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Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, congratulated Team Spirit on their victory in Dota 2’s The International 10 (TI10, in short). The organization of Team Spirit hails from Russia and the TI10-winning Dota 2 roster includes three Russian players, while the other two are from Ukraine.
Putin’s message to Team Spirit appeared on kremlin.ru, the official Russian government site. Putin praised Team Spirit’s wonderful run throughout the tournament and hailed their feat of winning the tense grand final.
The recognition and words of praise from Russia's largest political figure surely mean a lot to Team Spirit, and broadly to anyone associated with esports in general.
Will Dota 2 and other esports see more growth in Russia following Putin’s congratulatory message to Team Spirit?
The message from the Russian president addressed Team Spirit, the winners of Dota 2 TI10. The letter in Russian read,
“Dear friends!
Congratulations on your well-deserved victory at The International 2021 - the Dota-2 World Championship. For the first time in history, the Russian team of the Team Spirit club won these prestigious competitions. Well done!
On the way to the final, you demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities and solidarity, and in the decisive duel, which became a real test of skill and character, you managed to concentrate and seize the initiative from strong opponents at the most crucial moment. They have proven in practice that our esportsmen are always goal-oriented and capable of conquering any peaks.
I wish you continued success and all the best.
Vladimir Putin.”
Team Spirit went into TI10 as one of the clear underdogs. However, they seemed like a completely different beast in their lower bracket run where they eliminated the top Dota 2 teams of the world including OG, Virtus.pro, Invictus Gaming, and Team Secret one after the other.
The best-of-five grand final saw Team Spirit beating PSG.LGD in the final game after getting beaten by the Chinese squad in the third and fourth game.
The Dota 2 roster of Team Spirit consists of:
- Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk (Ukraine)
- Alexander "TORONTOTOKYO" Khertek (Russia)
- Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov (Russia)
- Miroslaw "Mira" Kolpakov (Ukraine)
- Yaroslav "Miposhka" Naidenov (Russia)
- Airat "Silent" Gaziev (Russia) (Coach)
The recognition by the highest political figure surely paves the path for the great growth of esports in the region. Before Team Spirit’s TI10 victory, the last time a CIS squad made it to the grand final of a TI was in TI3 in 2013 and it was Natus Vincere.
