Tale about Dragons — Team Spirit’s cinema-like path at The International 10
Yuriy SheremetIn my opinion, The International has always been associated with a festive feeling and excitement. Starting from 2012, I have not missed any main event in esports.
All tournaments of the series have been calibrated in memory: the epic el-clasico between NaVi and Alliance in 2013, bold China in 2014, The Six Million Echo Slam in 2015, OG’s Cinderella story in 2018 and the establishment of two-time world champions in 2019. Each tournament brought us unforgettable feelings — from happiness to rage, from enthusiasm to dismay.
The International can’t be mistaken with anything else. Especially the 10-anniversary tournament.
On 17 October 2021, The International 10 put an end to the Decade of Champions. Eighteen teams from all over the world were fighting for the biggest prize in the history of esports.
Despite all troubles and issues, the teams arranged a real Dota feast. The high point of ten years of the competitive history will take a special place in my memory and heart.
Let the freestyle help me to relive the event and feel the excitement once again.
How Team Spirit was assembled
To start your journey of 10,000 steps, you should take your first step. Let us remember how Dmitrii «Korb3n» Belov pulled together a team that was going to take Aegis in two years.
We are posting an abstract of Dmitrii’s blog from 22 December keeping the spelling and punctuation.
Brief history of Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine:
- 1) Silent Coach.
Silent god
I am pleased that we were able to get the best gyrocopter in CIS and that he shared our values. If he wants, Airat has the potential to become glorious.
After signing the coach, the plan went awry. The matter is that Airat needed to fix some health issues. It had been planned before the negotiation started. He could not participate in the viewing of players for a while.
August was passing by, and it brought a list of CIS players that laid claim to a slot in the team. There were approximately 80 players, I don’t know the exact number, but the list was really big, as I am when I eat 3 big macs. Some of them were ruled out at once, as they were unavailable. I could connect with GPK and could also pay for his transfer but he refused.
When I was interviewing GPK for weplay, I asked him if he knew a person nicknamed TORONTOTOKYO and who he could recommend for the mid position. The mid is a deficit position in CIS, either the players are missing, or they are not in a good condition. I observed TORONTOTOKYO in pubs, watched his games for Aggressive Mode and Yolo Knight, and added him to friends on Steam, but he did not accept my request.
Dan said that there was Temel.
Korb3n: "Who is that?"
Gpk: "A mid player, he is in Top-60 of the leaderboard"
Korb3n: "Wait a minute, TORONTOTOKYO is too, is that Temel?"
Gpk: Checked something, "Yes, this is Temel Dota."
After this dialogue, I asked if he had any other information to contact him. Daniil gave me a link to TORONTOTOKYO’s VK and that is where everything started.
In fact, Sasha (TORONTOTOKYO) is the first player I had on my list, so we chatted on VK a little. Then his nickname was Mio, so, for those under a rock, Mio and TORONTOTOKYO are the same person.
Apart from Sasha, we also looked at the central corridor of Ergon, Lorenof, Ceyler, Dream, Afoninje, Magical (yes, we considered Kyyal for the mid lane) and other unknown nicknames.
KHAN was represented by Mio at BTS as a stand-in (he was a player Team Spirit and had a signed contract). So we did not take him away from anyone as we are his first professional team.
Sasha is an interesting person, and I think if he wants, he will talk about his Dota path and study at Moscow State University in his interview.
Yellow Submarine:
- 1) Silent Coach.
- 2) TORONTOTOKYO
TORONTOTOKYO
I offered Yatoro in May. I did not know this player at all but I saw how he played in pubs and official games. B8 did not take Yatoro in the end, and at the moment when I was assembling the roster, he was a free agent. Kidaro helped me to reach him and I invited him to the roster. He had just turned 17 but he amazed me by the level of his reasoning. As a team player, he was mature enough. So, we signed him.
Apart from Yatoro, we considered: Dream, Durachyo and others.
Yellow Submarine:
- 1) Silent Coach.
- 2) TORONTOTOKYO
- 3) Yatoro
Yatoro
Finding good offlane players in CIS С is as fun as finding good mid players. But there are more offlane players, especially young ones, but their level of gaming has some room for improvement. Initially, I really wanted AfterLife as I think that he is underrated. I directed them two or three times, but Vasilii turned my offer down. Collapse was the first who I considered apart from several unknown players. The first tries showed great synergy with so bad, they were playing hard on the lane. But then I could not realize what talent was hidden in this guy, unlike Yatoro or TORONTO.
