Virtus.Pro narrowly defeats OG in ESL One Los Angeles grand finals

Virtus.Pro has managed to beat the two-time TI winning champions, OG, in an oh-so narrow victory at ESL One Los Angeles European/CIS League grand finals. It was an exciting grand final to watch for Dota 2 esports fans across the globe, with over 500,000 peak viewers.

After a dominating performance in the group stage, and the playoffs, Virtus.Pro looked like a nearly unstoppable force of Dota 2. At the same time, OG clawed their way back from the lower bracket to face off against Virtus.Pro yet again, after losing two series against the CIS team.

• Read more: Latest Dota 2 update makes general gameplay changes

Here's what went down in the ESL One Los Angeles grand finals.

Virtus.Pro versus OG

The first four games of the ESL One Los Angeles European/CIS League grand finals were absolute stomps. Either Virtus.Pro simply crushed OG, or OG crushed Virtus.Pro. 

The first game went the way of Virtus.Pro, with Roman "Resolut1on" Fominok on Axe getting unleashed on the unsuspecting OG squad. Reso managed to go 18/3/12 in the match, as Virtus.Pro just ran over OG with ease.

In the second game, OG picked a much faster draft, enabling Syed Sumail Hassan's Ember Spirit, going to down on Virtus.Pro. 

OG won team fight after team fight, despite Virtus.Pro having good sustain. In the end, OG closed out forced the GG out of their opponents after a failed Black Hole. In the entire second game, OG only lost four heroes, evening up the BO5 series in dominating fashion.

In the third game, neither team had a big lead by the 20-minute mark, but OG continuously grew a small lead. 

SumaiL on a somewhat odd Morphling pick showed the power of the hero, despite the latest gameplay changes. While VP tried to control OG's draft, they couldn't control it for long, as SumaiL blew up, going 16/2/4 on Morphling, and finishing off a relatively easy-looking game three. 

With OG now on match point, Virtus.Pro had to win game four. What looked like a bit of a crazy draft from OG yet again, didn't pay off this time, as Virtus.Pro steamrolled over the two-time TI winning team.

Vladimir "No[o]ne" Minenko, as he has done so many times during the tournament, simply became a force OG couldn't deal with. On his Templar Assassin, No[o]ne could, at the end of the fourth game, two-shot most OG heroes, blowing them up to force a fifth and final game.

The fifth game of the ESL One Los Angeles European/CIS League grand finals was the first time there wasn't a clear stomp happening. 

It was the perfect end to a grand final, with the game going the distance, and even at over 30 minutes in, it was too close to call. Each team had times where they looked as if they would run away with the final game. 

In the end, however, Virtus.Pro managed to close it out, with No[o]ne blowing up OG's backline as Storm Spirit, and their excellent support duo managing to keep everyone alive during exciting, drawn-out team fights.

With the win, Virtus.Pro claims the first place prize of $60,000. Now, we look forward to seeing these two teams compete again at ESL One Birmingham 2020, which takes place next month.