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DreamLeague Season 24 is keeping fans of the competitive Dota 2 scene entertained. The $1,000,000 tournament is heating up as the group stage heats up, with 16 teams divided into two groups of 8 competitors battling it out for spots in the next stage.
Among the once contenders to advance to the next stage are Team Spirit and Heroic. Moreover, the situation here at The International is very interesting, because Heroic have lost the chance to reach the next stage, while Spirit is still in the race.
We are trying to see if the renewed squad of the two-time world champions will be able to keep their points in the match against a very uncomfortable opponent.
Let's go.
Heroic uniforms
Let's open the Team Spirit vs Heroic match with an analysis of Heroic's form. In this match they play as favourites with odds to win at around 2.5.
Heroic is a relatively new name on the Dota 2 competitive scene. While the team is well known outside of Valve's professional MOBA scene, the club has been slow to sign a roster in that discipline. In 2023, that changed.
Heroic came to Dota 2 signing South American mix D2 Hustlers, while changing it up a bit. Heroic's final, debut roster looked like this:
- Heroic roster: K1, 4nalog, Davai Lama, Scofield, KJ.
Each player is pretty well known at his position and it seems like such a team should work. At least on the local scene, within their region, Heroic look pretty good, though not perfect.
During the 2024 competitive season, the club finished Top 8 at DreamLeague Season 22: South America Open Qualifier #1, Top 2 at BB Dacha Dubai 2024: NA and SA Closed Qualifier, and then won DL Season 22: South America Open Qualifier #2 and DL Season 22: South America Closed Qualifier, beating BOOM 2-0 in the grand finals.
The last tournament before DL Season 22 was the South American qualifiers for ESL Birmingham 2024. There Heroic again defeated BOOM in the grand finals, thus securing a slot for the first major LAN tournament of the year.
After the first match day Heroic are on the 4th line of the group stage table with 1-1 in matches and 2-2 in maps. They outplayed G2.IG and Ledge or Vp. The second day passed with a similar score: 1 win and 1 loss. On the third game day we played a draw with BB Team and lost to GG. However, they failed to move further into the top 14.
Then Heroic made it to DL Season 23 and played Elite League at TOP-16, and then it was TOP-8 at ESL One Birmingham 2024.
Heroic qualified for the DreamLeague Season 23 play-offs after a re-match with Team Liquid, where they defeated the European Dota 2 giants 2-1. However, they didn't make it far in the play-offs, as Heroic finished top-8 on DL S23.
Then Heroic played at Riyadh Masters 2024 and Elite League Season 2. At the first tournament, Heroic finished in the top 14 and at the second tournament, Heroic finished in the top 11. Heroic also played at The International 2024, where they did well, finishing in the top 12. However, oddly enough, Heroic's main achievement was winning PGL Wallachia Season 2, sensationally beating Falcons in the grand finals.
Heroic's most popular heroes
Natures Prophet and Rubick appeared most often in spades. Both characters have been taken 4 times each and have 100% wins.
Vengeful Spirit, Beastmaster and Tusk have appeared a similar number of times. They have won 3 matches out of 4 appearances each.
Team Spirit's Form
We continue our breakdown of the Spirit - Heroic match with an analysis of Spirit's match form. In this match they will play as an outsider with odds to win around 4. These are the conditions of the bo2 format.
In the first round of DPC 2023: EEU Division 1 Spirit took the 2nd place. Then the dragons were prevented from winning by BB Team, who finished the tournament in first place with a score of 7-0. After playing in their home league, Team Spirit visited The Lima Major 2023 where they finished in the top 8.
Later Spirit played the second round of the home league and again finished in the top 2. Going to The Berlin Major 2023 they expected to improve the result of the previous Major, but in the end it got worse: already TOP-12.
Despite the "sluggish" game on the international arena, Spirit still consistently come out of the groups at the Major, and at home they look like the main contender for victory in every game. This was the case in the third season of DPC 2023.
Spirit finished the Eastern Europe final cycle in first place. It took 3 tries to earn the championship in Eastern Europe.
- Team Spirit roster: Satanic, Larl, Malik, Rue, Miposhka.
Spirit visited The Bali Major 2023, but the trip there ended in failure. The team finished in the top 12 and didn't make it to the prizes.
Team Spirit made it to the Riyadh Masters 2023 directly into the group stage. The Dragons finished with a score of 8-6 and the second place in Group A.
Once in the play-offs Team Spirit started their way to the grand finals. In the first match they outplayed Team Aster, after a very difficult Long Srpeg on two maps.
Next was BB Team and almost identical series: Spirit fell behind on all 3 maps, but somehow won 2-1.
In the match to reach the grand finals they played against Liquid. After giving up the first map, they cameback on the second and demolished Liquid on the third. At the Riyadh Masters 2023, Spirit were transformed into macro masters. Not least because of this, Spirit became the champions of the biggest tournament of the year.
Before the Long Sogpeg The International 2023, Spirit became the champions of DreamLeague Season 21. In the grand finals, they ran over Shopify Rebellion with a score of 3-0.
At The International 2023, the Dragons are still unbeaten. Spirit became the only team not to lose a single game in the first stage of the group stage, finishing 8-0. They were in dominant form throughout the tournament, taking home the Aegis of Immortals trophy.
Things were not so smooth in the 2024 season. Spirit finished in the top 4 at DreamLeague Season 22 and won PGL Wallachia Season 1, but at the Riyadh Masters 2024 and The International 2024 they couldn't get above the top 8 and top 12 respectively.
At DreamLeague Season 24 Spirit Long Sogpeg started with a draw with Team Waska, beat Palianytsia and lost to Falcons. Also drew with Tundra and Ledge or Azure Ray with a score of 0-2.
Most popular Team Spirit characters
The top of the most popular Team Spirit characters is Crystal Maiden. The character has appeared in the peak 6 times and has an 83% win rate.
Apart from Crystal Maiden, Disruptor and Underlord are also appreciated, having been peaked 5 times each with 80% winrate. There was also Skywrath Mage (4 matches, 100% wins), Doom (4 matches, 75% wins), PL, Viper, Slark, Riki appeared 3 times each and has 100% wins.
Team Spirit - Heroic head-to-head history
Over the 2024 season, Liquid and Spirit have 4 matches where two matches ended in a draw and two series were won by Heroic.
Predicted result of Heroic vs Team Spirit at DreamLeague Season 2024
Despite Heroic's hopeless position at DreamLeague S24, they remain the favourite in this match. At least because Heroic have a plus statistic against Spirit this season, which should play into their favour. However, considering Heroic's elimination from DL S24 before this match, I think their morale will not allow them to play their best against Spirit, so I expect a draw.
Bottom line: draw.
