With a 3-0 win over Shopify Rebellion, the TI10 winners completed a near-flawless run in the 21st edition of DreamLeague and reinjected themselves into the TI12 conversation in a serious way.
If your team isn’t called Gaimin Gladiators, chances are, you won’t have a tournament victory to boast about heading into the twelfth edition of The International. Once again, the shortlist remained the same, with Team Spirit following up their Riyadh Masters 2023 victory with another impressive upper bracket run in a non-DPC competition, fueling further intrigue heading into the showpiece event.
It was an event where Gaimin Gladiators and Team Liquid, both seen as serious contenders for the upcoming TI, were eliminated relatively early, offering rare opportunities to challenging teams to claim a scalp or two at the business end of the playoffs bracket.
Fans of Shopify Rebellion had good reasons to hope that their team might finally break their “tier 1 curse,” scoring a win in a top-tier event for the first time. With no losses in the group stage and an impressive win over BetBoom Team to earn a spot in the upper bracket final, even their close-fought loss to Team Spirit seemed little more than a stumble as they bounced back for a second chance with another win over Save- and company, setting up a grand final between the two teams that won their respective groups.
However, things turned out quite differently than they would have hoped, with a 3-0 stomp serving as a powerful reminder of Team Spirit’s fabled “prize pool buff.” After sucker-punching their opponents in game one for an impressive turnaround, Spirit continued to dominate teamfights in games two and three for a clean sweep, dropping just two games throughout their tournament run.
With this win, Miposhka has now surpassed KuroKy in all-time prize money earnings, jumping to sixth place in the all-time standings. With The International right around the corner, both form and experience are on Spirit’s side, promising mouthwatering clashes in Dota esports’ showpiece event.
