When was the last time Team Spirit failed to qualify to anything?
The DreamLeague S23 Closed Qualifiers are soon to be over in Eastern Europe, North America and Southeast Asia. However, the early elimination of the two-time The International champions, Team Spirit, from the next ESL Pro Tour tournament by 1win Esports, formerly known as Klim Sani4, is turning heads with its very unexpected results.
Results have not always been there for Team Spirit, but this is the first time this roster gets eliminated during qualifier stage for any tournament. To be fair, organizers have directly invited Team Spirit to almost every Tier 1 event. The last early elimination they faced involved a very different roster.
Is Team Spirit still able to qualify?
DreamLeague S23 Closed Qualifiers are not over yet, but this is not the first time during this brackets that they lost a series. Natus Vincere, long striving for a comeback, already sent Team Spirit to the lower brackets. NaVi beat Team Spirit with a 2-0 score, and then were outclassed by Virtus Pro. In a matter of hours, they will be facing 1win Esports for that chance to play the grand finals.
This loss ends Team Spirit's DreamLeague run. It's up to 1win Esports to try and get to their second ESL Pro Tour tournament of the year. This season will only feature one slot for Easter Europe, compared to the three slots they had for DreamLeague S22. There, 1win Esports also managed to qualify, but were not able to get past from Group Stage 1.
Why is Team Spirit not directly invited to DreamLeague S23?
After DPC, EPT Leaderboards act as our main ranking system, inviting teams to tournaments based on their performance and points. However, only the Top 4 teams receive direct invitations to the next tournament. Currently, Team Spirit holds the fifth position, which offers them a potential invitation to Riyadh Masters 2024, but not to DreamLeague S23.
Placement | Team | EPT Points |
|---|---|---|
1 | BetBoom Team | 8030 |
2 | Xtreme Gaming | 6690 |
3 | Team Falcons | 6410 |
4 | Gaimin Gladiators | 6210 |
5 | Team Spirit | 4920 |
6 | Team Liquid | 3578 |
7 | OG | 2296 |
8 | G2.iG | 2002 |
DreamLeague S23 stands out by featuring only twelve teams, fewer than the sixteen from season 22. Also, the qualifiers and invitations are happening before ESL One Birmingham results. This means that if Team Spirit wins the next ESL Pro Tour tournament and manages to be part of the Top 4, they still won't be playing the next DreamLeague.
Community's take on this historic loss
Dota 2 community always have an opinion, and this victory for 1win is no exception. The popular player MiLan said that "Larl single-handedly just removed Team Spirit from DL S23." After facing questions about this, he highlighted a play in game three where the young midlaner chose to push barracks instead of joining the rest of the team to contest Roshan.
The play in question occurs around the 40:40 mark of game three. Larl uses focus fire on a structure, putting the ability on cooldown for the next half minute. This triggers 1win Esport's instinct to initiate a fight before taking Roshan.
The game extended for another fifteen minutes, yet the TI Champions failed to win another teamfight. Casters later described this as "overcomplicating things." However, you can be the judge. Was this decision game-losing?
Keep following esports.gg Dota 2 content to learn more about the teams playing the DreamLeague S23 Closed Qualifiers!