Tournament spotlight: MOUZ upsets Team Spirit at 1win Series Dota 2 Spring (Day One recap)

The 1win Series Dota 2 Spring, a $100,000 (~£78,500) event hosted by bookmaker 1win, has officially kicked off today with Team Liquid and MOUZ securing notable victories. 

The eight-team online event has already seen an upset victory with German esports organisation MOUZ making a recent return to Dota 2 and beating The International 2023 champions Team Spirit.

MOUZ came back to Dota 2 in March 2023 after a seven-year absence, with the organisation signing a large majority of the Team Tickle roster (Ulnit, Force, NARMAN and coach ImmortalFaith). The German esports organisation secured a surprisingly dominant Group B victory over Team Spirit in a match-up that saw over 64 kills (51 – 13) across its 41 minute game time. 

MOUZ’s BO1 victory is perhaps even more impressive considering Team Spirit recently finished fourth in DreamLeague Season 22 earlier this month. The Belgrade-based organisation will also be a participant at ESL One Birmingham in April. 

In the first match-up of the 1win Series Dota 2 Spring, Indian esports organisation Entity faced off against 1win’s own esports division, with the former walking away victorious. Entity’s mixed CIS-based roster secured the win in a 15-18 game that lasted under 40 minutes with Alimzhan ‘watson’ Islambekov, in particular, standing out with a 10/0/4 KDA. 

Whilst 1win Esports is relatively new to Dota 2, the signing of CIS-based roster Klim Sani4 has proved fruitful despite its defeat in today’s match-up. In particular, the team will head to the UK for ESL One Birmingham 2024. For Entity, the organisation’s victory over 1win continues its momentum following the team’s qualification for the Elite League earlier this month. 

As a result of Entity’s victory, the organisation will face MOUZ while Team Spirit will face 1win in the Group B losers bracket.

The 1win Series Dota 2 Spring’s first Group A match-up saw another bookmaker-run esports organisation, L1GA Team, face off against Virtus.Pro. 

After announcing its initial roster in January 2024, L1GA Team will enter the 1Win Series with a slightly revamped line-up as former One Move player Nikita ‘pantomem’ Balaganin replaces Alim ‘aik’ Bespaev. Despite the roster swap, Virtus.Pro were still the favourites for the match-up and did secure the 39-18 victory after 36 minutes.

Group A’s second match, and the final game of the day, saw multinational esports organisation Team Liquid clash with PSG Quest. The closely contested match saw Team Liquid secure a 31- 25 game victory after 41 minutes. Despite Team Liquid remaining ahead on gold largely throughout — which included an over 7k gold lead at 30 minutes — PSG Quest did hold a gold advantage in the latter stages of the game before the European roster mounted a quick comeback to win.  

Despite getting knocked out of DreamLeague Season 22 at Group Stage 1, Team Liquid has recorded some early successes in 2024. This notably includes finishing second at BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 and qualifying for ESL One Birmingham. On the other hand, PSG Quest has been through a rocky period since its rebrand, having failed to qualify for DreamLeague Season 22 and ESL’s Birmingham LAN event. 

Team Liquid’s victory on Day One has resulted in a Winners Match against Virtus.Pro tomorrow. Meanwhile, PSG Quest will look to secure their first win at the event when the organisation faces L1GA Team. 

For the 1win Series Dota 2 Spring group stage, matches will be played in a BO1 format until the final decider matches. As a result of Virtus.Pro, Entity, MOUZ and Team Liquid securing victories, these organisations will only need to win one match-up to qualify for the four-team playoffs.

It’s also worth noting that the $100,000 prize pool rewards the top four competitors, all of which will be divided tomorrow. 

Tomorrow’s match-ups are as follows:

According to the bookmaker, the 1win Series Dota 2 Spring will be the first of a series of esports events. The decision to host an esports event follows a growing trend by betting companies as bookmakers look to create more innovative esports activations. 

Fans can tune in to Day Two of the 1win Series Dota 2 Spring live on YouTube and Twitch on March 17th from 10am CET. 

This article is supported by 1win.