Virtus.Pro versus Fnatic in the finale of The Defense 3

Fnatic.EU will be facing Virtus.Pro in the Grand Final of The Defense 3. The winner of the match-up will be walking away with a whooping $10,000 cash prize while the second placer will have to settle for $5,000. Game is set to start at 20:00 CET

The end of the third season of The Defense is finally here. After a grueling 4 months long tournament, Fnatic.EU will be facing Virtus.Pro in a best-of-five series to determine who brings home the $10,000 first prize.

The Grand Final of The Defense 3 will begin at 20:00 CET today. No advantage will be given to Virtus.Pro for making it to the Grand Final from the Winner Bracket.

At the time of publish, Fnatic.EU is the heavy favourite going into the tournament having 88% of the tangos on the line. The reason for this may be due to VP's bad run in Techlabs Cup March although VP has won their last three encounters with Fnatic.EU in the past month. Bet for your favourite team here.

Virtus.Pro
	Virtus.Pro run in The Defense 3 has been a very volatile one. The team formed slightly before the start of The Defense 3 and had a lot of their practice games in the groupstage of the tournament. VP eventually qualified for the playoffs after finishing the group with a win/loss of 4-3, losing to Absolute Legends Academy, iCCup and Team Liquid. The Russians redeemed themselves in the playoffs as they took down their fellow countrymen, Team Empire and Evil Geniuses to reach the Winner Bracket final. On the 8th of March, VP took down Team Dignitas who was also having a strong run in The Defense 3 and became the first grand finalist of The Defense 3.
Statement from Yaroslav 'NS' Kuznetsov The Defense is the tournament that has been going on for several months already and when it started, no one in the world knew anything about this Virtus.pro roster. Actually, if we didn’t get an invite for the groupstage I wouldn’t be surprised (Smile). However, our team had grown during The Defense 3 and we managed to go through the group stage and fought the grand finalist spot from the upper bracket. I think not many people would bet on us for this grand final. However, we deserved reaching the grand final after showing much tenacity and good games. Now, we will try to show our best. A few days ago, we had a roster change. Santa left us and a very experienced player, Ars-Art joined our squad. Every change was necessary to get us out of the recent slump. We lost several games in a row to not very known opponents, but as the days passed, Smile got used to the team and now I am sure that we will only get better from here! So, we are more than ready for the game against Fnatic! Of course, we want to wish good luck to Fnatic in this match and may the strongest team win. I hope that we will play a very spectacular match for our fans and Dota lovers all over the world!

Fnatic.EU
	Fnatic.EU's journey in The Defense 3 has also been quite the roller coaster ride. Fnatic was placed in Group D of the groupstage together with The Defense 1 champion, Natus Vincere. Fnatic's surprised many when they emerged from the groupstate undefeated mostly attributed to their unique playstyle. Fnatic's winning streak came to an end early in the playoffs as they dropped two games against EG in the first round. Fnatic ended up taking down 4FC, Na`Vi, NoTidehunter, Team Liquid, and Dignitas to reach the Grand Final.
Statement by Adrian 'Era' Kryeziu At the beginning of the tournament we had a little bit less experience against some of the teams. A good example here is EG. We lost to them in the winner bracket. After getting bumped down, we had some time to study what we did wrong and managed to get a good streak of wins against a lot of good teams, which also gave us a better grip of the game at that point. With all the experience gained from the games, we were able to win against EG in the loser bracket, which gave us a good morale boost and also confidence against all other teams. I feel like we have a good chance to take it all, but we're not expecting an easy match either. VP is a really good team that has been staying at the top for some time now. They have their ups and downs like any team, but like us, it feels like they can give a good show when it really matters. Though I'm unceirtain about how comfortable they are with their new roster, but I hope they're ready for some action.

Click brackets to enlarge

If you have missed our statistical breakdown of The Defense 3 heroes draft, take a read here.

Troels 'syndereN' Nielsen will be flying to Berlin, Germany to join Toby 'TobiWan' Dawson in the broadcast of The Defense 3. A group of expert panels will also be giving their opinions about the matches before and after each games. JoinDOTA's broadcast can be found here.



Gosugamers will be bringing you live recap of the Grand Final and also an interview with Fnatic's captain, Adrian 'Era' Kryeziu shortly after the final.

The Defense 3 prizes
Placing	Team	Prize
1st place		$10,000
2nd place		$5,000
3rd place	Team Dignitas	$3,500
4th place	Team Liquid	$1,500