Team Spirit Clinch Victory Against BetBoom Team, Secures Third Place

Team Spirit was tasked to face the BetBoom Team in the second round of the Upper Bracket. The BetBoom Team looked incredible in the Group Stage, but was only barely able to win against 9 Pandas yesterday. Team Spirit has had a disappointing year so far, and are looking to redeem themselves in Riyadh. 

Fortunately for us Dota 2 fans, we were able to witness more incredible Dota between the two CIS giants.

Game 1

The first game looked like it would be a clean sweep for the side of BetBoom. BetBoom demolished the laning stage and built up a massive 8,000 gold lead in only 12 minutes. With such an early lead, the BetBoom Team seeked to continue their dominance in the game, but got caught up and made multiple mistakes to keep Spirit in the game.

Still, the BetBoom Team was heavily up in net worth. However, a huge team fight broke out under Team Spirit’s Top Tier 2 tower. The fight went horribly wrong for the confident BetBoom Team, and Team Spirit could wipe all three cores despite Nightfall having an Aegis. 

Team Spirit decided to run down the mid lane right after the team fight ended, and due to Nightfall not having buyback, Team Spirit claimed the first lane of Barracks in the game.

After getting a pick-off on gpk’s Primal Beast shortly after, Team Spirit tried their shot at BetBoom’s Tier 4 towers. Gpk was respawning in ten seconds and didn’t want to buy back. This reasonable decision cost BetBoom the game, as Yatoro could destroy the Ancient in such a short amount of time, allowing Spirit to win the first map.

At no point in Game 1 was Team Spirit ahead in net worth. Spirit was still down in gold when the game ended.

Game 2

Clearly BetBoom didn’t want to go out without a fight, and Game 2 was an excellent showing of their potential. The BetBoom Team took things slow and steady, and continued to build up a net worth lead after a solid laning stage. No throws were made in this game, and the BetBoom Team could easily equalize the series score to force a third game.

Game 3

We’ve just had one of the craziest games in the Team Liquid versus Talon series, and right after that, we were again treated to an insane third game between Team Spirit and BetBoom.

Once again, the BetBoom Team had a massive net worth lead thanks to a great performance from Pure’s Axe. The gold lead was 15,000 in favor of BetBoom at the 45 minute mark, and even reached 37,000 at 10 minutes later.

Being up so much gold gave BetBoom the confidence to make aggressive plays, but it can be argued that these plays were too aggressive. Pure made some very deep dives that ended up being extremely costly. 

The game dragged on past 60 minutes, and Team Spirit, a team who was brimming with experience, played the late game extremely well with proper buyback management. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the BetBoom Team, as gpk’s Ember Spirit died without buyback which gave Team Spirit a window to end the game with their man advantage.

Team Spirit barely wins the series against the BetBoom Team after two comebacks in Game 1 and 2. BetBoom has always done a great job with building up a lead, but have struggled to closing out games.

Team Liquid will be Team Spirit’s opponents in the Upper Bracket Final, with the winner of the match going to the Grand Final. Meanwhile, the BetBoom Team aren’t eliminated yet, and will play against the winner of Quest Esports versus Gaimin Gladiators.