In the grand finals of The International 2023, the two most dominant forces in Dota 2 clashed, but it turned out to be a one-sided battle, with Team Spirit proving that the fight for the Aegis of Champions was anything but a contest.
Team Spirit secured a decisive 3-0 victory, thwarting Gaimin Gladiator’s quest for a perfect season and becoming only the second team to win two TI titles.
Although Spirit had a slow start to the year, they gradually found their championship form with significant wins at Riyadh Masters 2023 and DreamLeague Season 21. They carried this momentum into an almost undefeated run at TI12.
Spirit’s journey from a top finish in the group stage to a dominant performance against the world’s best teams in the playoffs included just two losses, one each to Virtus.pro and Team Liquid. This remarkable 19-2 record and a 90.5 percent win rate at TI12 make Spirit the highest-winning percentage TI champion in history, surpassing TI3 Alliance’s 88.5 percent and TI NAVI’s 90 percent.
The grand finals kicked off with a symbolic gesture as Yatoro shaved his head, signifying the beginning of the game. This gesture granted Spirit the “bald buff of legend,” leading to a game-one victory with Yatoro’s impressive 18-kill performance on Weaver, accounting for 47 percent of Spirit’s damage.
Game two was a closer affair, but Yatoro’s outstanding performance on Faceless Void, a hero rarely picked at TI12, secured the win. He recorded multiple Chronosphere lockdowns and achieved a Rampage to conclude the game, setting a record as the only player to have more than one Rampage during a TI Main Event, with his fourth.
In game three, it appeared that Gaimin had the upper hand, but Yatoro and Collapse, with his unconventional Spirit Breaker pick, turned the tide in Spirit’s favor. Shortly after a Dota Plus menu displayed a 96 percent chance of Gaimin winning, Spirit initiated a series of aggressive pushes and picks that ultimately led to their TI victory, largely thanks to Mira’s Tusk. It might not have been the prettiest ending, but Gaimin couldn’t halt Spirit’s relentless advance, and within five minutes, they sealed their victory after a Roshan fight went awry.
Miposhka, referring to the comeback, described it as “magic” and emphasized that it was characteristic of their team spirit.
With this win, Spirit becomes the second Dota 2 organization to lift a second Aegis, following in the footsteps of OG, who won TI8 and TI9. Yatoro, Collapse, Mira, and Misposhka join the ranks of those legendary OG lineups as the only players to have won a second TI, with Larl being the only newcomer who wasn’t part of their first victory at TI10.
For their victory at TI12, Spirit is taking home $1,414,763 from the prize pool, and this amount may increase significantly thanks to Siberian OnlyFans model Eva Elfie. While this sum is notably less than their TI10 earnings of $18.2 million, they did recoup a portion of it by winning $5 million at Riyadh Masters.
Gaimin’s loss continues the “TI curse,” as no team has ever won a DPC Major and then gone on to win TI. Gaimin could have been the first to break that curse by winning TI12, becoming the only team to start in the lower bracket and claim a TI victory, and achieving the first “Dota Grand Slam” with three Major wins alongside a TI Aegis.
Instead, they leave the tournament with their first finals loss of the year, securing second place and $377,214 in prize money, with much to contemplate as they prepare for the 2024 season, which won’t feature a Dota Pro Circuit.