Team Spirit claim Riyadh Masters 2023 title

A year of struggles is finally over for Team Spirit, who showed up at the right moment once again to claim $5,000,000 for their efforts and the Riyadh Masters 2023 championship title.

Team Spirit haven’t been in a grand final of a tier one tournament since August 2022, at PGL Arlington Major, a tournament that they have also won. For Team Liquid, their adversaries in the final act of Riyadh Masters, this was the fifth time when they fell shy of a championship title.

This year long Team Liquid have always fought against Gaimin Gladiators for the majors and DreamLeague titles. In Riyadh, they were presented with a different situation when GG bowed out in the top 4.

Team SpiritvsTeam Liquid

It all started well for Liquid, who ran an offlane Naga Siren and an Io-Leshrac duo, which proved all too much for Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk’s Faceless Void. However, going into the second match, Yatoro was confident in his Void and played it once again, despite being once again in an unfavorable carry matchup since Liquid kept the Naga and added a carry Monkey King to their draft. Team Spirt’s draft shined in the mid to late game stages and evened out the series, forcing Team Liquid to an answer moving forward in the series.

Game three brought a Troll Warlord for Yatoro, who had a difficult early game and Team Spirit altogether were dominated by Liquid through the laning and mid game stage. All hopes were put in Yatoro’s Troll and his ability to peak in late game. A couple of skirmishes around the Roshan timers and a perfectly landed Wall of Replica into Ice Blast from Spirit put them a victory away from the title.

Yatoro’s capacity to turn around the games and shine in the carry role through the entire series made the difference for Team Spirit in the Riyadh Masters 2023 grand finals and his textbook Terrorblade gameplay from the fourth game sealed the deal for his team.

While Team Spirit walk home with $5,000,000 and the trophy, Team Liquid will have to settle for second place once more and a $2,500,000 prize pool.