Despite being the only team to start off at 3-0 in the Group Stages, Team Spirit fell to the depths of the lower bracket after losing to nouns in a 2-0 affair in the seeding decider last weekend, which was capped off by a 48-minute clash. Now Team Spirit seeks to survive the threats of the lower bracket starting off with their game against G2 x IG tomorrow.

Fans have definitely felt the roar of the upset from Team Spirit after they lost in a sweep to the underdogs nouns. It was the biggest shocker of the tournament considering the fact that they were the clear favorites to win in their group. The team failed to display the same level of dominance in the group stage, and it cannot be denied that it was quite a surprise that they lost big time.

Now that they are in the lower bracket, one can say that Team Spirit has to carve their path back up to the top, where they are now set to face G2 x IG and will face Xtreme Gaming in the second round if they do win against their first round opponents. It will take them a longer and more challenging journey to repeat as champions now more than ever.

An Upset Like no Other

A lot of critics pointed out that Team Spirit was doomed to lose right from the start of their games against nouns. Picking Tinker twice as a support proved to be a fatal choice for the team as it faced a lot of nerfs in the previous months from Valve. It was matched by nouns’ strong and consistent draft picks with Luna and Sand King as the carry and frontline tank, respectively – and these two heroes performed well in the current meta so far.

A collection of poor in-game choices also quelled their chances of winning. For instance, the team gambled with an unusual mid-lane of Batrider and a support duo of Rubick and Tinker – a combination that did not blend well for most of the game. Another instance was a poor decision from Miposhka to collect lotuses that led to his Rubick, losing a crucial Gem of True Sight at the same time.

From poor drafting, individual mishaps, and even a weak teamplay – all of these contributed to Team Spirit’s loss in those two games against nouns, and it cannot be denied that some experts even say that they did deserve to fall to the lower bracket for all of their poor decisions in the games against nouns.

Repeating is a Challenge

This edition of The International was hyped to be a promising story for Team Spirit, considering the fact that they have had impressive strides in their games. However, it cannot be denied that the team will now have a much bigger task at hand – surviving the lower brackets en route to a repeat.

No other team in the history of Dota 2 has ever managed to come up with a repeat in winning The International aside from OG, who pulled off the same feat back in 2018 and 2019. Now it seems that Team Spirit will have to claim their first back-to-back win and third overall win in The International with a much tougher road now more than ever. But first, they will have to survive G2 x IG in their clash.