Dota 2 World Championship Summary

The Russians from Team Spirit became the champions of The International 2021 in Dota 2. The final match with the Chinese from PSG.LGD ended with a score of 3:2. Moreover, this is the third TI Final in history to conclude with such a score. In this article, you will find the full Dota 2 World Championship summary. 

What is Dota 2?

Dota 2 is a battle arena game from Valve that was released in 2011. It is based on a custom modification of the real-time strategy Warcraft III, created in the first half of the 2000s. In short, the essence of the game is to demolish the opponent’s base. Meanwhile, each of the teams includes five players, and matches last 30-40 minutes on average. Indeed, Dota 2 is currently one of the most popular esports disciplines on the planet. The International is the main Dota 2 tournament of the year. It is the world championship, only among clubs. It was first held in the same 2011 – then Ukrainian Natus Vincere became its champion, winning $ 1 million.

Since then, the tournament has started annually – except for 2020, when it did not take place due to obvious circumstances. At the same time, over the years of its existence, TI has steadily increased its prize fund. All in all, this year it exceeded $ 40 million. Online sportsbooks in Russia offered generous odds to bet on the winner of this tournament.

The International 10 was attended by 18 teams from different regions – the CIS (there is practically no division into countries in e-sports, Ukraine and Russia are friends here), Europe, North and South America, Southeast Asia, China. It took place at the thousands-strong stadium Arena Naţională. However, without fans. At the very last moment, the organizers canceled the audience. Nevertheless, the interest of viewers did not decrease because of this. According to the Dota 2 World Championship summary, 2.7 million people watched the final at its peak, including 1.2 million Russian-speaking viewers.

Dota 2 World Championship Summary: Team Spirit

Late in the evening on October 17, the Russian players from Team Spirit became the winners of the largest international Dota 2 tournament – The International 2021. In the final game, the Russian team defeated the Chinese PSG.LGD. Indeed, the latter were favorites of the tournament, whose victory was predicted by many bookmakers including 22BET Sportsbook. However, in the grand final, Team Spirit beat PSG.LGD with a score of 3: 2. In addition to the main trophy of the tournament – Aegis – the team from the CIS took home 18.2 million dollars (approximately 1.4 billion rubles) in prize money from the total tournament fund of 40 million. 

The winning roster of Team Spirit was formed just a year before the epoch-making battle with the Chinese – Yaroslav Naidyonov (Miposhka), Ilya Mulychuk (Yatoro), Alexander Hertek (TORONTOTOKYO), and Magomed Khalilov (Collapse) joined the team only in 2020. The last one to join Team Spirit was Miroslav Kolpakov (Miroslaw). He started training as a seven-support team only in the summer of 2021. 

The International 10

The International 2021 is the largest world online RPG Dota 2 tournament. This year, 18 famous world-class teams took part in it, having won other championships more than once. Team Spirit’s rivals in the tournament bracket were Evil Geniuses, Virtus.pro, Invictus Gaming, Team Secret, and other esports monsters. The victory of Ayrat (Silent) Gaziev’s wards may be the last in the current configuration of the team. Indeed, there is no further decision on the team’s participation in the winning line-up yet. Besides, the players have not had time to enjoy their triumph. It is worth noting something else. All in all, Team Spirit’s victory is the first in ten years for teams from the CIS. Before them, the only winner of the tournament was the Natus Vincere team – the Ukrainian team that conquered the first tournament of The International.

Why is Team Spirit’s Victory So Cool?

For the Team Spirit, this The International was the first in history – as well as for four of the five players on the team. Before the trip to Bucharest, only the Russian captain of the Miposhka team (Yaroslav Naydenov) had the experience of performing at TI. Indeed, back in 2017, he took 7th-8th place there along with the Russian Team Empire. During the season, the Spiritualists performed well on the whole (for example, they took 7th-8th place at WePlay AniMajor, the second most important tournament of the year). However, they were not even considered the strongest team in the CIS region, which before TI10 was deservedly recognized as the “average” in the world professional Dota 2, yielding at least to Western Europe and China. 

Moreover, the “dragons” (nickname Team Spirit) might not have gone to Romania at all. In the final of the regional qualifiers, they were behind Team Empire with a score of 1: 2, led by Petushara (Vladislav Kozlovsky). However, they still managed to snatch the victory. On the eve of The International, experts predicted that Team Spirit would have a maximum of 5-6th place and that in advance – for a young roster it would already be an excellent result.

The Spiritualists did not start the main tournament of the year very successfully. In the first two games of the group stage, they lost to PSG.LGD and the European Team Secret (as it turned out, these teams entered the top-3). However, later we rallied and even went to the so-called upper bracket. The results you already know from our Dota 2 World Championship summary.

Prize Money

The International 2021, which took place from October 7 to 17 in Bucharest, is officially over, and the Russian team is celebrating a triumph. Analysts of esports disciplines note that Team Spirit managed to win in a critical situation. Indeed, no one bet on them to win in the online sportsbooks in Russia. Indeed, all the chances and layouts were in favor of the Chinese team. Even the big bookmakers accepted 1:29 bets against the Russians. Have Dota 21 Betting Explained to increase your chances of winning next time! 

According to esports experts, Team Spirit significantly surpassed the victory of Natuce Vincere a decade ago. It is symbolic that in 2011 the Ukrainian team also met in the grand final of the tournament with the Chinese team. Then the victory over the doters from EHOME brought the Ukrainians one million dollars in prize money. The total prize pool of the tournament was $ 1.6 million – 25 times less than the current Dota 2 championship.

Experts believe that the defeat of the Chinese from PSG.LGD and the huge, even by the standards of professional competitions, prize money can spur interest in esports disciplines in Russia. Moreover, several teams from the Russian Federation may enter the next The International at once. Team Spirit also went down in history as one of the youngest teams in the tournament. Indeed, some players, such as Magomed Khalilov, were born in 2002.

Dota 2 World Championship Summary: Where Will The Winners Spend Their Prize Money?

The International’s prize pool is dozens of times more powerful than other tournaments. It is easy to follow the list of the richest esportsmen in the discipline, which takes into account only the prize money. After winning TI10, all Team Spirit players got into its top 20, each of them earned at least $ 3.7 million in their careers (the overwhelming part of the amount – precisely for the world championship). The leader of the rating remains the captain of OG Notail (Johan Sundstein) – in Dote 2, the two-time winner of The International from Denmark won more than $ 7 million.

Soon after the victory, the players of the Russian team told how they would spend the prize. Indeed, this is mainly real estate. So, Yatoro plans to “buy a house for a cat and, possibly, a homestead”, and Mira – “a house and a car for dad.” The most touching story is from Toronto Tokyo – he recently promised to buy his younger sister an apartment in Moscow – and he will keep his word. “I will buy an apartment for my sister, as I promised. She is 11 years old, we talked with her on Facetime, I told her that I would buy an apartment in the center of Moscow, ”he shared after the victory. And if you want to make real money, visit one of the Best Dota 2 Betting Sites like 22BET Sportsbook. Good luck!

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