Team Spirit became two-time champions of The International

The International 2023 has wrapped up — the biggest Dota 2 tournament and one of the most hyped esports events of the year. This time, the showdown took place in Seattle. The prize pool reached over $3.1 million, marking a ten-year low.

By TI standards, the prize pool seems quite low. This is attributed to two main reasons. Firstly, compendium sales happened much later than usual. Secondly, this year's compendium content was so underwhelming that gamers were disappointed and seemingly reluctant to purchase.

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However, this was a deliberate move by Valve. Back in June, the company stated they wanted to decentralize Dota 2 from being too centered around The International and its Battle Pass. Over the years, content that could have been standalone and available to everyone started to get bundled into the TI compendium. Now, Valve aims to devote more resources to diverse updates for all players.

Back to the tournament results. Team Spirit became the two-time victors of The International in Dota 2. Their first win was in 2021 when the prize pool hit a record $40 million, bagging $18.2 million for their victory. This time around, the team pocketed over $1.4 million, beating the European squad Gaimin Gladiators with a clean 3:0 score.

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The first game of the grand finals at The International 2023 saw Team Spirit emerge victorious. The laning phase went smoothly for the "dragons", allowing Ilya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk Weaver to farm essential items, carrying his team to the win.

In the second game, Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov picked his signature Magnus. Thanks to Team Spirit's sharp gameplay, they caught Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov off-guard, making mistakes on his Morphling. The score doubled.

On the third map, Gaimin Gladiators dominated the early game, but Team Spirit again capitalized on the "gladiators'" mistakes during a crucial team fight. The "dragons" managed to turn the tables and secured their championship title for The International 2023.

Let's check out the top three winners:

By the way, a new hero, The Ringmaster, was teased during the finals of The International 2023. No official details yet.

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