Team Spirit vs OG: Stability versus madness... Who will win?

The International 10 is the premier eSports tournament of the year in Dota 2. The 2021 edition of this major international LAN tournament takes place in Bucharest, Romania, featuring 18 teams from around the world. The tournament will take place from October 7 to 17, 2021, with a prize pool of $40,018,195.

Team Spirit had almost more fans than Virtus.pro, and that’s no surprise. The Spirits started this tournament among the outsiders, who were expected to get into the Lower Bracket, and they generally jumped over their heads and ended up right in the winners.

In the first round of the Upper Bracket, Spirit took on Invictus Gaming and even took one map from the Chinese giants, the Singapore Major champion. It is clear that no miracle happened, but in the Lower Bracket, the Russian team has already destroyed Fnatic (2-0), showing that they will not finish this TI10 early.

There is no shame for the CIS teams on the International for the first time in a long time. However, this tournament is over for our teams, but the guys have already pleased us with their cool play in the group stage. What are the prospects for Spirit at the top of the table? Not really. Not one of our teams is ready to fight on equal terms with the Chinese from Invictus and PSG.LGD, as we’ve seen in the group stage of the tournament. Using the winger is just the right to make a mistake, which the Spirits will take advantage of and for which the playoff stage will start in losers, but in games against their more equal opponents and the BO3 format, they escaped the BO1.

After failing in the winger’s bracket, where OG were beaten by the Secret team (0-2), the legendary International tag began its triumphant march through the lower bracket. The OG team lost to Puppey themselves... The drafts on the two maps were highly questionable, especially on the second, where the ‘squirrel’ in the midfield looked like a mad experiment.

These experiments did not end. But let’s be honest, Quincy Crew are not the kind of opponent who does not regularly forgive the Europeans’ mistakes. The OG team knocked the North Americans out of the tournament in a colorful game, winning 2-0. It will be much more difficult with the Spirit team. They have been very stable of late.

OG are not just a team but the biggest enigma of this TI10. The two-time TI winner has not been the main favourite in either of the past two championships, but that has not stopped them from making history by lifting the tournament’s main trophy over their heads twice in a row.

In the European DPC leagues, the team did not shine, but they ended up on the International in the qualifiers. Few people believe in the third success in a row, but if they succeed, it will certainly be thanks to the incredible play of maestro SumaiL. Importantly, the team has also not been abandoned by Ceb, who has had vision problems. What to expect from these guys is the main mystery, but who-knows-who, but OG can surprise.

At TI10 itself, the team surpassed all expectations. Having shown nothing serious throughout the DPC season, the legendary players lost only to the Aster team at the main championship. The reigning International champions did not expect the Chinese team’s midfielder to return to the lineup on the second game day. OG didn’t always win, playing more often to a draw, but that didn’t stop them from storming to the top of the playoff standings. Now the games are in BO3 format, and the magic of the legendary OG must be turned on, especially as SumaiL’s carry is in crazy form.

It is clear that the two-time International champions are the clear favourites against the young Spirit, but the Russian team won’t give up the Game of Life without a fight, and they can clinch at least one map! Therefore I expect Total Over 2.5 maps for 2.01.

Still, it’s hard to see how the OG team loses the battle for life to a team like Spirit. Experience is the main factor. Here the CIS team is inferior to its opponents, and this is the main factor that gives me confidence that the exact score of the meeting will be 2-1 in favour of OG; odds for this are 3.10.