Team Spirit managed to beat PSG.LGD in the grand finals of the Arlington Major 2022 to crown itself as the champions of the final major of the DPC 2021-22 season. In a performance similar to its previous one in The International 2022 (TI11), Team Spirit bested PSG.LGD in the Grand Finals with a display of sheer class. Even in moments where they appeared to be on the back foot, Team Spirit displayed sick teamfight execution and came back.
The reigning TI11 champions managed to make its way through the Lower Bracket Finals and now takes home a sum of $200,000 USD. Unfortunately for PSG.LGD, it lost its second consecutive grand final against Team Spirit in a Valve tournament.
Team Spirit bests PSG.LGD in the Grand Finals of the Arlington Major 2022
Team Spirit started off the series on the backfoot with PSG.LGD dominating Game 1 like they’ve done in every single series in the Major. Team Spirit simply could not match up to LGD’s aggression as Wang "Ame" Chunyu picked them apart one after the other on his Pudge, snowballing his team to an easy 1-0 lead.
PSG.LGD seemed like it was running away with the series after securing quite a big lead in Game 2 as well. But Team Spirit managed to make a massive comeback on the back of Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk’s Monkey King who picked up a Divine Rapier and closed out a 75-minute game with a Rampage.
This loss seemingly broke PSG.LGD’s momentum and poise as the Chinese giants played like a shell of their former selves in the third and fourth games, making uncharacteristic mistakes and map movements which ultimately ended up costing it the Major as Team Spirit capitalized on PSG.LGD’s mistakes to secure the win.
With the final game in the bag, Alexander "TORONTOTOKYO" Khertek also all-chatted: “HATERS WHERE ARE YOU NOW?” before Team Spirit took PSG.LGD’s throne.
Since both Team Spirit and PSG.LGD will not be competing in ESL One Malaysia 2022, this could very well be the last time we see both teams in action before TI11. It is going to be interesting to see how the two best teams evolve as we head into the end of the season and the biggest Dota 2 tournament of the year.
We are also curious to see if other teams can learn from these two teams and their performances at the major, and pose a challenge to these two behemoths at TI11.