Team Spirit phenomen. The journey from nobody to the stars.

Team Spirit are the champions of The International 10. Congratulations, hype, press conferences and participation in the most popular show on TV. Could these guys have imagined this a year ago?

One year ago. Almost all of 2020 was remembered by audiences as the «online tournaments era». The International 10 was postponed, players' contracts were expiring, reshfles were in all regions, players assembled their own teams and participated in online tournaments with any prize pool.

Then, last fall, the Yellow Submarine was born and began to show its first results. After qualifying for tournaments, the team placed 3-4 at DOTA Summit 13 Online: Europe & CIS and 9-12 at ESL One Germany 2020, earned $5,500 and $7,500.

At the EPIC League Season 2 tournament, the young guys, although in last place, took $25,000 and gained experience against the top European and CIS teams.

The turning point for the Yellow Submarine players was the move to Team Spirit along with manager Korb3n before the start of the first DPC season 2021. It was also at this time that Silent officially joined them as coach.

The announcement was pathos and even funny. A well-known CIS organization had signed up the newcomers. Ahead of them awaited the biggest test - the new regional DPC system.

From the start, something went wrong. In the second week, Spirit lost to the two weakest teams in the division. As it turned out later, the problem was in a conflict between the captain so bad and coach Silent. DPC was in full swing and a way out was needed immediately.

As a result, so bad left the team. In three days a replacement was found - Mira. To everyone's surprise, the new player fit in perfectly and Team Spirit shared third place with AS Monaco Gambit. The only thing left was to beat AS Monaco Gambit and the trip to the first major was in the pocket.

However, Spirit's plans were spoiled by DPC rules that forced a former player, so bad, to return and play in the important match for 3rd place. As a result, Team Spirit lost and AS Monaco Gambit went to the ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021.

In the second season of the Dota Pro Circuit, Team Spirit confidently took second place and secured a slot in the WePlay AniMajor Group Stage.

Having barely made it out of the group, defeating Team Liquid in the Tiebreaker, Spirit managed to beat only Alliance in the playoffs. The Chinese team Vici Gaming, which had previously beaten Virtus.pro, was too strong for CIS teams. 7-8th place, $12,500 and 200 DPC points, which were not enough to pass to TI.

Next up were the spectacular regional qualifiers for The International 10. All teams tried to show their best and fight for a ticket to the main tournament of the year. Unexpectedly for the spectators, Team Spirit faced the top 2 teams from the lower division of the Dota Pro Circuit: Team Empire and HellRaisers. Lower Division teams turned out to be serious competitors for the favorites of the qualification. In a very tough final against Empire with Petushara in the roster, Spirit were able to comeback from the score of 0-2 and end the series with 3-2. A slot on TI10 was secured.

After challenging matches at regional qualifiers, Team Spirit began to actively prepare. They won the Dota 2 Champions League 2021 Season 2 and took part in ESL One Fall 2021 and OGA Dota PIT Invitational, finishing in 5th-6th and 2nd place respectively. Interestingly, in the last two tournaments the team lost to PSG.LGD, who at that time were already in Europe and did not miss the moment to participate in two major tournaments before TI10.

Spirit were actively preparing for TI10, practicing intensively and participating in clanwars, with a good percentage of wins. This gave the young guys confidence to take high places in the tournament.

Arriving in Romania was not easy. In the hotel in Bucharest, the guys were given a practice room in the kitchen, placing the players in a small space, without Internet and even toilet paper. The video, in which the team manager Korb3n shows the room where the players practice, went viral on the Internet and caused a stir. As it was known later, all the teams that didn't have enough DPC points and made it to TI10 through the regional qualifiers were in similar rooms. Fortunately, by the start of the group stage, all teams were given spacious practice rooms.

Before the start of the group stage, no one took the team seriously, all analysts said that Spirit is an average team and their maximum the top 8 on TI10. The only from CIS community who really believed in the victory of Team Spirit, as it turns out later, was Sneg. Who not only rooted for them from the very beginning, but also backed it up with a huge bet on odds of 29. True, there was also a bet on VP, but that's another story.

And why would there be any faith in a team that didn't even have enought DPC points. At WePlay AniMajor the total win rate of the team was about 41%. But at tournaments outside of Valve, Spirit showed great results participating in any Tier 1-2 tournaments. Dota 2 Champions League 2021 Season 2, ESL One Fall 2021 and OGA Dota PIT Invitational had a crazy 70% win rate, not counting the clanwars, which, according to Silent, has about the same win rate. As for Pick Rate, at all of the above tournaments and even at Major, Spirit picked different heroes. At every tournament, Spirit did not have one completely repeatable pick.

