Arlington Major 2022: Team Spirit Will Battle PSG.LGD in Yet Another Grand Final

Team Spirit and PSG.LGD will be facing off against each other in yet another grand final after the former won the penultimate match of the PGL Arlington Major. Team Spirit took a 2-1 series victory over Team Aster to secure a Top 2 finish in the final major of the season. The lineups Aster drafted for all three games were very competitive, but they were simply outmatched by Spirit in the first and third games. In the end, Aster finishes in the top three and takes home $75 thousand USD but it will be Spirit and PSG.LGD, which has had the edge over the former in recent counters, fighting for the lion's share of the $500 thousand USD prize pool.

Team Spirit vs Team Aster: Match recap and highlights

Recap:

In game 1, both teams chose competitive lineups, using heroes that are highly popular. It was a relatively quiet laning period, with the cores extracting as much farm as possible. Aster's moves after the laning stage, however, were top-notch, with Spirit seemingly chain feeding and giving up a networth lead. However, the Eastern European team swiftly recovered and resorted to evading ganks and splitpushing to get the game back to even. Then it was Spirit's better teamfighting abilities that propelled it to victory. As the game went, Aster became increasingly disheartened and conceded defeat in 45 minutes.

In game 2, Aster did not let the early lead go away. Stronger laning heroes enabled the team to gain an early advantage, especially in the midlane, where TORONTOTOKYO lost severely. Aster continued to make movements and collect core kills, steadily decreasing the map for Spirit. Despite Spirit's best efforts, the teamfights were simply too difficult to win, and the team lost the second game in 40 minutes.

In game 3, Spirit went for an old school Io-Mars combo in the offlane. Overall, the squad improved their laning skills this game, focusing on shutting down Monet's Troll Warlord and Ori's Storm Spirit. Aster did, however, come back in the mid game with a handful of teamfight wins, having an advantageous roster on paper. As the game went, it became all about teamfight execution, and Spirit proved to be the superior team with clutch saves from the supports, winning in 37 minutes.

There is no doubt that Team Spirit will have a really tough time in the grand final against PSG.LGD. The two teams last battled against each other in the Riyadh Masters 2022 with the Chinese giants overcoming the reigning TI10 champions with ease. It will be interesting to see if Team Spirit will manage to get one over PSG.LGD at the Arlington Major 2022.

As both teams have already secured berths in The International 11, the battle will be to determine who is the best team in the world heading into the biggest Dota 2 tournament of the season.