Team Spirit Qualify for the DreamLeague S21 Grand Finals

Dota 2

24 Sep

Ryan Antony Bernard

Team Spirit beat Shopify Rebellion in the Upper Bracket Finals and moved to the Grand Finals. After an inconsistent DPC season, Spirit find their rhythm as The International nears. Team Spirit had an almost flawless Group Stage, losing only one game to the BetBoom Team. They then qualified into the Upper bracket and beat Tundra Esports with a 2-0 victory. With one step closer to the Grand Finals, they took on Shopify Rebellion.

Shopify, like Spirit, has had an inconsistent DPC run. They made it to the top 3 in DreamLeague S19 and could go further this time. However, Team Spirit has more recent experience by winning the Riyadh Masters. Let's take a look and see how Team Spirit won 2-1 against Shopify.

Upper Bracket Finals: Team Spirit Vs. Shopify Rebellion

Game 1

Credit: Valve

Shopify drafted Muerta, who is becoming popular again, and Spirit went for the meta Sven. SR tried to put the pressure early in the top lane, but it backfired. Yatoro & Miposhka countered it, resulting in an early from their mid-Earth Spirit. During the mid-game, Team Spirit controlled the pace by diving Tier-2s to kill SR's heroes. This widened the net worth gap between both carries, with Yataro taking a 5k lead. SR was incredibly under-leveled, unable to gank Spirit supports. SR gave up 32 minutes into the game after a 39-10 score.

Game 2

SR went for the Muerta again, but this time, Arteezy had a better lane. Abed also won midlane due to successful rotations from Cr1t-. With SabeRLight- on Brewmaster, SR secured team fight wins. Shopify controlled Spirit's Troll Warlord, making him useless in fights. As the game went on, Spirit evened out the kill score. But SR was able to go high ground after securing aegis. While defending their base, a rare mistake from Yatoro solidified Shopify's victory. He ran into the enemy team without using his BKB & Ulti and died without buyback.

Game 3

Shopify had a chaotic safelane in this game. Spirit's Beastmaster & Willow combo of Bramble Maze into Axes destroyed Arteezy. Abed tried to rotate to the safelane but was unsuccessful. Beastmaster &Enchantress took SR's Tier-1 bottom and mid 12 minutes into the game. Though Spirit was ahead, SR successfully hunted Terrorblade to slow down Spirit's pace.

Yatoro's netwoth as Terrorblade in Game 3 Credit: @Team__Spirit

But as the game went on, Yatoro's damage was too much for Shopify. Although Abed did substantial damage to Spirit, he was outnumbered. Shopify tapped 42 minutes into the game and dropped to the Lower Bracket.

Upcoming Matches

Shopify Rebellion will face off against BetBoom Team at 12:00 pm CET. The winner of this series will face Team Spirit in the Grand Finals at 4:00 pm CET. BetBoom's misleading performance in the BetBoom Dacha took everyone by surprise. This is Shopify's chance to show the potential of the NA region. Can they do it? Can Arteezy break his curse?

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