Going in search of their third Aegis of Champions, Team Spirit managed to stomp G2.iG out from The International 2024 in the lower bracket.
headline photograph courtesy of Valve
Having been knocked into the lower bracket by Tundra Esports, tournament favourites and reigning champions, 
Team Spirit, fought for their tournament lives today at The International 2024. Their opponents were 
G2 x iG, who had a shaky 
Tundra Esports Group Stage match – resembling much of their year so far too. Having met twice this year, once during the Elite League Season 1 Group Stage, and then again at PGL Wallachia Season 1, the two teams shared the spoils – but with tournament lives on the line at TI13, there was much more to play for.
As we went into the series, it was expected that it would be heavily contested right from the start, but game 1 was simply a stomping from the TI 2023 champions. 
Denis “Larl” Sigitov's unkillable Invoker dominating the mid-lane led him into early rotations, which opened up the map even more for Spirit. It was a complete downward spiral for iG from then, as they lost hero after hero for 35 minutes – with only five kills in response. Having been shut down across the map, iG’s struggles could not even afford them a Tormentor, while Spirit found themselves a step closer to the main event.
Not much changed in Game 2, with everything going wrong for iG again, while Spirit was, once again, able to make fantastic rotations to dominate the side lanes. iG were not willing to rotate, and this led to them going behind in the early game. Spirit continued to push their advantage, and as nothing was working for the Chinese team, they threw in the towel with a little over half an hour gone.
Unfortunately for G2.iG, their TI 2024 hopes came crashing to an end after a poor showing in the lower bracket. On the other hand, Team Spirit’s brilliance nets them a place in the next round of the lower bracket later today, where they will go up against one of their biggest rivals of this year – 
Xtreme Gaming.
