The last day of The International 10 (TI10) is over with an unpredictable and surprising ending. No one could imagine that Team Spirit would overcome the last hurdle and be crowned the new championship of TI.
Team Spirit, who at the beginning of the tournament had an underdog status, surprisingly became a phenomenon with charismatic team play and when they made it to the final day of TI10, no one expected Yatoro and his teammates to be the ones who would lift the glorious Aegis. It’s understandable that the two opponents they need to face are the most powerful DotA teams in the world right now, and also the front runners for the title: Team Secret and PSG.LGD. but like anything in life, nothing is ever guaranteed!
Coming into the Loser Bracket's final, Puppey showed his plan pre-game where he continuously banned Team Spirit's dangerous heroes like Magnus. This strategy of Team Secret showed its effectiveness with a clean and overwhelming victory in game 1. Witnessing what happened in game 1, nearly everyone thought that might be the end of Team Spirit’s fairy-tale in TI10.
However, once again, Yatoro and his teammates surprised TI viewers. Although they did not have familiar picks, Spirit proved they still have other tricks up their sleeve which no one expected. Yahoo’s Morphling had a wonderful game 2 to equalize the match for Team Spirit. Then the unpredictable pick with a power farm Sven ended all hopes of Team Secret in the 3rd match. And the fairy-tale of CIS representative continued to a new chapter: The Grand Final.
The fact that Spirit defeated Team Secret, definitely surprised most people, but those who often follow DotA 2 competitions, would tell you that this is something new due to Team Secret’s habit of losing at critical moments in tournaments. Anyone would back Team Spirit against PSG.LGD would be seen as a laughing stock, on paper, there was no chance Team spirit would beat them. Zero. None!.
As underdogs most people already gave PSG.LGD the title due to their hunger for the Aegis, and their recent successful track record in tournaments, and as you have it they became arrogant with their organizational strategies against Team Spirit, they allowed Magnus, the most powerful Hero in Team Spirit’s playstyle into every game of the Grand Final. And this horrible mistake blew the championship dream of coach Xiao8 with all the members of PSG.LGD.
Team Spirit took a lead after 2 victories with the significant impact of the Magnus pick. But after that, PSG.LGD found a solution to counter this pick in game 3 with Rubick. Faith_bian continued to use the Grand Magus to crush Spirit in game 4.
Maybe after 2 easy wins in game 3 and game 4, the confidence of PSG.LGD became the arrogance. They let Spirit take Magnus once again but did not pick Rubick to take the Lycan-Tiny duo picks. Spirit immediately banned Rubick in the 2nd Ban Phase, put PSG.LGD in a difficult situation when they did not have an alternative pick to counter Magnus when Rubick was banned. And Magnus, the Magnoceros of Team Spirit smashed the Chinese team to pieces, directly bringing the glorious Aegis and the TI Championship title to the CIS team.
Throughout their run, Spirit defeated Fnatic, OG, Virtus.pro, Invictus Gaming, Team Secret, and PSG.LGD. Now, they lift the Aegis, bringing it back to Eastern Europe for the first time in a decade and proving that anything can happen if a team fights together. For PSG. LGD, this was their third straight season falling short near the end, having placed second at TI8 and third at TI9. They will be back to challenge the world once more in the next DPC season, hungry to finally break their own curse and bring the Aegis back to China.