Tundra Esports vs. Team Spirit: BetBoom Universe Grand Finals – Tundra pushed to 5-game limit

BetBoom Universe has been one of the most surprisingly hype Dota 2 tournaments of the month, seeing top European and CIS players compete for their cut of the $100,000 prize pool. And now, in the finals, we’re treated to battle a rematch between Tundra Esports and Team Spirit, who faced off in the Upper Bracket Semifinals on Feb. 12

Here are the live results for Tundra Esports vs. Team Spirit:

Tundra Esports took the first series in this tournament against Team Spirit in a 2-1 victory. Will the time apart be enough for Team Spirit to have gained an edge? Or will Tundra continue their tournament dominance?

The match is scheduled to take place at 8:00 p.m. PT, and is a best-of-five. The winner will take home the $60,000 grand prize, while the runner up will win a respectable $25,000.

Tundra is back with its main roster for this series, so no Nightfall or Topson for this game. Team Spirit picked up an unusual Centaur and Rubrick start to their draft, while Tundra settled on Enigma and Undying. With the Silencer and Pango picked up by Spirit, and Tiny and Naga Siren for Tundra, it seemed like Tundra was playing for late, and Team Spirit was keen on fighting early.

And this immediately came true, as Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov on the Centaur decided to bully the opposing carry. Perhaps so much that Oliver "skiter" Lepko had connection issues! Once Skiter was back, Team Spirit kept up the aggression, grabbing kills bot, and starting to snowball on their early game heroes. And with Collapse getting huge, Tundra tried to stop him, but to no avail!

Team Spirit felt fully in control at this point, and it was their match to lose. Taking Roshan at 22 minutes, Spirit continued to maintain their dominance. But Tundra's Naga split push was starting to become an issue.

And this issue spiralled out of control, as the farm for Tundra increased, and they could go toe-to-toe with Spirit's heroes again. With the game veering into the super late game, Tundra found themselves with a ridiculous gold lead and having seemingly met their win-condition. Team Spirit succeeded on a last-tower hold against Tundra, and attempted to take Rosh, but the fight went south. Tundra take game one after a surprising turn around!

For game two, Tundra went back to the Enigma, and once again seemed to plan for another late game competition. Again Spirit looked to draft for early power and aggression, but had some insurance in the Alchemist. But as the early game kicked off, Spirit found themselves behind, with Tundra taking good early control, and the Lina growing in power. However, Team Spirit were able to even the score with a good defence in mid.

As the mid game approached, once again the methodical farming power of Tundra started to come into play. Tundra was slowly building a gold lead, and Spirit had to rely on Yatoro's Alchemist for late. And seems Yatoro had been practicing his Alch, because aggression and timing of Spirit started to punish Tundra, giving the CIS team the lead for what felt like the first time in two games.

But with Tundra sneaking Roshan, Spirit's lead started to disintegrate, and Tundra immediately turned the tables. By 50 minutes the game was starting to look oddly similar to the previous game. Until an incredible play by Spirit turned the tables completely.

But even with this surprising turn, Tundra couldn't be stopped. They punished Spirit's slight misplays and executed on their strategy to win game two.

Game three started with Nine deciding to walk into the enemy team and die, and in theory, the perfect beginning for Larl on Storm Spirit in mid. After a fairly dominant 20 minutes, Team Spirit made a huge mistake in a fight, and Tundra were suddenly back in the game.

Luckily, Spirit had finally managed to secure the early lead that couldn't be overcome. With the Enigma banned, Tundra didn't have a stalling and game changing way to flip the script. And finally Team Spirit claimed a victory, sending us to game three.

Lots of aggression as early as possible was the game plan for both teams in this game four matchup, as Tundra and Spirit picked up heroes that were perfect for fights and lane bullying. The roaming potential of the Tusk on Tundra, and the menacing power of Collapse's Tidehunter meant that fights throughout the early part of this game were brutal and scored many kills.

Again, Tundra's lack of a slow-down hero like Enigma meant that Team Spirit's snowball was too strong. And ultimately the aggression from Spirit claimed game four, sending us to a full five games

With another hyper aggressive early-game comp, Team Spirit looked poised to win the series if they could prevent Tundra from going late for just one more game. But with Doom and Chaos Knight in Tundra's draft, it would be incredibly difficult to execute.

As the mid-game came around, Spirit's plan started to take form, as an empowered Tusk with Io support made an invincible frontline. Still, Tundra's rotations and map presence was just a little too dominant, and they were able to keep pace. And while Team Spirit were relentless, keeping pressure on and pushing into Tundra's base, Tundra were able to once again secure a convincing gold lead. And with this, they finally wore down spirit securing game five.

You can watch the BetBoom Universe Grand Finals matchup between Tundra Esports and Team Spirit on BetBoom's official Twitch channel here:

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