Cover-Credits:
Valve and dyrachyo
In a surprising turn of events, Team Spirit’s Myroslav "Mira" Kolpakov was seen attending a party along with Gaimin Gladiator’s Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov and his girlfriend Evgenia "Sony9sha" Elizarova in Dubai. Sony9sha took to Telegram to share some glimpses of the party where the Gaimin Gladiators carry and Team Spirit support could be seen smoking cigars together. This may come as a surprise to fans as Team Spirit and Gaimin Gladiators have butted heads for titles at major tournaments including The International 2023.
Mira and dyrachyo: Friends or Foes?
On 16th February, The International 2023 grand finalists — Gaimin Gladiators dyrachyo and Team Spirit Mira — were seen partying together despite their differences. In some photos shared by dyrachyo’s girlfriend, the two players were seen smoking cigars together in a hotel room.
Since BetBoom Dacha 2024 Dubai ended on 16th February, the players were likely partying in their leisure time. The photos also give us a glimpse of how some Dota 2 pros spend their free time away from their PCs.
Earlier in the tournament, Gaimin Gladiators and Team Spirit went head-to-head in a best-of-three during the upper bracket quarter-finals. Team Spirit lost against Gladiators with a disappointing score of 0-2 and was relegated to the lower bracket. The tension behind these two teams has been intense over the past few months as both teams are considered two of the strongest teams in the current Dota 2 pro scene.
After the win over Team Spirit at the BetBoom Dacha 2024 Dubai, dyrachyo took to Telegram and shared a few words through a video. According to the transcript and translation provided by hawk.live, he reportedly said, “Hello, everyone. We won against Team Spirit 2:0. Honestly, I didn't expect the games to be quite easy. Very glad that we won. The whole team is now on a high. The next match will be against BetBoom Team. We'll try to win to meet Xtreme Gaming in the Top 3. Thank you for cheering.”
However, Gladiators was knocked out of the tournament by its biggest rival of 2023, Team Liquid, in a best-of-three series during the lower bracket semi-finals.
Last year, Gaimin Gladiators dominated most of the majors throughout the year. On the other hand, Team Spirit won Riyadh Masters 2023 and DreamLeague Season 21. After an impressive performance throughout 2023, both teams managed to secure a spot at the grand finals of The International 2023. These two teams put forth their best performance but the series was claimed by Team Spirit after a clean sweep over Gladiators.
It could be possible that dyrachyo and Mira chose to keep their personal life and professional lives separate and it might very well be the case that they are friends despite being on different teams that often face each other for title wins.