Perhaps, if it had not been for Team Spirit, Collapse would not be playing in the professional Dota, he is a smart guy and he studied medicine. After a few weeks of viewing, we understood everything and signed our favourite robot.
Apart from Magomed, we were viewing Ghostik, Nongrata, LIL sorry and others
Yellow Submarine:
- 1) Silent Coach.
- 2) TORONTOTOKYO
- 3) Yatoro
- 4) Collapse
Collapse
There were a lot of teams with four members in CIS, but there were not enough good ones. Vitalii was one of the first who we considered but we did not stick to him, and neither did he. He left to be viewed by EMpire and even played for them at a couple of official games, but it was rough for the gamer. While trying-out, Kidaro picked and led the team, not so bad, however, when we understood that Kidaro was not ready for the first lane and the theoretical Miposhka was not a captain, Vitalii got a synergy with Collapse at the lane, so bad became an irreplaceable candidate for us. This is what we reported to him later when we found out about his desire and a chance to be an in-game leader.
Considered: Sayuw, Rodger, Miroslaw and others.
Yellow Submarine:
- 1) Silent Coach.
- 2) TORONTOTOKYO
- 3) Yatoro
- 4) Collapse
- 5) So bad
So bad
One of the first players on who I planned to build the roster was also Ivan Bondarev, AKA Kidaro. I saw that Kidaro’s mechanics skills were lacking. But he was never afraid of responsibility and he worked very hard. In CIS there are not enough captains, people who are ready for the responsibility. We were ready to give him time, and he also got on well with AIrat, they had a great duo.
But lack of experience and determination along with mechanical skills did not let him be taken to the roster. Perhaps, it is the only moment I feel sorry about, but I understand that it was a necessary thing to do. I think Kidaro has two options: the first is to work out the mechanics and to become a great captain in a few years; the second is to stay at Tier-2 as a player with a chance to become a very successful analyst, a draft specialist and a second coach. To be frank, I will say that I would take him for the position now. He is very meticulous, but his updates are great, they work, his draft style reminds me of OG, I will say that he had started to play as a mid at CW long before CIS realized what hero he was. In August he bombed Mudgolems at screams. Additionally, he is pleasant to work with and to talk to.
In the end, they took Miposhka, you will not believe me as well as my CEO did not believe me, but I lobbied for Yaroslav, he proved his game and attitude causing a desire to play with him.
Miposhka was on vacation, he planned to take a two-month rest, but I convinced him to reduce the number of days up to 30. He was the last to join us, at the beginning of October.
Apart from Miposhka, we considered Kidaro, Suzuya, Happydurara and others.
Yellow Submarine:
- 1) Silent Coach.
- 2) TORONTOTOKYO
- 3) Yatoro
- 4) Collapse
- 5) So bad
- 6) Miposhka
Miposhka
The funniest thing is that the first five players that were viewed at trial games looked like this:
Yatoro TORONTO Collapse So bad Kidaro.
As you can see, the final roster is different from what we tested at the beginning of August by only one player.
How the Steel Was Tempered
Having learnt Korb3n’s memories, it becomes clear that Team Spirit was assembled with some prospects. This approach is rare for CIS but after what happened on 17 October, we hope that it will become a new standard of assembling a team and working with Dota roster.
Then nobody knew if the roster was going to justify the approach and if the players have a future in the region built on the personality cult or if this undertaking is not too risky. We were to find it out at the following DPC season that started in January 2021.
The results of the first (out of two) tries made it clear that the bet on young and enthusiastic guys paid for itself. Virtus.pro, who placed a premium on unknown performers, took a confident first place and the main character of our article finished fourth.
The results were not satisfactory but we can’t call it terrible. Spirit did not shoot from the hip as they got limited with a little modification — instead of So Bad, the team got Mira, who, according to «Korb3n», Spirit had already considered as a member of the roster.
The replacement was fruitful. Before the start of the second season, Team Spirit took second place at EPIC League Season 3 Division 1 and won Dota 2 Champions League 2021 Season 2: Upper Division, and after that, they took second place at the second DPC season where they were fighting for a trip to WePlay AniMajor.
The second major of the season for Team Spirit was a landmark event. For the first time since 2018 Team Spirit got to Top 8 which was not enough to get to The International 10 directly.
Team Spirit got their slot at the main tournament at the closed qualifiers where they were close to losing to Team Empire.
