In a pretty surprising last match-up, PSG.LGD failed to secure that all-important title – they lost it to Team Spirit! The team had a somewhat patchy run in the tournament, only making it through the regional qualifiers by one game… only to then come back and start off the group stage with an 0-4 loss.
For many teams, that would at best be the beginning of the end, but Team Spirit really brought their best – they managed an awesome run through the lower brackets, one of the best runs in the history of the TI in fact. Their final opponent was PSG.LGD, one of the stronger teams in the competition. They had already beaten off some of the best that professional Dota has to offer – and yet, they couldn’t make it against Team Spirit.
Throughout their run, Spirit had already disposed of several high-profile teams in the lower bracket – Fnatic, OG, Virtus.pro, Invictus Gaming, and Team Secret. LGD was the last in a long line – and it was their third season in a row on the top 3 podium.
Compared to other teams that had veteran TI teams, only one player on Team Spirit’s team had had any previous TI experience. Miposhka was the only one who’d had previous experience – and still, he and his team managed a historic win. They are the first CIS team to have won an International since Na’Vi did it a decade ago now.
The game
Team Spirit got to take with them a pretty remarkable sum of money – their prize money for the win is $18.208.300. This is their share of an even bigger prize pool – in total, $40 million were up for grabs by the competing teams.
When it came to the final matchup, it was remarkable with how much comfort Team Spirit played – they picked their go-to heroes, and clearly played with considerable confidence. PSG.LGD had a lot more troubles – they struggled to find a way to counter Spirit’s play style and ended up swept along in their pace. Since LGD couldn’t catch up, Spirit had a huge advantage in most of the teamfights – and in their first game, LGD could only secure 5 kills across the whole team.
In the second game, LGD tried to counter Spirit with a lot of aggression, however Miposhka managed to keep his team out of most of the danger. Collapse managed to keep their team afloat, and they successfully persevered against the attacking LGD.
Before game 3, LGD managed to pull themselves together quite a bit, and they came back to demolish Spirit, holding them to only one kill in the first 20 minutes. Spirit was pushed into a 40k deficit, and they couldn’t make up for it, losing that game to their opponents.
Game 4 was less decisive – a messy draft, Spirit lagging behind from the beginning, the team did their best to keep up with LGD, but to no avail – the four games ended 2-2. In the final tie breaker game, both teams focused on what they are good at, picking favourites and focusing on their strengths. LGD overcame their issues and built a small lead – until one teamfight turned things around. Spirit won it, and from there on, the rest of the match as well, using some simple but terribly effective strats.
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