Although Team Spirit were the International 10 Champions, the Eastern European squad has been underwhelming in the pro circuit for almost two years. They participated in all three majors in this season but never placed beyond seventh place. Nobody truly saw Team Spirit as a potential candidate to win the DreamLeague S21.
Image source: ESL One
That all changed this past weekend, after they dominated the entire competition, and threw markets for spin.
Team Spirit wins DreamLeague S21
The former champion proved us wrong once, winning DreamLeague S21, walking away with $300K and all the bragging rights. The tournament comprised of upcoming TI12 participants (except for team OG), so it can surely be seen as dominance over regional favorites.
Team Spirit is the DreamLeague S21 Champions
Most of us had high hopes for the Western European powerhouses, such as Gaimin Gladiators, Team Liquid, or Tundra Esports, to be the highlight of DreamLeague S21. Unfortunately, the reality contradicts our expectations of these teams, especially since these WEU giants didn’t even make it into the top four.
Riyadh Masters 2023 Champions
As cherry on top, Team Spirit also won the Riyadh Masters 2023, which was the proclaimed the second TI Championship, as its prize pool rivaled that of TI. That time, Team Spirit bagged a delightful $5M in winnings despite coming into the tournament as underdogs.
How did Team Spirit do it?
Frankly, Spirit has always boasted the adventurous spirit of Dota 2 meta. While Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov hasn’t been the most impactful MVP in the team since his golden moments at TI10, there’s always Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk to count on.
Despite the opponents’ best efforts to counter Yatoro, there are other concerns that they must address too. For instance, a priority ban that Tundra and Shopify Rebellion chose was Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov’s Shadow Demon or Dazzle. The captain and hard support player of Team Spirit was responsible for ensuring his core survived most kill attempts from the opponent.
Indirectly prolonging the fight, it gives Spirit the opening to counter-initiate on these respectable opponents with big team-fight combos. It’s truly a terrifying recipe for success that could only be derived from the mastermind, Miposhka himself.
Now, we won’t ignore the fact that Spirit got ‘easier’ opponents in their upper bracket run, but they have previously sweep the group stage against Gaimin and Quest Esports, two heavy-hitters from WEU. Regardless, their series versus Shopify was incredibly one-sided despite Shopify’s attempts to leverage on Abed “Abed” Yusop’s signature mid-heroes.
Team Spirit at the International 12
With two S-tier tournaments in the bag just weeks before TI12, Team Spirit can rest easy knowing the haters are quiet, as they set their eyes on a confident, second TI victory.
They truly looked like a force to be reckoned with, which is always a great sight, considering how badly the players broke off from Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek after their poor showing at TI11. As for TORONTOTOKYO, the former mid-player now in BetBoom Team, his team isn’t too shabby themselves and will be looking forward to facing his old teammates at TI12.
Read next: Dota 2 The International 2023: Event Guide & Teams
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