Following their second The International win in October, Team Spirit's 2023-24 season was mediocre at best. What's with that?
Team Spirit is the defending champion of the Aegis. On October 29th, the team usurped the season favorites with a 3-0 win over Gaimin Gladiators in the grand finals of The International 2023 (TI12). They dropped only two games in the entire tournament and became just the second organization after OG to win TI twice.
Fans might recall that in 2021 Team Spirit went from the underdogs to beware of to the champions of TI10, bringing the Aegis home to the CIS region for the first time since 2011.
But this year, Team Spirit has had a mediocre season at best. It wasn't until two weeks ago that the Eastern European team was able to claim their first title and trophy of the year – taking down Xtreme Gaming in the best-of-five grand finals of PGL Wallachia Season 1.
So what is going on with a team that seized the Aeigs of Champions twice with 4/5 same lineup just two years apart?
The Curse of the TI Champions
No other event rivals The International. It is the pinnacle of all (Dota 2) events. Staggering prize pools, prime cut games between teams of the highest caliber, gut-wrenching action, emotional storylines, top-notch production, unique and engaging content, and usually a surprise or two create the landscape that fans around the world will talk about for the rest of the year and aspiring players will etch into their hearts as their goal and dream for next year.
When a team seizes the Aegis, dreams are made. But the interesting thing about dreams, is they don't last. And more often than not, after the champions leave the stage things aren't the same anymore.
- Just take a look at TI3 championship team, Alliance. The season leading to The International 4 would prove to be somewhat less successful for the Swedish champions and ended with an eleventh-twelfth place finish at TI4.
- It was Newbee who grabbed the Aegis at TI4, but their following year was a bit of a struggle and at TI5 they took 13-16th place.
- The Wings story was short-lived. After all the glory at TI6, the five players would end up leaving the organization after a long dispute over unpaid salaries. The organization’s exit from the Dota 2 world was covered with multiple dramas, from legal aspects that nearly got the players banned by ACE, the esports governing body in China, at that time. At the beginning of 2017, the five players would eventually regroup under the Team Random tag and would compete at Kyiv Major 2017, but with no success. Unfortunately, legal aspects that were keeping them tied to the Wings Gaming organization prevented the players from attending TI7, which was the first edition that didn’t have the reigning champions able to compete to defend their title.
- Team Spirit is no exception. Following their TI win at The International 2021 Team Spirit had a touch-and-go season that ultimately ended up with a dismal performance at The International 11 with a 13-16th place for the reigning champions.
Team Spirit; We've seen this before and there is hope!
Team Spirit 2022-23 Season
The 2022-23 Season had been quite a journey for Team Spirit. The team made just one roster change following TI11. They had a rough start to the season but in a year where there were no TI invites issued and attendance was based on DPC points, Team Spirit was able to secure enough points to scoop up one of the slots – taking 10th out of 12th place.
And then the team shifted into first gear. Starting in July, they won the Riyadh Masters, DreamLeague Season 21, and ultimately The International 2023. According to the players, they wanted to do it most for Larl, who hadn’t experienced holding the Aegis with them at TI10 in 2021.
Team Spirit 2023-24 Season
This year isn't much different. Poor performance and results have been marring Team Spirit's reputation and dampening morale. A series of 4-6th place finishes to start the year was then followed by a 13-14th place result at Elite League and 9-10th place at ESL One Birmingham 2024. The manager, Dmitry “Korb3n” Belov, addressed the team’s departure from Elite League via his Telegram channel, saying that currently the team is out of shape. He also didn’t exclude the possibility of disbanding when and if the team needed it.
But instead, Team Spirit claimed their first championship title of 2024 at PGL Wallachia and now looks like they just might have finally shifted into first gear for this year. Whether they do well at Riyadh Masters or not doesn't matter as much. Team Spirit has already secured their ticket to Copenhagen to defend their title once again via direct invite.
The critical question remains: can Team Spirit break the TI curse this year? Which version of the team will we see in Denmark – the champions of TI10, the struggling squad of TI11, or the dominant force of TI12?
The International 2024 (TI13)
The International 2024 is set to take place in Copenhagen, Denmark in September at the Royal Arena. This will mark the second time The International is coming to Europe, but the first time when, hopefully, fans will be able to attend. The first time Valve tried to bring its most prestigious tournament to Europe was in 2020 when the pandemic hit the world. TI10 was postponed for 2021 and moved from Sweden to Romania, and although tickets were sold, a new wave of coronavirus forced Valve to refund all tickets and hold the tournament in an empty stadium in Bucharest. Since then, TI moved to Singapore in 2022 and last year it returned home, to Seattle.
