Team Spirit Crash Out of DreamLeague S23 Qualifier as 1win Hand Major Upset

Team Spirit suffers a major upset as it fails to qualify for the upcoming DreamLeague Season 23. This failure to qualify comes after Team Spirit was knocked down to the lower bracket by Na’Vi followed by another loss against the newly formed Dota 2 team 1win on 21^st March 2024, Thursday.

This missed opportunity to play at the DreamLeague Season 23 could prove devastating for Team Spirit as it means they will be missing out on EPT points to be earned from the tournament which will contribute towards their ranking on the EPT Leaderboard. 

1win Deals Major Upset to Team Spirit at DreamLeague Season 23 Qualifiers

On 20^th March the Eastern Europe Closed Qualifiers for DreamLeague Season 23 kicked off and it seemed like Team Spirit would surely qualify for the main tournament through the regional qualifiers. However, on the second day of the qualifiers, Team Spirit was knocked down to the lower bracket by Na’Vi with a 0-2 loss.

Undeterred, Team Spirit won its first lower bracket series against Night Pulse and was going strong into the next round until it met 1win in the lower bracket semifinal

1win, the newly formed organization adopted the Tier 2 team Klim Sani4 earlier last month and was knocked out of the 1win Series Dota 2 Spring tournament by Team Spirit recently.

Despite its positive match record against 1win, Team Spirit struggled against this newly formed team and surprisingly lost in a 1-2 series in the lower bracket of the DreamLeague Season 23 Eastern European Closed Qualifier. 

During the series, the first game was taken by Team Spirit after a grueling 100-minute long match. Team Spirit was noticeably struggling against 1win in the first game as it found fighting 1win rather troublesome and was wiped multiple times while trying to secure the win.

A double Rapier pick up on Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk’s Phantom Assassin and a Rampage in the 100^th minute helped Team Spirit finally win the game.

1win, learning its mistake of going into the late game, opted for a fast-paced draft with Nature’s Prophet, Lycan, and Templar Assassin in the second game. Unable to answer to the massive structural damage from 1win, Team Spirit lost all three lane barracks in 35 minutes and eventually lost the game in the 36^th minute.

The final game of the series sealed Team Spirit’s fate as 1win’s aggressive lineup was too much for Team Spirit to handle. With a Templar Assassin carry once again on 1win, Team Spirit heroes were melting to TA’s Meld strikes followed by right-click damage. Yatoro tried to defend the base with a Rapier pick but was unable to sustain the incoming damage and eventually conceded defeat at the 55^th-minute mark.

The series saw a major upset handed to two-time TI-winning Team Spirit and the community was left puzzled at the events that unfolded in DreamLeague Season 23 Eastern Europe Qualifiers.

However, a similar story took place at the recently concluded 1win Series Dota 2 Spring where Team Spirit lost to the newly formed MOUZ on the opening day of the tournament and later lost against Virtus.pro and Team Liquid to finish fourth in the tournament.

Notably, in the previous iteration of DreamLeague, Team Spirit’s Yatoro revealed that Team Spirit was currently facing hero drafting and gameplay issues.