We recap some of the most interesting and exciting moments of the LB final between Team Secret and Team Spirit.
Team Secret and Team Spirit are like David and Goliath. The European powerhouse was among the strongest team in 2020, and every expected it to perform well at this TI. Luckily, Clemen “Puppey” Ivanov lived up to the expectations and completely ripped through their opponents. In fact, they hardly lost any games before facing PSG.LGD in the Upper Bracket. The Chinese proved yet again that they are among the best in the world right now and pushed Secret into the LB.
On the other hand, Team Spirit is the tournament’s biggest surprise so far. The CIS team shocked the world with its dominant performance against some of the best teams. Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek and the rest of his team eliminated the two-times TI champions OG. They also managed to deal with many other deadly opponents, which gave them the chance to shine in the LB Final.
Game One
Team Secret didn’t want to take any chances with their deadly opponents in Game one. That’s why they’ve picked a classic draft involving Magnus and Terrorblade. On the other hand, Team Spirit focused on picking off their opponents. Hence, they’ve picked Storm Spirit, followed by IO and Spectre.
Although the early game was fairly even, Team Secret had a slight lead. This gave them the option to secure the first kill on Roshan, which gave Terrorblade a significant lead over the rest. Team Spirit tried to bounce back and secure enough time for Spectre to shine, but they couldn’t live up to the expectations.
Slowly but steadily, Lasse Aukusti “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen and his Terrorblade became too powerful for TS to deal with. Although SS and Spectre got a few items, they were unable to deal with the powerful fiend. After securing two lanes of rax, Team Secret managed to secure the victory for themselves in the first game of the series.
Game Two
In the second game of the series, Team Secret once again picked their favorite Magnus. However, instead of pairing it with Terrorblade, the EU powerhouse picked Juggernaut. This combo never gets old and has a lot of potentials.
On the other hand, Team Spirit completely changed their draft and picked really interesting heroes, such as Kunkka and Dark Willow. It seems like the unorthodox picks paid off because TS did well in the laning stage. Despite losing the first blood, the CIS squad secured their Morhpling and Kunkka enough space to get a head start.
Thanks to the advantage, Team Spirit was able to win several important team fights. However, this was not enough to bring down Puppey and co. because TS bounced back. Unfortunately, it was not enough to withstand the pressure from the East European squad as their Morphling carried them to victory.
Game Three
Team Spirit decided to steal a page of Secret’s book by picking Magnus for themselves. They’ve paired the hero with Sven, which is known for being one of the best right-clickers in Dota 2. To counter him, Team Secret picked several heroes that can kite, such as Shadow Demon and Lycan.
As expected, the two teams played more defensively because this was the final game of the series. Both of them focused on farming, but Sven was the only hero that was doing well for TS. Sadly, their Storm Spirit was unable to shine in the mid lane because Michał “Nisha” Jankowski’s Lina was really strong.
Despite the shaky start, Spirit’s Sven was out of control and punished their enemies for being too aggressive. The European team was slowly losing control as Team Spirit started dealing too much damage. llya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk and his Sven had an amazing teamfight and managed to secure a Rampage, which forced Team Secret to call GG.
Following the defeat, Team Secret are now eliminated from the best Dota 2 tournament. They were among the favorites to win the event and did fairly, taking . However, Team Spirit’s performance in game two and three was just too good. The CIS squad deserves its sport in the Grand Final, where it has to face none other than PSG.LGD.
Be sure to tune in for the Grand Finals today, live on Twitch.