Team Spirit flexed its might over Fnatic as it eliminated the Southeast Asia representative with a 2-0 sweep in their best-of-three series in the second round of the lower bracket playoffs in The International 10 at in Bucharest, Romania on Wednesday, October 13.
It was a total dominance for the Russian squad as it limited Fnatic to single digit kills in the series. The Djardel “DJ” Mampusti-led Fnatic was totally outplayed as the team struggled to find answers to Spirit’s constant pressures.
Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov on his signature Mars set the tone for the romp in Game 1 which only ran for 25 minutes and with a lopsided 18-6 score in Spirit’s favor. Collapse finished with a 5-2-6 KDA as he joined hands with Miroslaw “Mira” Kolpakov on his Io to dominate their lane.
With Collapse and Mira’s pressure, Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk on his Luna went uncontested on his farm and quickly snowballed to finish with an immaculate 8-0-8 stat line in the series opener.
It was pretty much the same story in Game 2.
Fnatic showed some glimpse of life but the SEA squad simply couldn’t get any foothold against Spirit with Yatoro wreaking havoc on his Sven to finish with a stellar 14-0-14 showing.
Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek provided support on his Kunkka with an 8-0-11 performance to help Spirit close out the series in a 32-7 rout of Fnatic in 37 minutes of play.
After a blistering performance in the group stage and in the first round of the playoffs, Marco Polo Luis “Raven” Fausto was completely shut down against Team Spirit. Raven failed to make his bearings going as he only mustered a 3-1-0 KDA on his Morphling and 3-4-0 KDA on his Luna in the two games.
Despite the loss, it was Fnatic’s best run in The International after falling in the group stage in TI7 and in the first round of the lower bracket in TI8 and TI9. The team still took home an estimated P41 million prize after finishing the tournament in the 9th – 12th place.