Team Spirit found themselves in Group B. The first day and immediately lost in two matches against the strongest teams: Team Secret and PSG.LGD. The second day ended with a victory over Elephant and a loss against Vici Gaming. It seemed that the young guys can already forget about the Upper Bracket. But guys didn't think so, and there were no more dangerous opponents left. A series of victories, 4th place in the group and Team Spirit began their way on the TI10 Main Stage from the Upper Bracket. The first mini sensation of the tournament.

The first playoff match ended, as analysts predicted. Spirit lost to the Chinese team, the winner of the ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021 - Invictus Gaming. Team Spirit dropped into the Lower Bracket and has no chance to fail. And there were no less formidable opponents ahead.

However, the CIS team decided to repeat Team Liquid's success at The International in 2017. They methodically started to throw their opponents out of the tournament, and the first ones were Fnatic (2-0), which was expected.

The real sensation of the tournament was that Spirit defeated the two-time champions OG without a chance (2-0), you can read the details of the match in our article.

The most difficult was the match against their CIS rivals - Virtus.pro, where with great difficulty Spirit pulled out a victory 2-1. After that they managed to take revenge on Invictus Gaming (2-0). The fairy tale began to come true, but two final bosses, Team Secret in their best form and the strongest boss of the season - PSG.LGD, waited ahead. But, Spirit were able to surpass their limit and prevented Team Secret (2-1) from passing to the grand final. The more problems Team Spirit had, the stronger they got.

Three Rampage and a real Hero Challenge by Yatoro, the incredible Magnus by Collapse and the great play of the rest of the team attracted the attention of the audience and crowds of new fans. No one expected this from a young team. But here they are, the young players, entering the Arena Nationala football stadium in Bucharest. Their last opponent is the strongest Chinese team PSG.LGD led by the legendary xiao8 as coach.

The Grand Final of The International 10, with huge prizes on the line, online broadcasts have already broken all records, CIS underdogs against the strongest squad of China. Defeating a team in the Bo5 series that had lost only two maps in the entire TI10 seemed like an impossible task.

The grand final was epic. 2-0 in favor of Spirit, then PSG.LGD evened the score. The winner was not determined until the fifth, decisive map. 

Team Spirit's victory at the tenth anniversary of The International tournamed seemed like a fairy tale for CIS fans.

Congratulations poured on the tired but happy team from all sides. Everyone congratulated the team, including those who have nothing to do with cybersport and Dota 2. Team congratulated even the President of Russia - Vladimir Putin.

The most memorable was the congratulations and participation of the whole team in the show Evening Urgant. The young Dota players are on the country's main channel, on the most popular prime-time show on TV.

The popularity and growth of interest in the team and players has increased so much that Team Spirit had to organize a press conference with the team members.

Ilya «Yatoro» Mulyarchuk, Alexander «TORONTOTOKYO» Hertek, Magomed «Collapse» Khalilov, Miroslav «Mira» Kolpakov, and Yaroslav «Miposhka» Naydenov became true media stars. In just six months these unknown young pubbers became millionaires. Mira, Yatoro and Collapse played Dota for 2-3 years and were able to earn more than $ 3.5 million in prize money. And they are already ready to displace the two-time TI champions in terms of prize money earned while playing on the pro scene.

The organization was able to earn more than 18 million dollars ahead of VP and NaVi on the total amount of prizes earned in eSports in the CIS region.

It is worth mentioning those whose contribution to the team's victory was invaluable and without whom the team simply would not have been able to achieve everything.

Dmitry «Korb3n» Belov - the Dota 2 team manager. The man and genius who gathered young guys from the game a year ago and created a team that became the Top 1.

Ayrat «Silent» Gaziev - coach and former pro player. It was his decisions, strategies and drafts that brought the team closer to victory.

Ruslana «DKLana» Berest - team manager, who in tandem with Korb3n solved the small and big problems of the team.

Alexander Kuznetsov - team psychologist. Even though he wasn't in Bucharest, the results of his work were evident. Thanks to him the players were always cold and focused on the game.

It was this combination of players, coach, managers and psychologist that was the key to the fact that the Russian cybersports organization Team Spirit is now known all over the world. A truly historic event.

As it became known from WePlay's interview with manager DKLana, the team will take a break for a while. All Spirit members are tired after The International 10, numerous interviews, shows and all the hype. There is even a possibility that Team Spirit may miss the first DPC season.

There will also be a meeting with young players to teach them financial literacy. After all, as we know, big money is evil for young men, and the organization has an interest in their well-being.

DKLana:

And while the team will be resting, we can only guess how the fate of the team will be. Whether they will participate in the new DPC season or rest on their laurels. One thing is certain. The way of Team Spirit is a series of constant challenges and problems, overcoming which only gets stronger. And although True Sight, according to Korb3n, will not be as bright, it will motivate new and young players to get better and strive for the top, no matter what.