Team Spirit Win PGL Wallachia S1

Team Spirit started PGL Wallachia S1 as an underdog. They hadn’t done anything major in a while and their most recent events were a disappointment.

Their best result in 2024 dated back to DreamLeague S22, which took place in early March. They finished 4^th there. But at Elite League they were 13^th – 14^th. And immediately after, at ESL One Birmingham, they were 9^th – 10^th. For a two-time TI winner and the winner of Riyadh Masters 2023, these results looked bad.

PGL Wallachia S1 went much better for Spirit. There could be many reasons why they performed so well here. But one of them is quite obvious. The tournament took place in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, and that’s the same place where The International 2021 happened.

As we all know, Spirit won that event and $18.2 million. It was the biggest edition of TI to date, having a prize pool of more than $40 million. A success of this magnitude is hard to forget. So when Spirit came back to Bucharest, they were likely motivated to prove to their fans that they still are one of the world’s best Dota 2 teams.

Spirit’s Path To Victory

Interview with your PGL Wallachia Champions by @BanKsEsports 💪 pic.twitter.com/EtsTj0LZpA

— Team Spirit (@Team__Spirit) May 19, 2024

Team Spirit had a good group stage. The format was Swiss System with Bo3 matches and Miposhka’s crew advanced to the playoffs with a record of 3W – 1L. They defeated Virtus.pro in the first round, then lost to Gaimin Gladiators, and then defeated nouns and BetBoom Team in the 3^rd and 4^th rounds.

In the playoffs, Team Spirit started with a well-deserved victory against Aurora. After losing game 1 in 71 minutes, Spirit fought back and won games 2 and 3 in 40 minutes, using many of the heroes that they would use in subsequent matches. Two of them, Centaur and Batrider, would be repicked by them in game 5 of the Grand Final.

In the second match, Spirit lost against Xtreme, the team they would beat in the final match of the tournament. Both times, they tried to make Io plus Dragon Knight work but failed against a Slardar plus Bane combo.

In the lower bracket, Spirit faced BOOM Esports, G2.iG, and Team Falcons. The last two of these teams were expected to beat them. In the match against Falcons, everyone was sure that they couldn’t win. But thanks to a very clever draft, which gave them the upper hand in the late game, Spirit won 1 – 2.

The Grand Final was a thriller, with the two teams winning games in turns. Each time, the battle lasted around 40 – 50 minutes. The only exception was game 5, which lasted nearly one hour. For Spirit, the drafts were remarkably versatile but some of their favorite heroes were picked multiple times. In game 5, they won with Anti-Mage, which was a big surprise.

Header: PGL