The defending champions, Team Spirit were recently eliminated from The International 2022 (TI11) Main Event after a shocking defeat against Southeast Asia underdogs Boom Esports in the first round of the Lower Bracket. Following the team’s early exit from the tournament, the offlane duo of Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov & Miroslaw "Mira" Kolpakov appeared on the Russian version of TI11 Late Night Show, with NAVI legend and fellow TI winner in Oleksandr "XBOCT" Dashkevych as the host of the show.

During the show, both Collapse and Mira talked about its match against Boom Esports, the future of the team and more.

“We shouldn’t have picked Nyx Assassin,” Collapse & Mira talk about Spirit’s early exit from TI11

Following the conclusion of Day Three of the The International 2022 (TI11) Main Event, the Team Spirit offlane duo of Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov & Miroslaw "Mira" Kolpakov appeared on the Russian version of TI11 Late Night Show, which had Dota veteran Oleksandr "XBOCT" Dashkevych hosting the show. According to Escorenews.com, who translated the Russian part of The Late Night Show, Collapse noted that the team had issues with the drafting during the tournament.

“It's not really our patch, and we had issues with drafts in most matches. When you have a lacking draft, it's hard to play. You are trying to think of something to do, and force some wrong moves. We just didn't prepare well.” said Collapse.

Mira then backed up Collapse’s statement by saying that “Our best heroes from boot camp ended up outside of meta, like Batrider, Earthshaker. I was playing ES for the whole bootcamp, we are coming here, and he has a 20% win rate. And I'm like: "Well, time to play Nyx Assassin". I'm level 5 in Dota Plus on this hero. I wouldn't say it's about meta at all. You can play any heroes, as you can see from beastcoast or Thunder Awaken matches. They pick Tiny and don't give a f**k. You can play your own style”.

Future of Team Spirit

When asked about the future of the Team Spirit’s roster following its early exit from TI11, Mira stated that the team needed time to grieve after its exit from the tournament before talking about the roster’s future.

“It's hard to say. To make any decision, we need to talk to each other first, let everyone speak their mind on this topic, and based on that come to a decision. We haven't done this yet, so it's unclear how we will move on. Of course, everyone is disappointed, we haven't talked about what's next. But I know that everyone wants to play Dota. I think we are motivated even more than before. It's always like that after a loss.” said Mira.

Team Spirit on its match against Boom Esports

When talking about the team’s match against Boom Esports, the duo noted that the team was surprised that Boom Esports banned two of Collapse’s best heroes in Magnus & Primal Beast despite the nerfs on the heroes.

“Let me tell you a secret, we shouldn't have taken Nyx Assassin. We should have taken Magnus, skewered everyone and killed any carry with this hero. Personally I forgot that Mars isn't just an offlane hero for them, but also mid. That's why we got caught off guard like that and made mistakes on the draft.” said Collapse when talking about the team’s decision to pick Nyx Assassin and not Magnus.

Mira also noted that he was surprised to see Boom Esports banning Magnus despite not picking the hero during the group stage. However, Collapse apologized to his teammate, saying that Boom Esports noticed Collapse playing his signature hero on his main account which would explain the ban during their match.

“That's actually because of me, I started playing pubs on my main, and that's how they sniped me. I played a lot of Magnus, Primal Beast was also banned against us because of that.”

[transcription and translation via Escorenews.com]

Team Spirit had a good Dota Pro Circuit season, as the team managed to win the PGL Arlington Major while also maintaining a top three finish during the 2021/2022 Eastern Europe DPC season. However, its early exit from TI11 might see the team making changes going into the next DPC season.