On the night of June 8 Team Spirit still managed to squeeze into the playoffs with a rattle WePlay AniMajor 2023 on Dota 2. For this, the young team from the CIS had to go through a tense replay with Team Liquid… Team Spirit’s path in the Major, even without this really hard and valid bo1, turned out to be bumpy and ambiguous: the roster never won a bo2 series, but took cards from almost all favorites. How the team showed itself in the group stage and why it almost flew out of the tournament – in the material from Cybersport.ru.
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Team Spirit banished the spirit of the CIS
And that’s a compliment. I think many viewers, along with the English-speaking caste, were often surprised at how disciplined Team Spirit acted on the map, especially when it went into attack. The team did not dive under the fountain, they stepped back competently, playing from the recharge of abilities and buybacks, which is usually not typical of the representatives of our region. This is especially evident in the match against TNC Predatoreven on a lost card. Spirit correctly assessed the situation and understood when it was necessary to retreat.
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Team Spirit retires after a successful fight
However, sometimes this prudence and discipline seemed to shackle the team. For example, on the first map of the match against Vici Gaming the roster from the CIS in the 11th minute led more than 3 thousand gold against Medusa. However, Team Spirit did not realize this advantage: the team began to act passively, also focusing on farming, thanks to which Medusa, who had a mediocre start, very soon climbed to the top of the table in terms of overall value. Although it is worth noting that VG was pretty lucky in that match: the Chinese team received Flicker, thanks to which Medusa instantly got rid of its own illusions created by the enemy Terrorblade (Spirit may have relied on this spell, because it counteracts Medusa in the late game as well as possible).
On the second map, Spirit almost stepped on the same rake again. Having received more than 10 thousand gold advantages by the 30th minute, the team began to act as passively as possible. The teams played cat and mouse for ten minutes with almost no kills. After such a long lull, Spirit fell for a trick of VG, getting into a fight that was disadvantageous for herself. Alexander TORONTOTOKYO Hertek imprudently set himself up and died immediately, and his team lost more than 16 thousand advantages in a minute.
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Collapse takes TNC to Magnus
In general, when she did not make critical mistakes during the draft and at the laning stage, Spirit felt on an equal footing in mid and late game against all opponents.
“What did we drink?”
Probably most of the questions for Team Spirit are about drafts. To begin with, the team experimented a lot during the group stage. In eight matches (seven bo2 and one bo1) Team Spirit picked 45 different characters. For comparison, PSG.LGD, confidently taking the first line in the group, used only 31 heroes. Even Vici Gaming, which went through the Wild Card before, has only 41 heroes in its assets for the entire tournament. 27 characters appeared in Spirit drafts once, and only seven of them brought the team victory. Therefore, it can be assumed that most of the experiments, such as with Sven or Templar Assassin, which Spirit almost did not use during the second DPC season, will be considered unsuccessful by the team.
At the same time, Team Spirit completely forgot the signature Mirana for Miroslava Miroslaw Kolpakov, who, along with Mars, was the most popular hero in the team’s draft in the second season (and quite effective – 85.71% winrate). At the same time, the rivals in the Major did not ban this character.
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Miroslaw hit with 43 Mirana arrows in a match against AS Monaco Gambit |
It was noticeable that Spirit could not find a comfortable hero for TORONTOTOKYO – he played ten different characters during the group stage. The signature Mars looked frankly weak, and the team refused Void Spirit itself after one use, despite the fact that the rivals almost always left it in the pool (only Vici was banned on one of the maps). Such difficulties with the draft affected the game TORONTOTOKYO, which looked unconvincing on the same Dragon Knight or Templar Assassin. Even English-speaking analysts have repeatedly noted that the esports player during the season showed excellent play on active and mobile heroes who wreak havoc in battles – Storm Spirit, Puck, Void Spirit. The same DK is a hero of a slightly different kind.
Another controversial point regarding Team Spirit drafts is bans. Let me give you the most illustrative example from the first match against Team Liquid. Everyone knows that European teams know how and love to play with Broodmother, besides, now he is not a situational hero for the last pick, but quite a multitasking character, which can be unlocked in the first stage of the draft. Broodmother is currently the most banned hero in the Major with 57 bans. Team Spirit gave up a character twice in a streak Max qojqva Broker, who “as a token of gratitude” then destroyed the lines and ended the match with a statistic of 14/1/29.
