After months of poor results, Team Spirit has come alive in Romania. The Eastern European squad won their first tournament since lifting the Aegis at The International 12.
Slacking Off After A TI Victory
Team Spirit took an extended break to relax after becoming two-time TI winners. The squad took numerous, well-deserved vacations and slacked off a bit. Their return to the Dota 2 scene was relatively underwhelming, but fans thought it was the “TI Curse,” where the team that had won The International would perform poorly in the following tournaments.
This curse remained true for Team Spirit, as the team failed to make deep runs in events throughout the new year. Before flying to Romania, the star-studded roster could only place 13-14th in the Elite League and 9-10th in ESL One Birmingham 2024, both of which were Group Stage exits. Coming into PGL Wallachia Season 1, everyone had written Team Spirit off as only a shadow of their prime selves.
Sudden Improvements?
Team Spirit finished 3-1 in the Swiss Stage in the PGL Wallachia Group Stage, taking wins against Virtus.Pro, Nouns, and the BetBoom Team. Their one loss was against the Gaimin Gladiators. Still, we didn’t see a compelling performance from them, and it would be crazy to think they would win the entire event.
Team Spirit played against Aurora in their opening match of the Playoffs. The Dragons looked very shaky, losing the first game, but they woke up in time to complete the reverse sweep, taking the series 2-1.
However, Miposhka and company were quickly humbled by Xtreme Gaming, who displayed a dominant 2-0 performance to send Team Spirit to the Lower Bracket. However, this is Spirit’s comfortable environment, as their miraculous win at Ti10 was done through a Lower Bracket run.
The Lower Bracket Kings
Team Spirit began ramping up the pace, getting clean 2-0 victories against BOOM Esports and G2.iG. They were gathering momentum, but would their pace be enough to defeat Team Falcons, who are waiting for them in the Lower Bracket Final?
Absolutely. Even though the Falcons are fielding a stand-in, Nine, who hasn’t played professional Dota in almost a year, the MENA-backed organization was still a force to be reckoned with. After trading maps, the two teams were forced to play a decisive map for all the marbles.
The third map of the series did not look good for Team Spirit, as they found themselves down 19,000 gold. However, Yatoro hits his Aghanim’s Scepter timing on Lifestealer, disarming skiter’s Luna to win a miraculous fight that started the comeback. After a grueling 53 minutes, Team Spirit pulled off a fantastic comeback to book a rematch against Xtreme Gaming in the Grand Final.
Final Boss: Xtreme Gaming
Even though Team Spirit was looking better and better, they still came into the Grand Final matchup as heavy underdogs. Xtreme Gaming had not dropped a single map throughout the event! The Chinese powerhouse ended all six matches in the tournament so far in 2-0 fashion.
Still, Team Spirit showed their victory at Seattle was no fluke. The two teams traded blows, constantly exchanging maps until a fifth game was required.
In the final map of PGL Wallachia Season 1, Yatoro got his hands on his trusty Anti-Mage, but he was against Ame’s Faceless Void. This player-hero pairing was undefeated in the tournament.
After a solid early game, Team Spirit took an early net worth advantage. Still, Xtreme Gaming found ways to come back, coordinating good moves and picking off Team Spirit heroes to make the game close.
The game was determined by a Roshan fight at the top lane. After numerous buybacks, Team Spirit came out of the fight victorious, and ended up winning the series 3-2 against Xtreme Gaming.
Yatoro and the crew are known as the “bounty hunters” of Dota 2 tournaments, where they would only play seriously when millions are on the line. Jokes aside, Team Spirit will pocket “only” $300,000 for an impressive performance, while Xtreme Gaming will have to settle for second place and will be rewarded with $175,000 for a valiant effort.
🎉 Huge congratulations to Team Spirit, the champions of PGL DOTA 2 Wallachia Season #1! 🥳
👏 They pulled off an incredible 3-2 victory against Xtreme Gaming in the Final.
🔥 What an amazing series!
🍾 Well played, Team Spirit! #PGLWALLACHIA pic.twitter.com/v2lr06975e
— PGL DOTA 2 (@pgldota2) May 19, 2024
Miposhka’s Parting Message To Ame And His Fans
After the big victory, Team Spirit’s captain shared a few words to his fans:
“That’s it guys, the tournament is over for us. This time, we won again. We’re on top. Some people didn’t believe in us, but we did it. I want to thank the ones who believed in us.
We’re really happy, today was hard. Our opponents were really difficult. They <his teammates> might have sold their souls to the devil, but it’s Spirit. Again, we beat them 3-2 in the final.
I hope Ame will retire after this; it’s about time. Otherwise, he won’t survive the next final.
Anyway, we’re really happy. Finally, we can relax a bit. Thank you for the support, everyone. Keep cheering for us!”
Miposhka joked about Ame because the exact same situation happened at Ti10. Team Spirit was the heavy underdog in the match against PSG.LGD, when Ame was still in the team. Miraculously, the Spirit boys completed the upset with the same score, 3-2.
Header: Team Spirit
