Team Spirit's Mira: "Winning Riyadh and TI is our thing"
The second day of Riyadh Masters 2024 kicked off with Team Spirit versus Gaimin Gladiators. After the first day, Spirit was one of the teams tied for the top seed of Group A with a win and a tie, and Gaimin was one of the teams tied for the third place with a win and a loss.
On the second day, in a series featuring two favourites, Gaimin delivered a Gaben-level shellacking to a Slark draft from Spirit in the first game. However, Spirit took the second game with a dominating Morphling draft. After the series, Myroslav "Mira" Kolpakov had a quick interview reflecting on the series.
Mira: "We Got Smashed"
Both games of the series were under the 35-minute mark. In the first game, Spirit took two kills at the start of the laning stage, and that's all they could take. For the next 30 minutes, it was a one-sided stomp from Gaimin, picking Spirit's heroes across the map and taking objectives.
Mira at PGL Wallachia Season 1. (Credits: PGL)When asked about what happened in the first game, the support player of Spirit admitted that they got stomped and complimented how well their opponent executed the draft. Despite Morphling being their safelane hero in the second game, Spirit was the team applying the pressure. In his interview, Mira reflected on how Team Spirit adapted their draft after the first game.
"We got smashed. 0 chances; we got first two kills minute two and zero kills for thirty minutes, and this was like stomped. We thought that they have really good pick, and we need to steal it and use it against them. So, we did it; and it worked out. It's nice to steal picks."
Mira: "We worked a lot"
The last time we saw Team Spirit at a LAN event was during PGL Wallachia Season 1. Back then, they delivered an outstanding performance and emerged as the champions of the tournament. Riyadh Masters 2024 started on 4th July. Between the two tournaments, Spirit had 45 days of rest.
Team Spirit lifting the trophy at PGL Wallachia Season 1. (Credits: PGL)In his interview, Mira revealed what Team Spirit had been up to during that time. The player expressed his desire to win this year's iteration of Riyadh Masters and The International; similar to what they achieved last year.
" We chilled a bit because we used all of our energy. So, we took rest for two weeks. Now, we put the same way we put to Wallachia, we prepared a lot too for Riyadh. We like to keep playing and keep doing the maximum we can so we can win Riyadh and TI because it's our thing and we need to work a lot. Now we really work a lot."
At the time of the writing, Spirit is tied with OG for the first seed in Group A. Team Spirit will continue their journey in Riyadh until the end of the group stage on July 14th. Their upcoming series will be on Friday against Heroic. Be sure to tune into our website as we cover all the action unfolding live at the Riyadh Masters 2024.
Featured Image Source: PGL
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