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Following a disappointing showing, Team Spirit, the reigning The International (TI) champion, has been ousted from the Elite League 2024. Following a 2-0 victory over OG recently, the team appeared poised for a turnaround combined with its ability to tough it out in such situations, but the poor form continued and Spirit fell 2-0 to PSG Quest. When it comes to carry matches, Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk is hardly eclipsed, sometimes even in losses, however, Quest's Aybek "TA2000" Tokayev dominated Spirit on the day. With just one series left, the team stands at three wins after 12 games.
Spirit’s poor performance leads to early exit from Elite League 2024
Playing in Group A, an unanticipated loss against Heroic kicked off Spirit's Elite League campaign. Heroic's victory turned out to be one sided, which served as an early warning flag for the squad.
In the following series, a 1-1 tie against the season's best team, Falcons, appeared to have stabilized matters, as Spirit proved to be competitive even in the first game it lost.
However, the series versus Entity certainly had a significant impact on Spirit's confidence and momentum, as it lost both games by close margins. In both games, the team led in the networth and kill score at times, but it failed to keep the lead intact and stumbled in the late stages, which is uncharacteristic of the squad.
The team's next 2-0 loss against G2.iG exacerbated the situation, making qualifying for the playoffs extremely difficult. Spirit was run over in the first game, and it had a lead in the second but threw it away.
Spirit was clearly struggling but it pulled out a close first game win against OG to take the series lead. In the second game, Yatoro unleashed his beast side on Anti Mage, posting an astounding 26-1-12 KDA to finally secure a 2-0 win for his team.
Finding itself on the winning side in the first game, with Yatoro showing exceptional form, the next two series wins for Spirit which were consequential to survive in the event appeared less challenging at that point. At this time, Myroslav "Mira" Kolpakov, Spirit's position four player, also stated that greater discipline from the team to avoid giving away early leads was simply required to get back on track.
However, Spirit was outplayed by Quest in the next series, losing 2-0 and was eliminated from the event.
The start of the 2024 competitive season has not been smooth sailing for Spirit. With both ups and downs encountered in the journey so far, a major setback has come from failing to qualify for DreamLeague Season 23 a few weeks ago.
In Elite League 2024, Spirit is left with one series against Azure Ray. This tournament marks one of the team's weakest showings in an international event since its surprisingly early exit from The International 2022 when it finished in 13th-16th place.
