Spirit Reverse Sweep Liquid And Make Their First Grand Final Appearance Of The Year
We can all agree that Team Spirit is a solid team, but no one actually predicted them to make it to the Grand Finals. When money is on the line, you can bet that Spirit is coming for it in full force.
Despite having a disappointing year so far, Team Spirit defeated Team Liquid to punch a ticket to the top two. This result also means we won’t get a Gaimin Gladiators versus Team Liquid finals.
Team Spirit’s newest addition, Larl, was pulled on stage for a post-match interview, shining some light on his experience when he first joined the team and how he has improved since then.
“I think it’s always hard to display your best skill at the start. You need time to prepare for people, how they play, and how they see the game, so you need time. And for me, it took me a long time to play at least at a good level."
Larl is asked which team he wants to face in the Grand Final.
“I think Gaimin. It will be cool to defeat them in the Grand Final. We haven’t played them in a Best of 3 or Best of 5 in this tournament; we only met them in the Group Stage in a Best of 2. So I would like to play against Gaimin.”
In the series between Team Liquid and Team Spirit, Liquid was able to edge out Game 1. However, the second game was heavily delayed due to the Dota 2 servers being down. Liquid lost all their momentum and lost the next two games.
We've seen similar things happen with Liquid and their momentum. For example, in the first game of the Bali Major Grand Final, Liquid was in a good position, but the game was paused for a long time due to technical difficulties. After the pause ended, Liquid completely lost their footing in the game.
Team Liquid isn’t eliminated yet, and will play either Gaimin Gladiators or Talon Esports in the Lower Bracket Final tomorrow. Team Spirit awaits the last team standing from the Lower Bracket in a Best of 5 Grand Final for $5,000,000.
Remember that Team Spirit finished second place in last year’s Riyadh Masters, losing the Finals against PSG.LGD. 2022’s iteration had a $4,000,000 prize pool.