Team Spirit defeated Team Secret today in a 2-1 scoreline at OGA Dota Pit Upper bracket Finals. The TI winners are starting to prove that the title was not won on a whim.
Team Spirit won The International 2021, shocking the entire gaming community. The supposed underdogs dominated the Lower brackets to reach the Grand Finals and lift the Aegis of Champions.
On their way, they defeated Team Secret in the Lower Bracket finals. Puppey was looking for redemption. But, the story takes an anticlimatic turn here somewhere.
Tomorrow is the final day of #OGADOTAPIT EU CIS S5!
👉📺LB Finals start at 14:00 GMT+1 (CET)@TundraEsports_ vs @teamsecret
👉📺Grand Finals will be followed by 1-hour break between LB Finals and Grand Finals: @Team__Spirit vs Winner of LB Finals
GL for the big day! 🔥❤️ pic.twitter.com/sYGX70BgWf
— OGA Dota PIT (@OGADotaPIT) December 19, 2021
The matchup was rather weird. And, Spirit dominated most of the team fights in the entire series. From our perspective, the performance of the Secret squad is worrisome.
Deja Vu for Team Secret in Upper Bracket finals at OGA Dota Pit.
We won the series! GGWP @teamsecret!
Thanks for watching 🖤🤍#SpiritDota #Dota2 #OGADOTAPIT pic.twitter.com/oB9g6zsjul
— Team Spirit (@Team__Spirit) December 19, 2021
Spirit and Secret duked it out in a best-of-3. Though Spirit won the series, they lost the first round. They did not do much against Sumail’s aggressive playstyle.
Game 2 was a different story. TorontoTokyo realised that Sumail needs to be locked down early. With the help of Mira and Collapse, Team Spirit decided to tend towards early aggression.
The strategic decision paid off for Team Spirit. Secret’s core players were locked down and they had no map control. With gold difference mounting, eventually Secret conceded defeat.
— Team Spirit (@Team__Spirit) December 19, 2021
Game 3 was pretty much the same. Greedy drafts too did not help the case of Team Secret. Even though it is Secret’s style, but the core parts of the machinery are missing.
Sumail is new and so is Iceiceice. To be honest, Puppey is extremely demanding as a captain. But, there is not a shadow of a doubt, that Puppey is mechanically the most sound player in the entire Dota 2 community.
In OGA Dota Pit, Spirit is the last team to stay in Upper Bracket. They have defeated Tundra Esports, OG and Team Secret to reach the Grand Finals of the Europe/CIS chapter.
Is Puppey unto something? Or is it just stress at the workplace?
What we got actually is a ticket to LB Final 💀#SecretDota https://t.co/u3wM1QwNPt pic.twitter.com/xeeHurXKQE
— Team Secret (@teamsecret) December 19, 2021
Puppey has always been regarded as one of the best Captains in the Dota 2 pro-circuit. And, he is somewhat held down by his team and his drafting perspective.
Maybe, it was all an experiment by Puppey gone wrong. Maybe, the best of Dota 2 is finally starting to feel the pressure. But, this is all too early to tell.
Clement “puppey” Ivanov has his good and bad days. And yesterday, was certainly not a good one. Also, the void left by Matumbaman and Zai is yet to be fulfilled.
Iceiceice still struggles to find his footing. Sumail has found his confidence back. But, the cavalry never arrives in time to support the aggressive Mid.
Game 3 post-match screen:@teamsecret vs @Team__Spirit ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/EnQhwaEdTi
— OGA Dota PIT (@OGADotaPIT) December 19, 2021
Though not worrying, the current set of problems faced by Team Secret is troublesome at best. We are quite sure, Puppey will find a suitable playstyle for his squad quite soon.
To sum up, we just hope Secret and Puppey do not get knocked out in the Lower Bracket finals against Tundra Esports. Hopefully, it will be a match to remember.
You can watch the OGA Dota Pit Season 5 broadcast on the official Twitch channel here.