hands of S4. Clockwerk had a 38% overall win rate during the main event, out of 18 games, but S4’s Clockwerk was undefeated at the Boston Major. He kicked OG off into an early start with some timely pickoffs, and in the end contributed to 16 out of 18 of OG’s team kills. OG created enough space, along with their lineup’s pushing power in Dragon Knight and Kotl, for N0tail to get a 15 minute radiance and snowball his team to a 28 minute, 18-4 win.
Game 2 saw EG banning out Notail’s Naga and opening with a first round Ursa pick to counter OG’s Alchemist. But OG’s surprise OD pick shifted Alchemist into the safe lane, where Notail was able to win his lane and commence the Alchemist net worth snowball. He would ended the game with 901gpm in 30 minutes.
DC vs. Ad Finem
The Greek team Ad Finem was the underdog success story of the tournament. This would be their first placement of any Valve tournament, and their guaranteed prize total of $500,000, for second place, would be ten times more than their total winnings before that.
It’s even more surprising that Ad Finem has come this far using heroes few other teams use, owning a hero pool rivaled by perhaps only by Wings Gaming. They’re not afraid to venture out of their stable of comfort picks. On the main stage alone, they had over twenty picks, across all roles, where they played that hero only once.
The series was a thorough education on some of the fundamentals of Dota.
Ad Finem rolled through game 2 with a frontline, meatball lineup of Ogre, Nyx, and a near immortal Timbersaw. DC didn’t have enough damage to follow up on a few good Ravage initiations, and so their efforts ended up baiting themselves into a losing fight.
OG vs. Ad Finem
Ingredients for one of the best Dota games in Valve tournament history:
Despite an underwhelming series, Ad Finem produced one of the most exciting matches of the tournament, and their underdog run through the Boston Major coalesced a fervent fanbase reminiscent of old school Na’Vi. They wore their heart on their sleeves and played with a passion that emanated through the soundproof booths on the stage.
Ad Finem charmed the crowd and even the broadcast panel, who unanimously predicted an Ad Finem win. But OG had control of the series with a quick 2-0 lead in the series. Jerax continues to prove that he’s not only the best Earth Spirit player, but one of the best support players in the game. Ana has been a solid midlaner, despite having big shoes to fill with Miracle’s departure. S4’s strengths in consistency and controlling tempo from his former mid lane days has transitioned effectively in his new offlaner role. And Fly has singlehandedly won many of OG’s games at minute 0 due to his drafts alone.
With the Boston Major over, all eyes are now set on the ticking countdown for patch 7.00. Even Icefrog emerged from an eight year social media hiatus to tweet about it. The patch is expected to drastically shift the game’s landscape and launch a new era of Dota.
