80-minute Decider Between OG and Falcons Forced To Be Remade To Minute 0

OG’s Dota 2 squad cannot catch a break. The storied organization has missed out on almost every LAN event for the past few years, and now that they’re finally playing at BLAST Slam I, things have continued to go haywire for N0tail’s team. 

OG’s Blast SLAM I Run So Far

OG had the tall task of playing against Team Falcons as a consequence of underperforming throughout the tournament’s group stage. But, 23savage and company were putting up a formidable fight in the series against the best team in the world. 

To my surprise, OG took the first map in convincing fashion, only for Ammar to punch back a map win in game 2 against his former organization to keep the series level. In the third map, things were escalating in the high-pressure elimination game.

Late game high ground defense – Falcons vs OG – BLAST Slam I
byu/rxdazn inDotA2

What Happened In Map 3 Between OG and Falcons?

The decisive map had reached the 80-minute mark, where the game servers decided to die, and nobody in the game could move. At this point, OG were up a lane of Barracks, having taken two as opposed to Team Falcons’ one. However, the latter had a 30,000 net worth lead, but gold isn’t too significant in a game with Tier 5 items in play. 

The BLAST team tried looking for a backup of the game but to no avail. After a one-hour technical pause, the tournament organizers admitted defeat and confirmed both teams agreed to remake the game with the same draft and starting items.

UPDATE: Sadly due to a Valve server crash the game was lost, as seen on the stream. We have been working to remake the game, but this has not been successful.

We have agreed to replay the last game with same draft, and same starting items.

Both teams agreed to play it like…

— BLAST Slam (@BLASTDota) November 28, 2024

Team Falcons, being the world-class team they are, quickly understood what went wrong in the previous bout and polished their gameplay. After a six-hour-long series, the “fourth map of this Best of 3 series” went the way of the DreamLeague Season 24 winners in a compelling stomp, barely giving OG any chances.

Really enjoyed game 4 in our Bo3. Fun stuff

— skiter (@Skiter) November 28, 2024

Did OG Get Robbed?

And now for the question that the community is discussing. Well, it’s pretty hard to tell. OG did have a better map state, being a lane of Barracks up and having their waves pushed up before the pause. In terms of late game drafts, I’d say the lineups are slightly even, but I’d lean just a little bit towards OG since they had Morphling compared to Alchemist on the other side.

Though it is still difficult to predict which team would have won, I believe OG certainly had a better chance to take the series in that position compared to having the entire game reset and allowing the Falcons to adjust to their mistakes. 80-minute games can indeed be a “coin flip” situation, and I think OG, unfortunately, got robbed of that opportunity. 

Still, nobody is to blame except for the Dota 2 servers – it’s truly an unlucky situation. It’s not like Team Falcons, BLAST, or the viewers wanted this circumstance to happen. I hope tournament organizers will be more careful preparing game backups throughout matches.