Road to Bucharest — Team Spirit

Our virtual trip to Bucharest is going on. Nine stops have been made, nine stories have been covered.

Today we are continuing and finishing our trip around CIS. We are going to review the second team in the region – Team Spirit.

Team Spirit’s Portfolio

Before we get down to a wholesome review of the team, let’s walk around Spirit’s main properties. From the date of foundation till the main achievements.

• Date of foundation of the club: 6 December 2015;
• Roster at The International 10: Yatoro, TORONTOTOKYO, Collapse, Miroslaw, Miposhka, Silent (coach);
• Region: CIS;
• How the team passed to The International: closed qualifiers in CIS;
• Main achievements: first place at BTS Pro Series Season 4: Europe/CIS, second place at EPIC League Season 3 Division 1, first place at Pinnacle Cup, Dota 2 Championship League 2021 Season 2, second place at OGA Dota PIT Invitational.

Our acquaintance is over, now let’s start our thorough examination of the history of Spirit.

First Appearance of Spirit

Spirit made their first appearance on the professional stage in December 2015. The Dragons signed a promising CIS mix with a self-explanatory name – CIS Rejects.

Spirit’s debut roster included RAMZES666, Iceberg, AfterLife, ALWAYSWANNAFLY and Goblak. Almost immediately Spirit fitted in a competitive environment.

In the first year the Dragons won the qualifiers for MDL 2015 Winter but they took last position at the event. However, in 2015 they became top-1 at ProDotA Cup Europe #1, Top-4 at D2CL Christmas Charity Magic. But the main accomplishment of the first roster was awaiting for the club.

The Shanghai Major 2016

At the beginning of 2016 Team Spirit took second place at the closed European qualifiers for The Shanghai Major. This gave them a chance to travel to Shanghai and try out at a battle with the best teams in the world.

But, as it often happens, the first trial was a failure. In Shanghai, Spirit took 13th-16th place, getting third position in the group and later getting kicked out after a failure in the first round of the playoffs.

A hope for a glimpse faded away, and there was nothing left from the promising Spirit. The CIS was again presented by only one vibrant team – Virtus.pro.

Spirit tried their luck at the qualifiers for The International 2016, but their intention was ruined by Secret who were to win those quals. Spirit would be able to come back to the big DOta only in 2018.

Season 2018 and new hopes

After the failures in 2016 Spirit resort to changes and reshuffles. The flow of players was astonishing and it lasted till the beginning of 2018.

Team Spirit had to limit themselves with minor tournaments till May 2018 when fate smiled at them.

In April 2018 Spirit, represented by Illidan, G, DkPhobos, Biver and fng, played at the closed qualifiers for ESL One Birmingham 2018. There the Dragons entered Top-4 which did not allow them to proceed to the major.

The qualifiers were won by NaVi who decided to change their roster at the last minute which resulted in their loss of a slot in Birmingham. Born to Win was replaced by the second team in CIS - Team Spirit.

An fortuitous trip to Birmingham turned out to become one of Spirit’s best results at the international arena in the club’s history. At ESL One Birmingham 2018, the Dragons took 7th-9th place defeating such teams as EG, VG and Newbee.

To be fair, we should mark a peculiar format of holding the event: six teams had a chance to perform at the playoff. The teams that took third and fourth places in the group stage left the championship which helped Spirit a lot.

But good luck did not visit the team at the qualifiers for China Dota2 Supermajor. There Team Spirit took first place and went to China for the second time in the history of the club.

At the tournament Spirit showed a good fight and took third place in the same group with Liquid and Newbee, and later took one map from EG, but it was not enough. The result – 13th-16th place.

In the same year Spirit took third place in the closed qualifier for The International 2018 which pulled the plug on the Dragons’ CIS roster.

International roster and the Dragons’ idle attempts

The International roster of Team Spirit was created in September 2018. It was made up by oliver, Nine, Hestejoe-Rotten, Biver and fng. This roster represented Spirit for a couple of months and in January of the next year the team lost fng, which led to a disband of the roster.

But during this time the team managed to win a Tier-3 tournament called I Can’t Believe It's Not Summit! and took part in other local events. The foreigners were replaced by a CIS lineup from Old But Gold: Illidan, G, 633, velheor and Vanskor.

The bet did not trigger CIS again: Team Spirit failed the qualifiers for The International 2019 so the roster was left behind. The management welcomed former players from Positive Guys that had recently won a ticket to MDL Chengdu Major.

Spirit made another appearance at the international tournament but it was not successful. The club took Top-16 so the management ceased collaboration with ex-Positive Guys.

Spirit’s new era and a pass to The International

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke people’s lifestyle, the world changed. But there were no changes in Spirit’s attempts to assemble a powerful roster. They tried to make it for almost a year but it finally happened only in December 2020.

Spirit signed players from Yellow Submarine. The updated roster of the Dragons included Yatoro, TORONTOTOKYO, Collapse, so bad and Miposhka. Several months later so bad’s slot was taken by Miroslaw.

The young and inexperienced roster of the Dragons fitted in the Top of the CIS community. In the first season of DPC 2021 Spirit stopped one step away from a trip to the major.

This misstep was balanced with second place at Epic League Season 3 Division 1 and a victory at Dota 2 Champions League 2021 Season 1. The next event was the second season of DPC-2021.

The situation in the new season was better than ever before: Spirit finished the group stage confidently, losing only to Virtus.pro. As a result: Spirit went to the major for the first time in a long time.

WePlay AniMajor became a landmark event for the club and its players: Spirit took 7th-8th place which was the best result in the club’s history, which was also first and best result for the young players. But it was too early to celebrate – the players had to go through the qualifiers for The International 10.

Team Spirit got a status of favourites at the upcoming event, even though the competition was apparent there. Team Spirit made it through the upper bracket of the qualifiers and got a trip to Bucharest.

After getting the trip, Spirit played at several commercial tournaments. They won the second season of D2CL, took 5th-6th place at ESL One Fall 2021, and also became the vice-champions of OGA Dota PIT Invitational.

This is where we put an end to our story about the Dragons. Next time we are going to see Spirit in Bucharest.

See you later on EGamersWorld.