TI13 team profile 1win: The Gale Force from the east

Five debutants are looking at making The International 2024 the breakout tournament for them.

1win is a very young and full hopes team that qualified for TI13 through the Eastern European brackets. They came in as a unit in the post-TI12 shuffle under the Klim Sani4 tag, and rose through open qualifier rounds to the point where they posed a real threat to the likes of Virtus.pro, 9Pandas, and NAVI in the closed qualifiers.

Klim Sani4 started the new year with a bang, qualifying for DreamLeague Season 22 and that brought them the 1win sponsorship.

1win roster

Nikita “Munkushi~” Chepurnykh
Ilya “CHIRA_JUNIOR” Chirtsov
ALEXANDER “cloud” ZAKHAROV
Georgii “swedenstrong” Zainalabidov
Egor “RESPECT” Procurat
coach: Timur "Ahilles" Kulmuhambetov

Most of the 1win players made their competitive debut around the 2021 Dota Pro Circuit season, but they also have Respect, who is the newest face on the professional scene with just one year of competitive play under his belt.

In that sense, the grind for the 1win players wasn’t as tough or as exhausting when compared to many of today’s stars. Interestingly enough, they are not at the very top of Dota 2 leaderboards either, the exception being Chira_Junior, who sits in the top 40 on the EU ladder.

1win made their way to The International 2024 by being somewhat ahead of the meta curve and taking off guard their regional foes. Sometimes, playing off-meta also backfired and 1win missed the opportunity to qualify for Riyadh Masters or DreamLeague Season 22.

Having very young Russian players, 1win’s roster average age being 21 years old, also came with logistical challenges. For instance, they qualified for ESL One Birmingham 2024, which should have marked their LAN debut, but they couldn’t secure the visas in time and had to forfeit their spot.

Therefore, their LAN debut was marked only at the end of July in Peru, at Elite Season 2, where they made it up to the grand finals and closed the event as runners-up after losing 2-3 to Team Liquid.

1win’s most successful heroes before TI13

Windranger is 1win’s most-picked hero this year, as they are one of the first teams to bring it to the safe lane in the carry position. Munkushi~ boasts a 60% win rate on his carry Windranger, which he played a total of 20 times this year, while Chira_Junior has 12 games on it in the mid lane.

As they entered the intense training for TI13, 1win are looking at improving their flex potential beyond just Windranger. Looking at the player’s activity for the past couple of weeks, Munkushi~ is working on expanding his hero pool, adding not just Lina and Mirana to his arsenal, but also Void Spirit. At the same time, both supports have a hefty amount of Naga Siren games, while Sniper and Leshrac seem to be favoured for the soft support position.

If they pass the visa boss for TI13, 1win have a good shot at stirring the pot from the group stage matches. Their lack of experience can work as a blessing in disguise, as not many of the teams at TI13 had the chance to play official games against them. If they show the same resilience as they did at Elite League, they might secure an upper bracket start in the playoffs stage and from there, it will be a question of how quickly they can adapt to the tournament meta.