Player statistics on the first map of the Team Liquid vs Team Spirit match
Moreover, it is worth noting that on both maps Broodmother was taken not in the first stage, but in the second and third, respectively – that is, you didn’t even need to spend the first ban on it. Together with Broodmother, the team from the CIS twice gave Templar Assassin for Saida Samaila SumaiL Hassan… But the match between Spirit and Liquid was at the end of the group stage, when everyone already knew that this is the main character of SumaiL, whom the European roster takes in the first stage. The same Evil Geniuseswho played with Liquid after Spirit banned Templar Assassin on the fly. And the cherry on the cake in the drafts of that series was given to Oracle, which the European roster also took in almost every match. It is clear that it is simply impossible to outbid all of your opponent’s strong heroes, but when you give your opponent three of his signature characters on both maps of the most important confrontation, it is a little strange.
However, Team Spirit showed that they can work on mistakes: in replays Broodmother and Templar Assassin flew to the ban in the first stage of the draft, and TORONTOTOKYO took over the problem with Oracle (but more on that later).
TORONTOTOKYO – Replay Hero
After losing with a score of 0: 2 in the first meeting, Team Spirit could hardly be considered the favorite in the replay with Liquid. In addition, the European team took a bunch of Oracle and Luna, which EG had destroyed on the second map an hour earlier. Spirit clearly did not start the match: despite the fact that the difference in kills was minimal, Liquid was leading in gold and controlling the course of the game. Spirit literally had no chance to deal with Luna, who was ahead of Drow Ranger from Ilya Yatoro Mulychuk by 8 thousand gold in the 26th minute. By this time the carry Liquid already had Satanic, Aegis and Oracle behind them.
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Source: WePlay
Spirit competently avoided head-on collisions, trying to keep rivals away from the base. Here TORONTOTOKYO showed himself excellently on Puck: he pushed the lanes and constantly took packs of creeps, thereby preventing his opponents from fully gathering and going on the offensive. Plus, Spirit’s mid lane started collecting Dagon right after Witch Blade and Blink Dagger. The solution is unusual – no protective items or Aghanim’s Scepter, although most players would prefer these artifacts. So TORONTOTOKYO increased the power of his procast to seek out Oracle and immediately kill him. And yes, Spirit’s mid lane handled aggressive lane pushing and didn’t die without even having Eul’s Scepter of Divinity.
On the 27th minute Liquid, having taken Roshan, moved to the Spirit base. While Drow Ranger and Tidehunter struggled to fight back, Puck and Lion outflanked their rivals and killed Oracle, wreaking havoc on Liquid’s formation and forcing her to retreat. The European team had lost Aegis, but were still at their peak due to Luna’s huge advantage, so they regrouped and were about to attack the enemy base again. However, at this point, Puck and Lion once again found and killed Oracle, which forced Liquid to delay their advance. All this gave Drow Ranger time to “grow” a little by objects and become really dangerous.
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The decisive tie-break battle between Team Spirit and Team Liquid
It was already a matter of technique to bring the game to victory further. And here Spirit’s caution and pragmatism, which she showed during the group stage, played into the hands of the team. The team from the CIS methodically took away buildings, Roshan and knocked out ransoms from the rival. Thanks to this, Spirit bled Liquid, gaining an advantage of more than 20 thousand gold, and ended the match in its favor.
Such matches in bo1 format, in which the destinies of teams are decided, best of all show the moral stability, concentration and discipline of the teams. AS Monaco Gambit at the first Major, having an extremely experienced roster, this test did not pass, and the young Spirit did an excellent job. And it inspires faith in her. If the squad is able to act clearly and calmly in a situation that is disadvantageous for itself at such a crucial moment, then it definitely has the reserve to become a tier-1 team. And it is doubly pleasant that, perhaps, the main hero of the tie-break was TORONTOTOKYO, whose game, frankly, did not go through most of the group stage.
Perhaps now Team Spirit can hardly be called a contender for getting to the AniMajor finals, so, probably, the team will not see a direct ticket to The International 10… However, in its current state, the team will definitely be the favorite of the closed qualifier in the CIS.
