Team Spirit took down Tundra Esports 3-2 in the Grand Final of DreamLeague Season 25, securing their first major victory since the return of Raddan and Collapse to the roster.
This achievement was anything but easy, as Team Spirit had to battle through immense adversity to cross the finish line. From pulling off stunning comebacks to overcoming a DDoS attack that erased their progress in a crucial game, this tournament became yet another defining chapter in Team Spirit’s storied impact on the Dota 2 scene.
Team Spirit’s Road to the Final
Team Spirit entered the Playoffs starting from the Lower Bracket, where they had a close affair against Chimera, barely scraping by with a 2 – 1 victory. At this point, I had written Team Spirit off as their next opponent was PARIVISION, the team that went 7 – 0 in the second Group Stage. Things don’t get easier from here.
Game 1 of the Lower Bracket series was simply unbelievable. Team Spirit got dumpstered the entire map, but PARIVISION got too trigger-happy and dived high ground, initiating a comeback from Raddan’s Slark. After catching PARIVISION heroes without buybacks, Team Spirit won the map behind in gold the entire time – they were never ahead in gold, even when they won.
PARIVISION looked to shrug things off in the second, again building a substantial lead going into the mid-game. However, a joint effort between Raddan and Collapse propelled Team Spirit to yet another comeback. They simply out-maneuvered PARIVISION and made pulling off comebacks look so easy.
Grand Final: Tundra Awaits
I’ve sung my praises on how this Tundra roster was easily the best in the world. After seeing how exhausted Team Spirit should have been after the long series against PARIVISION, I really thought Tundra was easily going to three-peat.
In the first map, Tundra was doing Tundra things – dominating the game. However, you can never count Team Spirit out when Raddan has some gold to play with. The Eastern European squad played an immaculate four-protect-one strategy on Raddan’s Nature’s Prophet and pulled off their third comeback in a row.
The following map was clean for Tundra, as they responded and adjusted accordingly to keep the series level. It seemed like 33 and company were going to cruise to take the lead in Game 3, but again, a masterclass from Raddan’s Slark pulled off their fourth impossible comeback of the day.
Resilience in the Face of Adversity
It seemed like four comebacks were enough for Team Spirit to get the job done on what should have been the final day of DreamLeague Season 25, as for the first time, Team Spirit finally had a comfortable lead in the early game. However, they couldn’t catch a break.
Collapse and Larl fell victim to a DDoS attack, a two-hour tech pause was forced, and the rest of the series was postponed two days later. Team Spirit had a considerable lead and, in my opinion, had a much better draft. It was the ideal position to win the series. Due to the tech issues, all progress in the game was erased, and the drafts for the map were voided.
— Team Spirit Dota 2 (@TSpirit_Dota2) March 2, 2025
When Game 4 was finally resumed, Team Spirit got outdrafted and stomped in 26 minutes. If it were me, my mental game would have been crushed, but theirs wasn’t. They shrugged everything off and destroyed Tundra in the decider to win DreamLeague Season 25 in five games.
Raddan Is Back, Baby!
For me, this tournament has ended all the debates. Raddan is truly the best carry player of all time. We have our Pures and Nightfalls who arguably have better mechanical skills than Raddan, but none can put their entire team on their backs like he can, especially in high-pressure matches.
I’ve been watching Raddan closely in teamfights, and he plays fluid and beautiful Dota. As the fights are unfolding, I would think, “he needs to BKB right now,” but he doesn’t, and he’s always right. His vision and feeling of the game are different from the rest of us, man.
Though Raddan is undoubtedly the MVP for DreamLeague Season 25, we still have to give huge props to the rest of Team Spirit for enabling their carry to do what he does best. This Team Spirit squad is the best late-game team I’ve ever seen. From the macro game to the little details in fights, you can never count them out in any game state.
Mentality Matters
My respect for Team Spirit is through the roof. So many things went wrong in the series (gameplay and technical-wise), yet they played each game to the very end. None of them were b*tching on X about the postponement or the rule book – they played through every circumstance, whether it’d be 20,000 gold down, or having the game reset while in a winning position in series point. This is truly the mentality that wins you two TIs.
With this victory, these millionaires bagged their hardest-earned $300,000 and 4,200 EPT points, which will come in handy in the future. DreamLeague Season 25 also marks rue’s first tournament victory, which is neat.
