Team Spirit swept the DPC EEU Regional Finals, defeating Virtus.pro in a trio of incredible games.
Team Spirit has retained the title of the best team in EEU after clutching victory in the Regional Finals. In a clean sweep, the squad defeated Virtus.pro in the Grand Finals.
After dropping to the Lower Bracket on the tournament’s opening day, Spirit won four straight games to send them back to the Upper Bracket. And to top things off, they defeated regional rivals Virtus.pro.
But things didn’t always look like clean sailing for Team Spirit. Virtus.pro had performed well in this tournament and weren’t going to give up the $50,000 winners prize without a fight.
The Return of Team Spirit
Virtus.pro started things off spicy immediately with a Shadow Shaman pick. The surprising hero selection hinted that there might be an attempt at some Rat Dota from the bears. Especially after the team grabbed first blood and quickly began bullying their opponents.
But after a huge outplay in the top lane, VP’s momentum seemed to drain away. Team Secret capitalized on the uneven trade and started taking towers and pushing.
The Shadow Shaman was effectively useless at this point, as his serpent wards were no longer carry-killing threats, and there was no space to push. As a result, team Spirit took game one and pushed towards a dominant end to the EEU Finals.
Signs of life from Virtus.pro
With a slower-paced start compared to game one, Team Spirit took the early game momentum. Instead of trading poorly in lane, they farmed up comfortably, forcing Virtus. pro’s hand. VP needed someone to step up.
And that player was Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin, who hit a crucial Ravage to flip the script on Team Spirit. The TI champions were forced onto the back foot.
This single play seemed to completely swing the momentum of the game. And it was followed up by a series of incredible Sun Strike pick-offs from Danil “gpk” Skutin on Invoker.
With VP firmly in the driving seat, Team Spirit backed off and settled into what always seems to work: Feeding Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov. This allowed Virtus.pro to keep their gold lead by getting pickoffs, while Collapse slowly farmed up his items. And once Collapse had the BKB, it spelled disaster for VP, who found themselves engaged on repeated.
A brutal fight on Virtus. pro’s high ground saw the whole team buy-back and die-back. This spelled the end for the team, who lost most of the topside base, before calling GG after Team Spirit’s next push.
Breaking Virtus.pro
Game three was a stomp. There’s no other word for it. Starting off with a dominant performance, Team Spirit quickly broke down Virtus.pro. Then, with Axe, Templar Assassin and Kunkka able to clean up their lanes, Spirit was entirely in control.
By the 10 minutes, mark Team Spirit was just hunting down and killing Virtus.pro on cooldown. Lanes had dissolved, and similarly to the first game, it was make-or-break for Virtus.pro. But this time, no one stepped up. Able to do nothing, VP threw in the towel with an incredible 17 minute GG. Ultimately, the team was just forced to tap out.
Miposhka’s Post Game Interview
In the post-game interview, Team Spirit captain Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov talked to the panel about the team’s progress through Regional Finals. Asked how he felt the team had improved, Miposhka answered: “It’s actually hard to say because we played similar heroes every game.”
“Sometimes we just forgot our best heroes, and what we should pick. And we ran something new, and that’s why we forgot it.”
After losing two games to HellRaisers, they realized they were picking the wrong heroes and went back to what they knew. After all, the patch hasn’t changed yet, so why should they?
But one big question for Miposhka was about his computer. The Grand Finals were wracked with pauses, often because of Miposhka’s computer malfunctioning. So as a TI winner, a millionaire, why hasn’t he got a new computer? Well, it seems like it’s just a tech support issue. “I have no idea why it’s happening. There was just a blue screen. I hope our… system man will do the right things.”
Ultimately discussion turned, of course, to TI. Asked whether the team’s mentality had changed after TI, Miposkha had a simple answer. “I think that the thing is we’d only won one tournament as a team. It just so happens that that was The International.”
Team Spirit came away from the Regional Finals with 250 DPC points and $50,000 in prize money. Their next challenge will come at GAMERS GALAXY: Invitational Series Dubai 2022, the first international Dota event of 2022.