On March 30, 2013, The Defense Season 3 Dota 2 tournament ended, in the final of which they met Virtus.pro and Fnatic. Then the decisive series dragged on five cards and ended in favor of the team of Yaroslav NS Kuznetsova. Seven years later, the editors of Cybersport.ru decided to recall what kind of tournament it was and why the phrase about “The Defense champion” became a meme in the Russian-speaking community.
The Defense Season 3 was attended by 32 teams from North and South America, Europe and the CIS. All of them competed online on a single schedule, despite ping and time zones. In addition to Virtus.pro, CIS speakers Natus vincere, iCCup, Lionspride, Team empire, XX5 and NEXT.Kz.
Following the results of the group stage, eight of the best teams went to the upper bracket of the double-elimination format – among them were Virtus.pro and Team Empire. Natus Vincere could also be there, but they lost to 3DMAX in the replay. The remaining teams from the CIS left the tournament.
Group stage
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Photo: liquipedia.net/dota2/The_Defense/Season_3
In the first round of the playoffs, Virtus.pro beat Team Empire with a score of 2: 1, then Evil Geniuses defeated dry, and in the match for the finals, she managed with Team Dignitas on three maps. Team Empire left the tournament after two episodes, losing to teams from the CIS, and Natus Vincere stumbled in the third round of the lower bracket in the series against Fnatic. Team path Tal Fly Isaac and Johann n0tail Sundstein to the finals was not easy: after the defeat from Evil Geniuses in the winners, the Europeans played five episodes in the bottom bracket, where they knocked out the No Tidehunter tournament Jackie EternaLEnVy Mao composed).
Playoff grid
Click-to-enlarge image
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Photo: liquipedia.net/dota2/The_Defense/Season_3
“In those days, it was like now – everything was online, and there were very few LAN tournaments (in fact, they were conducted by one StarLadder). This tournament was one of the largest in the year, before that we had already stopped many times a couple of steps from the championship at other events, all the time a little bit was missing. And here we are a little lucky with the net, as I see it. We didn’t make it to NAVI, which we could never beat at all – they lost to someone in the losers, and that’s all, we didn’t see them anymore. NTH (Alliance) also lost in the Team Dignitas semifinal. As a result, Fnatic turned out to be the final in general, which was a rather convenient opponent for us, although the match was not easy. ”
The most popular heroes of that meta were Nature’s Prophet, Puck, Lone Druid, Gyrocopter, Chen and other characters who were comfortable in pushing lines. Having gained an advantage at the beginning of the match, the leading team often crushed the opponent at a pace and won with a big score. Having lost in the early stage, it was very difficult to recoup.
The final between Virtus.pro and Fnatic turned out to be tense. The CIS team won the first two cards, but then the Europeans quickly evened the score. Final map with comments Vladimir Maelstorm Kuzminov:
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