There is only one series standing between Team Spirit and completing one of the most impressive runs in the history of Dota 2‘s The International after the CIS squad pulled off yet another upset and sent Team Secret home in the lower bracket finals at TI10.
The TI curse continues to loom over Puppey and his team, though it seems to have at least lessened. A third-place finish is Secret’s highest yet, improving on a fourth-place exit at TI9. However, even after showing how dominant they could be, largely controlling the tempo, and seemingly winning multiple drafts, they just couldn’t break Spirit’s will.
In game one, Secret hard-targetted Miposhka in the draft, ensuring that he wouldn’t be playing any of his signature support heroes. It heavily impacted how Spirit ran things early in the game, especially when Puppey gave them one of their preferred duos in Mars and Io.
Nisha’s Void Spirit was a deterrent and beat down Spirit throughout the game, going 19/1/11. This let MATUMBAMAN’s Terrorblade build itself into an absolutely monstrous state with little interruptions, and Secret came on late to dominate.
With a draft that was supposed to hit in the mid-game, Spirit could still make some convincing moves and put some serious pressure on Secret—up until around the 30-minute mark when Matu came into the fray and the situation started looking impossible. From there, Secret played things slow and took two big teamfights to seal the deal.
Spirit pulled back in game two, securing a draft that looked strong for Yatoro’s Morphling. They played at a much slower pace, which put more emphasis on technical play and teamfights rather than just lanes. 스포츠토토사이트
Nisha still looked incredible on his Void Spirit, but something on the side of Secret just didn’t seem to fall into place as Spirit controlled the tempo for most of the mid-game. Secret did pull it back, but they couldn’t hold onto their lead and Spirit evened the series up at 1-1.
