Yatoro and Nisha perform poorly as Spirit and Liquid suffer 2-0 stomps by surprise contenders in 1win Series.
The 1win Series Dota 2 Spring is a short tournament that is not short of surprises. Team Spirit and Team Liquid are out of the running for the 1win championship after an unlikely 2-0 stomps by Virtus.pro and Entity. That said, they still have one series left in order to get a third place finish.
For more information on the 1win Series tournament, check out the article below.
Virtus.pro defeats Spirit for the first time at 1win since July 2022
Team Spirit were undoubtedly one of the favorites going into 1win Series tournament. Yet, Team Spirit struggled and almost left early during the group stages. Fortunately, they were able to make a comeback in a decider match against the team, MOUZ, that nearly eliminated them.
However, Team Spirit struggled once again in the first playoffs series and semifinals against old rivals, Virtus.pro. Game one was especially painful because Virtus.pro had shellacked them with a 45-17 score, of which half of the deaths belonged to Spirit's support duo.
In the second game, Spirit actually had a chance to win. However, the odds started to keel over to the other side after the 30-minute mark. Not even Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk's Terrorblade could save the game, ending with a subpar 3-6 KDA performance.
The rivalry between Virtus.pro and Team Spirit has gone for ages with the former winning most of the times in the early days. It was at The International 2021 (TI10) where Team Spirit conquered Virtus.pro for the first time. Since then, Team Spirit have had the upper hand–that is until today. Within the last two years, Team Spirit had always been on top. Virtus.pro's last victory against them was in July 2022.
An unexpected defeat by another superstar, Team Liquid
Like Team Spirit, Team Liquid were expected to go far in this tournament. However, they also suffered defeat to Virtus.pro during the group stages. They would have been eliminated if it wasn't for their win against the Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev squad, L1GA Team.
The situation turned for worse in the semifinals when Liquid went up against Entity. Both games lasted less than 30 minutes where the first game had Entity utterly annihilating Liquid 29-4. Michal "Nisha" Jankowski had the worst performance, having went 0-7 and 1-6 throughout the series.
Despite being one of the strongest teams of 2023, the new year had not been treating them very well. According to datdota, Team Liquid had only achieved a win rate of 47 percent throughout all their competitive matches since January 2024. In their previous tournament, DreamLeague Season 22, Liquid was one of the first teams to go out.
Entity and Virtus.pro will face off for the championship
The 1win Series continues with just two series left. Entity and Virtus.pro will face off in a best-of-five grand final. Meanwhile, Team Spirit and Team Liquid has one last chance for reprieve as they fight for a third place finish.
The prize pool for the final four will be broken down as follows:
- First place - $50,000
- Second place - $30,000
- Third place - $15,000
- Fourth place - $5,000
Stay tuned to esports.gg for more Dota 2 news and updates!