There’s no question that Team Spirit entered The International 2022 with hopes of being the second Dota 2 team to win back-to-back championships. However, that is out the window as BOOM Esports surprised everyone and eliminated the defending champion.
Making the victory sweeter was that a lot of fans were not really giving them second look even during the group stage. Not surprising given that the team was having a hard time. They were almost eliminated but a 2–0 win against Evil Geniuses allowed them to take part in tiebreaker matches, which they won to qualify for the playoffs.
If anything, that should have been a sign not to mess with BOOM. Still, it was seen as a difficult climb since the first round of the Lower Bracket was a Bo1 and it was against Spirit.
Slaying the Giant
At the start of the game, Spirit had full control and it looked like thing were indeed going their way. A team fight after the 24-minute mark resulted in BOOM getting three kills, while none for Spirit. Considering that two of those were Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk on Lifestealer and Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov on Outworld Destroyer, it was indeed the turning point in the game.
BOOM would continue their lead until winning and moving to the next round of the playoffs, where they will go against PSG.LGD. The question is, can they slay another giant?
Lower Bracket Results
While BOOM’s win against Spirit was indeed a happy moment, Dota 2 fans in SEA had to say goodbye to Fnatic. Despite a big lead, Fnatic was unable to stop a comeback from Gaimin Gladiators. They head home with more than $250,000 in prize money.
Hokori also suffered the same fate as they went against another South American Dota 2 team in Beastcoast. A lot of fans were surprised at their performance and there were those rooting for them to be this year’s Cinderella story. Hokori had a choice to go against another team but their decision to fight Bbeastcoast proved to be their downfall. After all, Beastcoast already has TI experience.
The last match of the day was Royal Never Give Up against Entity. While Entity was indeed not performing that well, RNG had it worse. Because his teammates had tested positive for COVID-19 and had to be isolated, RNG's Yap "xNova" Jian Wei was the only one on stage and the teddy bears with RNG jerseys representing his teammates. Given the situation, RNG continued its losing streak and was promptly eliminated from the tournament.
What was your favorite match of the day? You can read what happened in the Upper Bracket here.
