On their path to becoming Champions of ESL One Hamburg 2018, Team Secret successfully exacted revenge on defending champions Virtus.pro, beating them 2-0 in a lower bracket meeting after suffering defeat at their hands early in the playoffs.

In a back and forth Grand Final that thrilled audiences worldwide, Team Secret was finally able to pick apart Vici Gaming in the final match to clinch a 3-2 win. Team Secret takes home USD 125,000 (RM520,812), while the runner-ups, Vici Gaming, will walk away with USD 65,000 (RM270,822)out of the total USD 300,000 (RM1,249,950) prize pool.

The game and tournament-winning moment of Game 5 came down to zai’s beautifully executed Reverse Polarity to turn the tide – as Team Secret was far behind until they took this successful team fight. Zai’s brilliant timing & positioning skewed the advantage to Team Secret, and they didn’t look back as they proceeded to dominate Vici Gaming for the remainder of game 5. 

Watch the exciting fight between Team Secret and Vici Gaming below:

A wonderful tournament to spectate for any Dota 2 fan, ESL One Hamburg 2018 was especially fun to see a lot of experimentation from the Team Secret. This is especially true for support players being able to see many unconventional supports picks, like position 4 Brew and Tiny.

We’re personally excited to see what Team Secret will deliver at the KL Major, and Puppey can drastically change the meta once more – and also scoring some early Dota Pro Circuit points (Team Secret & winning early-season DPC points, name a more iconic duo).

Fun thing to note, Malaysian player Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng won the Mercedes-Benz MVP prize: a brand new car. He revealed in an interview that he actually didn’t own a car prior to winning the prize and that the first place he would drive to after getting the car would be to his girlfriend’s house.

Cover photo credit: ESL One