Tournament spotlight: Team Spirit to clash with Gaimin Gladiators in 1win Series Dota 2 Summer Finals (Day Three recap)

Team Spirit and Gaimin Gladiators have locked a place in tomorrow’s 1win Series Dota 2 Summer Finals following best-of-three victories against 1win and Entity, respectively. 

The $100,000 (~£78,000) tournament, organised by bookmaker 1win, will provide rewards to the top four teams. However, the winner of the best-of-five finals will walk away with $50,000. Despite losing on Day Three, 1win and Entity will clash tomorrow in a best-of-three third-place match-up.

With coverage supported by 1win, here’s how Day Three of the 1win Series Dota 2 Summer went down.

Before jumping into the action, 1win issued a statement before the playoffs regarding its Twitch channel being blocked. The statement details where fans can tune in to watch the event and what measures 1win took when its streams were blocked.

The first playoff series saw Team Spirit face off against 1win, the latter of which underwent a mammoth Elite League Closed Qualifier run earlier in the day. 1win would have hoped to put their best-of-five qualifier loss behind them, however, Team Spirit had other plans. In the end, the Belgrade-based esports organisation toppled the hosts 2-0, despite 1win putting up a valiant fight in the first match. 

Lasting nearly one hour, the back-and-forth game saw Team Spirit walk away with a 39-36 victory. As the scoreline suggests, the clash was an even affair up until a crucial team fight in the 55th minute which ultimately sealed Team Spirit’s first win. Team Spirit’s Myroslav ‘Mira’ Kolpakov, in particular, stood out in the match, recording a KDA of 12/6/18.

Perhaps fatigue ultimately got the best of 1win, with the team entering its 10th competitive game of the day. A difficult early game, which saw 1win go 8,000 gold behind in 15 minutes, ultimately was too much to overcome despite some decent moments from the hosts. In the end, Team Spirit were victorious in 32 minutes with a 31-13 scoreline.

The second best-of-three of the day saw the 1win Dota 2 Series Spring champions Entity aim to make it into the finals for the second time. However, Gaimin Gladiators put those dreams to rest with a dominant 2-0 victory. The first game saw Gaimin Gladiators defeat Entity in under 18 minutes, recording a dominant 12-1 win.

Despite a more competitive second match-up, Gaimin Gladiators proved to be the superior side on the day. Lasting just over 30 minutes, Gamin Gladiator booked a place in the finals with a 30 – 18 win. Despite some resistance from Entity throughout the game, Gaimin Gladiators managed to maintain momentum to claim a vital series win. Interestingly, this was the first time that Gaimin Gladiators and Entity faced off against each other in 2024, with the last match-up occurring during 2023’s DreamLeague Season 21 (in which Entity won 2-1).

Gaimin Gladiators’ victory ended Entity’s dreams of retaining the 1win Series Dota 2 crown, with the organisation’s mixed-CIS roster settling for tomorrow’s third-place match-up. 

As a result of Day Three’s results, 1win will face Entity in the third-place match-up with the victor walking away with $15,000. To conclude the 1win Series Dota 2 Summer tournament, Gaimin Gladiators will clash with Team Spirit in a best-of-five series. 

You can follow all of the final day’s (30th June) action on 1win’s official YouTube and Twitch channel from 1pm CEST.  Esports Insider has provided matchday coverage for all of the 1win Dota 2 Series Summer, with recaps for Day One and Two available to read now.