A familiar rivalry between Tundra Esports and OG played out in the lower bracket final of DreamLeague Season 23: Western Europe Closed Qualifier, with the former being as clinical as it could be on the day to win and qualify. A team like OG often fights it out to the end, but Tundra was consistent in drafts and gameplay execution in both games to register a comprehensive 2-0 series victory. A catalyst in Tundra’s victory was its carry Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko, who outplayed his opponents in the lane first as Morphling, then as Luna, to get off to a flying start. Team Liquid is the other Western European team to qualify for the main tournament.
Tundra Esports vs OG: Match recap and highlights of DreamLeague S23 WEU closed qualifier lower bracket final
Recap
In game 1, OG drafted a tri core melee lineup consisting of carry Sven, mid Pangolier, and offlane Kunkka. Tundra’s lineup was ideal for dealing with opponent heroes, with Pure on Morphling, Topson on Sniper, and Tobi providing the essential tank on Centaur Warrunner. Pure controlled the safelane, with the team killing Kunkka three times in the first ten minutes. Other than Batrider, OG had few kills as the squad continued to lose bodies, resulting in a 35 minute loss.
In game 2, Topson outplayed bzm in the midlane on Razor, while Pure and Whitemon found kill after kill in the safelane. When compared to other heroes on the networth table, Pure’s Luna was well ahead. The other cores also had strong games and ascended to victory in 28 minutes as OG was far behind to compete.
Highlights
Here are some highlights of the series.
With the qualifier system in place for the 2024 competitive season, Gaimin Gladiators received direct invites continuously, while Team Liquid has found its way via the qualifier rather easily whenever required, and OG and Tundra Esports have been the primary contenders in the remaining slots.
Although both teams have won at times and have been very competitive, OG probably thought it had the edge going into this qualifier considering its better result in DreamLeague Season 22 a few weeks back.
However, Tundra probably benefited from the recent 7.35d patch considering its emphatic 2-0 wins against Team Secret, Entity, and OG in the lower bracket run in the qualifier.
Entity, OG, and Tundra will now advance to the PGL Wallachia Season 1: Western Europe Closed Qualifier, which begins on 25th March. In this qualifier, there will only be one slot available to qualify for the main event.
