Team Spirit crushes LGD Gaming at Riyadh Masters 2024

The elimination matches of the playoffs started at the Riyadh Masters 2024. After their upset against Team Liquid, Team Spirit found themselves in hot waters against one of their rivals, LGD Gaming. Learning from yesterday's series, Spirit implemented Tiny into their drafts.

The results speak for themselves as Spirit successfully took LGD Gaming's tournament key with a clean sweep. In the post-game interview, Team Spirit's offlaner, Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov, explained how they adapted from yesterday's shortcomings.

Larl: "We think Tiny is pretty good"

The first game went above the hour mark. Though LGD won the laning stage, they could not capitalize on their advantage. Spirit slowly chipped the LGD's lead with Tiny, backed by the support duo of Crystal Maiden and Hoodwink. As the game progressed, this strategy became a thorn in LGD's side. Their best attempts to halt this cheesy move coming from Spirit had no success. After the series, Denis "Larl" Sigitov, Team Spirit's midlaner, discussed how broken Tiny is in the current meta.

" After our series against Liquid, we think Tiny is pretty good. In group stage, he has not good win rate. Teams picked him and he lost a lot of games. Even we played against Tiny and not big problem. But in here – in playoffs, we play against Tiny and we feel strength in this hero. You can pick it and it's gonna be very impactful for your team."

Larl and Collapse at Team Spirit in 2023. (Credit: Team Spirit)

In the second game, Team Spirit first picked Tiny, and LGD still had no answer for it. The hero nearly did everything – initiating, ganking, quick pick-off during the skirmishes as it got backed by the support duo of Hoodwink and Elder Titan. As a result, it did take a lot of pressure off his team. In the post-game interview, Spirit's offlaner, Collapse, expressed his joy at how the hero has made his job a lot easier.

" It feels good if you're not the single initiator in the team. You have Tiny, who can jump first, and you don't have to jump and Doom the first wave, so it's good for me."

Collapse: "Liquid showed us Tiny is better than Sand King"

After the series, Collapse joined the panel for an interview. The player reflected on what happened in the last 24 hours since their defeat against Team Liquid.

Tiny's facet Crash Landing has an 88.05% win rate this week. (Credit: Valve)

He also revealed how Liquid had challenged them to change their perspective and rework their drafts.

" When we came back from the loss, we watched some replays of the past games versus LGD, some teams like Falcons and stuff. We watched our replays versus Liquid,and we did realise our mistakes. Versus Liquid, they focused on the Sand King. We knew they had the Tiny, but we thought the SK was stronger hero than Tiny, but they showed us it's not. So, we decided to not ignore that hero and picked it beause teams don't ban it, but they ban it like 80% of our matches, so we decided just to pick it. Not to ignore it."

Collapse on the meta offlaners

Collapse is known for his unique plays on heroes like Magnus and Mars. These heroes have immortalized his name on the prestigious Aegis of Champions, twice!

Rushing Aghs can secure an early Aegis on Beastmaster this meta. (Credit: Valve)

However, the player discussed why he prefers to keep his options open in the current patch. He also shared the list of heroes, which he thinks are the strongest right now.

"It was risky for us to pick Magnus because this hero is bad right now. Not sure about Mars because he is like fifty-fifty. Right now, I don't have confidence on this hero because I lost like three or four games in a row, and a few other heroes is bad for me. But on other heroes like Brewmaster, Dark Seer, Beastmaster, other heroes we trained with them in the skrims. So, I'm ready to play these heroes, and I don't feel bad about them."

With their win against LGD Gaming, Team Spirit still has the chance to defend their throne. They will continue their journey at Riyadh Masters 2024 through the lower brackets. Be sure to tune in to our website for the latest coverage of all the action unfolding at the tournament

Featured Image Source: ESL & Valve

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