In DOTA 2, “Team Spirit” from Moscow won the championship “The International” in 2021. Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the entire team with a message for this achievement.
What is the occasion? On October 17, the final of the DOTA 2 World Championship “The International” took place. The Chinese star team “PSG.LGD” faced the Russian team “Team Spirit”. They played a Best-of-Five, which Team Spirit was able to win 3:2.
The players secured the largest eSports tournament prize to date. Even Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to the players, congratulating them on their outstanding skills.
Putin emphasizes the outstanding leadership qualities of the players
How did Team Spirit perform? The final of The International was close. Team Spirit initially secured the first two games, leading 2:0. However, in the following two matches, the Chinese team from PSG.LGD won. It wasn’t until game 5 that Team Spirit was able to win again and bring the prize back to Russia.
The prize money for the winning team is more than 18,000,000 dollars, which is about 15.7 million euros. This is the largest prize payout in the history of eSports (via PCGamer.com).
This is how Vladimir Putin congratulated: After their victory, Team Spirit received an official letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin:
“Congratulations on your well-deserved victory at The International 2021, the DOTA 2 World Championship. For the first time in history, the Russian team from Team Spirit has won this prestigious competition. Well done!” (via kremlin.ru, translated with deepl.com)
In the further part of the letter, Putin addresses the special achievement of the team.
He speaks of solidarity and leadership strength that brought the team to the finals and of an initiative that secured the victory.
On the way to the finals, you have demonstrated great leadership and solidarity, and in the decisive battle, which was a true test of skill and character, you were able to focus and take the initiative from your strong opponents at the crucial moment. It has indeed been proven that our cyber-athletes are always result-oriented and capable of conquering any summit.
I wish you great success and good luck.
Vladimir Putin
(via kremlin.ru, translated with deepl.com)
The last major victory for an Eastern European team at the International of DOTA 2 was brought home by Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) in 2011.
The MOBA “DOTA 2” is known for its huge prize pools at the world championships. A large part of these prize pools comes from in-game purchases made by players in DOTA 2. Thus, they have a direct influence on how much money each team can win.
Even before the big International 2021, DOTA 2 has distributed a total of 235 million dollars in prize money – but only 0.002% of it went to women.
