Team Spirit continue perfect 10-0 start in TI 2023 with sweep over Shopify Rebellion

The International (TI) 2021 champions Team Spirit are off to a stellar start in their campaign for a second Aegis of Champions as they have now won 10-straight games in TI 2023's preliminary Road to The International Group Stage.

After a perfect 8-0 run through phase one of the Group Stage, Spirit notched two more wins under their belts with a 2-0 sweep over North America's Shopify Rebellion in phase two on Sunday (15 October) to secure an upper bracket berth in the Road to The International Playoffs.

While Spirit were the heavy favourites to take the series, Shopify Rebellion were the ones to strike first and dominate game one to the tune of 14 unanswered kills in the first 18 minutes. However, Spirit were able to prevent their opponents from leveraging their huge kill lead into objectives.

The TI 2021 champions then turned the tables in a huge fight for Roshan at the 25-minute mark, where they caught Shopify Rebellion with their pants down to get four kills and claim the Aegis of the Immortal.

With Shopify Rebellion's momentum ground to a halt, Spirit also claimed map control as Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov's Spirit Breaker constantly pushed out lanes and set up ganks to push the team's lead further ahead.

With Denis "Larl" Sigitov's Kunkka and Collapse's Spirit Breaker controlling the teamfights, Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk's Troll Warlord and Yaroslav "Miposhka" Naidenov's farmed support Enchantress had free reign to wreak havoc on Shopify Rebellion's heroes.

After Spirit took another one-sided clash at the river at the 39-minute mark, Shopify Rebellion were forced to call GG soon after.

Despite being down 0-14 in kills at one point and ending the game still down 22-23, Spirit showcased their incredible ability to mount comebacks to open the series. Miposhka paced his team's kill total with eight kills and 11 assists on five deaths while Collapse had six kills and 15 assists against five deaths.

Spirit were well prepared for another early onslaught by Shopify Rebellion in game two, with both teams remaining on relatively even footing through an action-packed early to mid game. However, Spirit started pulling away around the 27-minute mark as Larl's Puck hamstrung Shopify Rebellion in teamfights while Miposhka's Enchantress and Yatoro's Wraith King dished out the damage.

Collapse also showed out on Spirit Breaker once again, wreaking havoc all across the map and preventing their opponents from starting teamfights on their terms. Despite Shopify Rebellion's best effort to mount a comeback, Spirit slowy but surely ground away at their defenses to eventually secure the 2-0 series sweep after 55 minutes of action.

Larl fueled Spirit's 45-37 kill lead with a stellar 16-kill, 14-assist performance on seven deaths. Miposhka also had 13 kills and 23 assists on eight deaths, proving once again that even position five supports are more than capable of winning games for their teams when given the chance.

With their victory, Spirit secured an upper bracket berth in the Road to The International Playoffs, which starts on 20 October. Meanwhile, Shopify Rebellion will have to start in the lower bracket.

The Road to The International Group Stage phase two will be held from 14 to 15 October and will have the remaining teams play in eight head-to-head, best-of-three matches to determine placement in the The Road to The International Playoffs.

In this phase, the Top 2 teams from each group in phase one will get matched with either the third or fourth-placed teams from the opposite group. The winners of the eight head-to-head matches will then earn upper bracket berths in the Playoffs while the losers will have to start from the lower bracket.

The TI 2023 Playoffs will take place from 20 to 22 October in the Seattle Convention Center's Summit. It will feature the 16 teams that made it out of the Group Stage fighting to be among the eight teams making it to The International proper.

TI 2023 will be hosted from 12 to 29 October in Seattle, the United States and will see 20 of the best Dota 2 teams in the world fighting to claim the coveted Aegis of Champions and the lion's share of a growing prize pool.

For everything you need to know about TI 2023, check here.

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