Welcome to EGamersWorld.
The International 2023 is heating up. The most prestigious tournament of the year is starting its second round of group stages. Yes, this year the group stage is split into two parts.
The new branch of The International 2023 will be opened by Team Spirit and Shopify Rebellion. We are waiting for a rematch of the DreamLeague Season 21 finals, so it should be The International here.
Let's find out which of the teams will be stronger and earn a place in the top set of play-offs, and who will have to go to the bottom set of the main tournament.
Let's go.
Team Spirit uniforms
Let's start the match analysis by analysing Team Spirit's form. In this match they will play as favourites, with odds to win at around 1.22.
In the first round of DPC 2023: EEU Division 1 Spirit took 2nd place. Back then, the Dragons were prevented from winning by BB Team, who finished the tournament in first place at 7-0. After playing in their home league, Team Spirit visited The Lima Major 2023 where they finished in the top 8.
Later Spirit played the second round of the home league and again finished in the top 2. Going to The Berlin Major 2023 they expected to improve the result of the previous Major, but in the end it got worse: already TOP-12.
Despite the "sluggish" game on the international arena, Spirit still consistently come out of the groups at the Major, and at home they look like the main contender for victory in every game. This was the case in the third season of DPC 2023.
Spirit finished the Eastern Europe final cycle in first place. It took 3 attempts to earn the championship in Eastern Europe.
- Team Spirit roster: Yatoro, Larl, Collapse, Mira, Miposhka .
The last tournament before DreamLeague Season 20 for the Dragons was DreamLeague S20. There the representatives of Eastern Europe took the top 5, which is not a bad indicator, considering the above mentioned performance for the year.
Spirit visited The Bali Major 2023, but the trip there ended in failure. The team finished in the top 12, failing to make it to the prizes.
Team Spirit made it to the Riyadh Masters 2023 directly into the group stage. The Dragons finished with a score of 8-6 and second place in Group A.
Once in the play-offs Team Spirit started their way to the grand finals. In the first match they outplayed Team Aster, after a very difficult Long Srpeg on two maps.
Next was BB Team and almost identical series: Spirit fell behind on all 3 maps, but somehow won 2-1.
In the match to reach the grand finals they played against Liquid. After giving up the first map, they cameback on the second and demolished Liquid on the third. At the Riyadh Masters 2023, Spirit were transformed into macro masters. Not least because of this, Spirit became the champions of the biggest tournament of the year.
Before the Long Sogpeg The International 2023, Spirit became the champions of DreamLeague Season 21. In the grand finals, they ran over Shopify Rebellion by a score of 3-0.
At The International 2023, the Dragons are still unbeaten. Spirit became the only team not to lose a single game in the first stage of the group stage, finishing it with a score of 8-0.
The most popular Team Spirit characters
The top of the most popular Team Spirit characters is headed by Crystal Maiden. The character has appeared in the peak 6 times and has an 83% win rate.
Apart from Crystal Maiden, Disruptor and Underlord are also appreciated, having been peaked 5 times each with 80% winrate. There was also Skywrath Mage (4 matches, 100% wins), Doom (4 matches, 75% wins), PL, Viper, Slark, Riki appeared 3 times each and has 100% wins.
Shopify Rebellion Form
We continue our match breakdown with an analysis of Shopify Rebellion's match form. In this match, they will have to play as the number two, without much prospect of winning: the odds of success are at around 4.2, which does not bode well.
On the home stage, Shopify Rebellion have twice finished in the top 2. In the third round, Arteezy and company finally snatched the championship.
At The Lima Major 2023, Shopify Rebellion made it to the top 4. The top three were prevented, unexpectedly, by Talon Esports.
In addition to The Lima Major 2023, the team played at DreamLeague Season 19, and they played even better than the Peruvian major. Cooler because they played with substitutes (the inexperienced Mikey played as a substitute for Abed) and reached the top 3 of the tournament for $1,000,000.
Then there was The Berlin Major 2023 with a dismal top-12, and then the third round of DPC 2023: NA Division 1. The latter went better: SR took the top spot, guaranteeing themselves passage to The Bali Major 2023, and actually made it to The International 2023.
- Shopify Rebellion roster: Arteezy, Abed, SaberLight, Cr1t, Fly .
At DreamLeague Season 20 SR again played with substitutes, but this time they failed to repeat the success of the DL S19 period: Shopify Rebellion failed to pass the first group stage of the DL and, like Liquid, left the championship early.
After the 20th season of DreamLeague Shopify Rebellion played two major events: Bali Major 2023 and Riyadh Masters 2023. Both championships ended miserably: TOP-12 and TOP-16 respectively.
The International is more interesting than Shopify's position at DreamLeague Season 21. Having fallen into Group A to such serious opponents as Liquid and Talon. Nevertheless, Shopify Rebellion took the first place in their basket, thereby advancing to the top of the play-offs.
In the first play-offs match of DreamLeague Season 21 Shopify Rebellion had to mobilise all the knowledge and all the skill to defeat the Eastern European residents from BB Team. The match ended with the score 2-1 in favour of Shopify, and Arteezy for the first time in a long time gave not a meme highlite, but a game-changing moment.
In the match to advance to the DL S21 SR Ledge and Team Spirit, but later again outplayed BB in the lower grid match. However, it was not possible to take revenge from Spirit in the grand finals: the Dragons easily slammed Shopify Rebellion with a score of 3-0, and Arteezy and company took the top 2.
Shopify Rebellion showed a very questionable performance in the group stage. They barely managed to claw their way into the Top 4 in Basket B, finishing it with a score of 2-7.
Shopify Rebellion's most popular heroes
Shopify Rebellion is most often played by Crystal Maiden (8 matches, 62% wins), Storm Spirit (7 matches, 57% wins), Doom (7 matches, 57% wins).
There was also Rubick (5 matches, 80% win rate), Terrorblade (4 matches, 75% wins), Underlord (4 matches, 75% wins).
History of head-to-head matches
Previously, the teams have played each other at least 5 times. For all time the statistics is on the side of Team Spirit - the Dragons have 3 wins, 1 match ended in a draw and 1 match was won by SR.
Predicted result of Team Spirit vs Shopify Rebellion at The International 2023
The match looks pretty cool by the sign, but if we take into account everything that happened at The International 2023, I'm afraid there is no equal game here. Spirit look ultimatum, and Shopify Rebellion play as hard as they can.
Bottom line: Spirit wins.