Second Dota 2 Aegis TI 2023 campaign found new campion
The two strongest and competitive Dota 2 teams faced off in The International 2023 grand finals held on 29th october, with Team Spirit demonstrating that the fight for the Aegis of Champions wasn’t actually a competition at all. Spirit emerged as the only second team in history to win TI titles two times after crushing Gaimin Gladiator’s chances of a perfect season with a 3-0 thrashing. Spirit had a difficult start to the season, but they soon turned things around with wins at the DreamLeague Season 21 and the Riyadh Masters 2023. This gave them the boost they needed to go nearly unbeaten at TI12.
Team Spirit overall performance
Spirit lost two games while in Seattle, one against Virtus.pro and the other against Team Liquid. This was after they had finished first in the group stage and had destroyed the greatest teams in the world in the playoffs. With a 19-2 record and a 90.5 percent win rate at TI12, they have achieved the most win percentage for a TI champion in history, surpassing both TI NAVI’s 90 percent and TI3 Alliance’s 88.5 percent. Spirit set the tone in the grand finals, with Yatoro entering Climate Pledge Arena and sporting a clean shaven head before the draft even began. Spirit received the bald buff of legend as a result of the sacrifice to the Dota gods, which enabled him to stomp on Yatoro’s 18-kill Weaver in game one, doing 47 percent of Spirit’s damage.
Face Off
In the second game, which was considerably closer, Yatoro unleashed his fury on a Faceless Void that had only made 19 appearances in the whole TI12 story. This includes many Chronosphere lockdowns and a Rampage to close off the match, his fourth of which cemented his record as the only player to have ever recorded multiple Rampages during a TI Main Event. Game three looked to be going easily for Gaimin, who had Ace’s Brewmaster and Quinn’s legendary Pangolier making their 63rd appearances of the season together. In the third game, Quinn’s signature Pangolier which paired with Ace’s Brewmaster for the 63rd time this year clearly favored Gaimin.
Dota Plus opened a gateway to 96% chance to win at one point, but that was before Yatoro’s intransigence and Collapse’s game-changing Spirit Breaker, which enabled Spirit to shatter gaimin’s spirit.
“Its is magic,” Miposhka said about the comeback. “It is our Team Spirit.”
The Win
Spirit defeated OG at TI8 and TI9 and earned title of being second Dota 2 team to win two Aegis in history. The only players who have ever won a second TI are Yatoro, Collapse, Mira, and Misphoshka; the only newcomer who wasn’t present for their first victory at TI10 is Larl.
Team Spirit will be awarded with $1,414,763 from the TI12 prize pool; but, Siberian OnlyFans model Eva Elfie may cause that amount to increase considerably. Their $18.2 million TI10 earnings are a far away from this amount, but they did make up some of that amount when they won $5 million at the Riyadh Masters.
The fact that Gaimin lost signifies an extension of the “TI curse,” since no teams has ever won TI after winning a DPC major (Dota Pro Circuit). The only team to have ever begun in the lower bracket and won a TI, Gaimin would have been the first team to break the curse if they had won TI12. they would also have accomplished the first “Dota Grand Slam” by being victorious in three majors in addition to TI Aegis.
Rather, they must now accept their second place finish in the competition and their first loss in the year’s finals round and head home with $3.7 hundred thousand. They also have a lot on their minds as they get ready for a Dota Pro Circuit-free 2024 season.
