Team Spirit Wins TI10 Eastern European Qualifier After Tense Grand Final

Team Spirit has secured first place in The International 10 (TI10) Eastern Europe (EEU) qualifier to claim the last remaining TI10 spot from the region. They proved to be the best team in the tournament, making an upper bracket run and finally defeating a courageous Team Empire 3-2 in the grand final. Coming into the tournament, Team Spirit was considered a favorite to win and they seemingly lived up to the expectations. Meanwhile, Team Empire will be disappointed with such a result since they had embarked on a stellar lower bracket run in the TI10 EEU qualifier, playing 19 games in total but unfortunately, still falling short of the coveted TI10 slot.

Team Spirit vs Team Empire TI10 EEU Qualifier Grand Finals: Match Recap and Highlights

Recap

Game 1 saw some early fighting from both sides as they kept running into each other. However, Team Empire benefited from this as they accumulated a healthy lead. At the 30-minute mark, Team Spirit managed to secure a crucial teamfight victory, putting them in the driver's seat. Team Spirit played cautiously and finally converted this lead into a win in 46 minutes.

In Game 2, Team Empire put on an impressive display with spectacular pickoffs and a careful selection of fights. They secured megacreeps in just 34 minutes, but Team Spirit was not going down without a fight. For almost 20 minutes, they held onto their base, equalizing Team Empire's 16k lead. However, it was not enough in the end as Team Empire won in 52 minutes.

Game 3 was an exciting show as Team Spirit once again battled against megacreeps. They had no answers to the enemy Phantom Lancer and with Team Empire playing incredibly as a team as well, Team Spirit was put on the backfoot. Despite their best efforts, Phantom Lancer remained unkillable as Team Empire focused on the throne to win in 54 minutes.

Game 4 saw both teams on equal footing at the conclusion of the laning phase. However, Team Spirit began to find better pickoff initiation with Collapse’s Mars pulling off some great Arena traps for his allies to feed on. Team Empire ran out of gas as they could muster one kill in the last 20 minutes of the game, going to eventually lose it in 44 minutes.

Game 5 was the most one-sided of the lot as Team Spirit seemingly outdrafted and outperformed Team Empire. The laning stage went poorly for Team Empire and things went downhill quickly after that. Team Spirit with all three cores prominently on top of the networth chart won the game in 41 minutes.

Highlights

Here are some highlights of the series.

Team Spirit will be joining regional ally Virtus.pro as the second team to represent CIS at TI10. They had an amazing run at the WePlay AniMajor and at this qualifier as well, they managed to put on a display of top-notch gameplay. Among the team's five players, offlaner Collapse stands out as an up-and-coming star who has put on some amazing performances over the last couple of months. In general, the team has done well with its drafting and teamfight choices, and the players boast a wide variety of heroes. Additionally, all players except captain Miposhka will be attending their first TI ever, so they will be extremely excited about it.

Although the final result will leave Team Empire dejected, they should be proud of their progress during this qualifier. As a team from the Lower Division that started the qualifier in the lower bracket, they miraculously defeated five teams from the Upper Division in a row, including Na'Vi and HellRaiers. As they were 2-1 up in the grand final, it looked like their dream run would culminate in a TI10 spot, but Team Spirit eventually came back to snuff out any hopes.