Boom Esports claimed the biggest scalp in The International 2022, sending The International defending champion Team Spirit packing, 1-0, in the first round of the lower bracket playoffs on Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore.
Fresh off a last-ditch win streak that saw the SEA representative stun group stage top seed Evil Geniuses before coming out on top in tiebreakers against Soniq and Betboom Team to advance to the playoffs, Boom Esports added Team Spirit as one of its victims during the improbable run.
Interestingly, the victory was extra sweeter as it came as a fitting response to Team Spirit star Ilyar "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk who claimed that Boom Esports was just a mediocre team despite its success in the Gamers Galaxy Dubai 2022 tilt.
Boom, though, made sure to prove itself against the TI10 champions with Jackkyy spearheading the come-from-behind victory with an immaculate 9-0-5 KDA on the Shadow Fiend.
Team Spirit actually seized control of the laning phase and even built a 3.2k gold lead at one point despite early pick-offs from Boom Esports.
Those pick-offs, however, slowly mounted the confidence of the Indonesia-based team bannered by Filipino stars Timothy "Tims" Randrup, Andrei "skem" Ong and Erin Jasper "Yopaj" Ferrer who then dominated the defending champions in the ensuing team fights towards the latter part of the match.
A three-man kill on Team Spirit heroes on the 25th minute mark triggered the massive gold shift as Boom Esports never looked back from there.
When the dust settled, skem also had a perfect 0-0-14 line on the Disruptor while Yopaj added a 5-2-8 line on the Mars.
Boom advanced to the second round of the lower bracket against another powerhouse crew PSG.LGD.
Meanwhile, fellow SEA representative Fnatic saw its TI11 campaign coming to an abrupt end after falling to Gaimin Gladiators, 1-0.
Fnatic finished the group stage at fifth spot of the Group B standings with an even 3-3 record but could not live for another day as the team, spearheaded by Filipinos Djardel " DJ" Mampusti, Marco Polo "Raven" Fausto, Armel "Armel" Tabios and Jaunuel "Jaunuel" Arcilla, couldn't keep the 14k gold lead.
Meanwhile, Abed "Abed" Yusopp and his Evil Geniuses also fell to the lower bracket after losing to Thunder Awaken, 2-0, in the upper bracket first round.
EG will be battling for survival against beastcoast in hopes to advance to lower bracket quarterfinals where it could face the winner between Boom Esports and PSG.LGD.