Tournament spotlight: Team Spirit takes home $50k after dominant 1win Series Dota 2 Summer showing (Day 4 recap)

The 1win Series Dota 2 Summer tournament has officially concluded after eight teams battled it out across four days of online play.

A dominant Team Spirit bested European hopefuls Gaimin Gladiators in the Grand Final to take home a $50,000 (~£39,500) cut of the $100,000 prize pool. 

The 1win Series Dota 2 Summer is the second tournament organised by bookmaker 1win, following the inaugural 1win Series Dota 2 Spring event in March.

Esports Insider has once again supported the Dota 2 series with match-day coverage. Eight teams from around the world contested the tournament, including: Team Spirit, Gaimin Gladiators, 1win, beastcoast, Virtus.Pro, Entity, PSG Quest and Nigma Galaxy.

The final match day saw action kick off at 12:00 CET with the third-place fixture to determine who’d walk away with a podium finish and $15,000, vs $5,000 for 4th place. 

An on-point performance from Entity saw them beat out 1win’s own team in a clean 2-0 affair. The early game went well for Entity, and 1win weren’t able to turn things around, suffering from weakness in the mid lane. Entity put on a strong performance but ultimately 1win weren’t able to replicate the form seen earlier in the tournament. 

After action wrapped up in the third-place match, grand finalists Gaimin Gladiators and Team Spirit went head-to-head, with both going into the series with zero games lost in the entire tournament.

Belgrade-based Team Spirit, widely recognised as one of the best Dota 2 teams in the world, made it to the final after dispatching of a tired 1win in a back-and-forth affair in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Gaimin Gladiators put Entity’s dreams to rest in their semi-final with a decisive first and comfortable second game resulting in a dominant 2-0 victory.

Kicking off at 1pm CET, the first game of the Grand Final saw Gaimin Gladiators unable to get out on the front foot and unable to turn around their fortunes, eventually suffering defeat in a 37 minute affair. Adaptation was needed by Gaimin Gladiators if they were to change the narrative — and it came, with the team in game two waiting out their opponents and winning team fights after initially going behind on kills, to claim victory in the second game and put one on the board.

Gaimin Gladiators’ second game win was an exciting turn for viewers, with every other match in the tournament’s playoffs so far having ended in a one-sided 2-0. But it was not to last.

Team Spirit went on a roll as Gaimin Gladiators failed to capitalise on early opportunities in the third game, and Spirit managed to wipe out Gaimin’s gold lead in an impressive display. 

“Spirit doing Spirit things” is how commentator Lachlan ‘Ares’ Williams described game three and little changed going into game four. Gaimin Gladiator’s mid laner was not able to get the ball rolling while Spirit’s counterpart put on a good performance, and within half an hour Spirit had dominantly claimed game four — and with it the tournament win. Overall it was a very clean showing from Team Spirit who continue to cement their reputation as one of the world’s best squads.

Team Spirit takes home $50,000 thanks to the tournament win, as well as the bragging rights of winning the second-ever edition of 1win’s Dota 2 series, in a satisfying although not entirely unexpected result.

1win, an online sports betting and casino site, has branched into tournament organisation with the 1win Dota 2 series, alongside hosting its own esports team.

1win is one of several betting companies that have invested heavily in esports over the past few years. Russian bookmaker Betboom owns its own esports division, while others like Pinnacle, Rivalry and Thunderpick have all hosted their own major esports activations.