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After sweeping Team Secret 3-0 in the final on Sunday, Tundra Esports emerged victors of The International 2022 in Singapore.
Tundra’s win has immortalized the names of all five players on their roster in Dota 2 history, all of whom had never lifted the Aegis of Champions before. Although it was their first win in The International, all the players had made appearances in the tournament in its previous iterations.
Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling and Wu “Sneyking” Jingjun were particularly impressive during the match and made history on their way to leading Tundra to victory. The team captain, Sneyking, was moved to position five after Martin “Saksa” Sazdov was brought into the squad.
In his new role, Sneyking brought on a completely new playing style, which pushed the team to victory. The captain also has the record for the most roster moves a player has made before winning a TI.
Aui_2000, on his part, helped Tundra with his experience as the captain of a TI-winning team and his unique approach to the match. The player was previously captain of the Evil Geniuses when they lifted the Aegis of Champions at TI5. With the recent win, Aui_2000 is now the only person to have ever won the Dota 2 tournament as a player and a coach.
Tundra started their run at TI11 in impressive form, going 14-4 to finish the group stage as the top seeds. Team Secret had the most experience of both teams, but they could not keep up with Tundra’s playstyle.
In game one, Leon “Nine” Kirilin’s use of Tusk and Oliver “skiter” Lepko’s Naga Siren was the game changer for Tundra. Nine also stepped up in game two with his use of Arc Warden, which threw their opponents off and helped the European team win the match.
Despite Secret’s attempt to lock Tundra out of getting suitable heroes, the team always had heroes they could use with ease and decimate the lineup. In game three, Tundra revealed just how at ease they were in the match when the team selected Medusa for skiter. The pick was mainly because the player had gotten a TI11 Crimson Witness item Medusa live on stage.
During the TI11 tournament, the Dota 2 hero was only used three times, and not by skiter. The last time he played a pro game using Medusa was more than five months ago. Despite all this, skiter’s use of the hero had a significant role in Tundra’s win in game three.
Concerning the reason the excellent gameplay seemed effortless to Tundra, Aui_2000 revealed during the post-game interview that the team had practiced really hard before the TI, so once they started playing, it seemed like the challenging part was over. He added that Tundra could play their style because of this, while having fun at the same time.
Tundra are the second team in the history of TI grand finals to end the tournament with a 3-0 sweep. The first team that did it was Team Liquid against Newbee in TI7.
Tundra ended their run in TI11 with merely five map losses on all maps played and not a single series loss. The feat earned the European team a win rate of 82.1% and placed them in a tie for the fourth-highest win rate in the history of TI.
By reaching the final, Tundra and Secret earned a sizeable chunk of the TI11 prize pool, the total amount of which will not be confirmed until November 2. With the kitty set to exceed USD $19 million, Tundra will take home around $8.5 million, while Secret will receive about $2.5 million.