Having made it to The International 10, Team Spirit achieved the main goal of «Korb3n» that he told about in his interview. Dmitrii was unlikely to suppose that in a few months the roster was about to return a former glory to CIS.
Cinderella story worth of $18,200,000
After the team made it to The International 10, Team Spirit’s hard preparation for the main event of the year did not stop. Unlike the majority of Top-teams, Spirit did not have an aversion to minor and major tournaments.
Before Bucharest, Dragons played at three events:
Dota 2 Champions League 2021 Season 2 (1 place)
ESL One Fall 2021 (5-6 place)
OGA Dota PIT Invitational (2 place)
The desire to participate in the tournaments of the appropriate status will be rewarded in October. At the beginning of The International 10 Spirit seemed to have gone too far.
Cinderella Story Worth $18,000,000
Their arrival in Бухарест turned out to be a real nightmare. That happened due to the organization of the main event of the decade.
The teams turned out to divide the practices with DPC points. Due to the fact that Team Spirit made it to The International 10 through the closed qualifiers, they got the worst rooms.
The room resembled a warehouse, there was an absence of water, and even a lack of toilet paper. Can you imagine something like that at a tournament worth of 120,000,000? And this is what Spirit lived through.
The situation was fixed by the start of the group stage of The International 10, but the aftertaste remained. This is what we noticed in the first series of Dragons in the group.
Spirit got to Group B, later acknowledged as a death group. Their opponents were:
- PSG.LGD
- Team Secret
- Fnatic
- Beastcoast
- Vici Gaming
- SG-esports
- Quincy Crew
The company is worthy: the best team in the world, PSG.LGD, together with the Chinese grand, Vici Gaming, the best team in Europe, Secret, the second team in North America, Quincy, and tough South Americans with Fnatic. Not getting kicked out of the group is a great sign. Especially if you take into account how Spirit started.
In the first series, the CIS teams had to play Team Secret, later on the same day they were to meet with PSG.LGD. A great beginning for the Cinderella story, and 0-4 at the start of the main tournament of the year.
The setback on the first gaming day was helpful for Spirit, let it be as strange as it may sound. There could not have been any better stress test.
Team Spirit withstood the punch and improved their state in the group on the second gaming day. The victory 2-0 against Elephant offset the defeat by Vici Gaming.
By the third day, Team Spirit had achieved 2-6. This is where the rise of the Dragons started.
Team Spirit finished the group stage with 10-6 without losing any mao after the second gaming day. Thanks to this the CIS team got to the upper bracket of the playoff which is a great result.
Even if Spirit had left the tournament after their loss to IG in the first round of winners, nobody would have gotten upset. However, Spirit did not leave. With the taste of victory in the group and finding the vulnerability of the grands (for example, IG) the Dragons were ready to clear their way to the desired Aegis. This is what they did.
In the first round of the lower playoff, Spirit defeated Fnatic to meet the two-time world champions, OG, at the next match.
The majority of Dota fans “buried” the Dragons, but the players thought otherwise. Their filigree gaming on two maps, a victory 2-0, EZ Game sent Spirit to the fourth round of the lower bracket where Virtus.pro had already made themselves home.
The derby of the CIS teams turned out to be one of the most spectacular events at TI 10. This is a perfect match for a sports drama: a knock-out battle, a match that defines the best team of the region, VP’s gaming that was never beaten by Spirit for 6 years, a meeting of bears and dragons. Three maps and one victory put Team Spirit over Virtus.pro and we don’t know if they have a chance for revenge. Three maps and getting to Top-4 at The International 10.
Team Spirit’s fairy tale at the tournament continued and we, like schoolchildren, with our eyes wide open and hearts frozen, continued watching the event.
We watched how the hero defeated their first opponent Invictus Gaming in a rematch. We watched how yesterday’s pubs beat the Dota experts from Team Secret. We were looking forward to a final battle with a terrifying rival hoping that Dragons would win and fearing the Parisians.
The final match of The International 10 will be placed next to the most epic matches in esports. And its outcome will be remembered forever.
Five maps and five young guys. The 10 anniversary International. Coolness and composure. The defeated beast, PSG.LGD. Return of the Champion Aegis home for the first time in 10 years. Euphoria and Pride.
«Yatoro», «TORONTOTOKYO», «Collapse», «Mira», «Miposhka».
Team Spirit.
Yuriy Sheremet – Expert in mobile gaming and esports among shooters and MOBA games.
At EGamersWorld, Yuriy, as in 2020 when he joined the portal, works with content, albeit with adjustments to his area of responsibility.