“I’m just a man,” Spirit talks Yatoro GOAT status at TI 2023

Team Spirit is back for another bombastic run at TI 2023, but the players are as cool, calm, and collected as ever.

Despite not landing a single top-four finish at any DPC Majors, Team Spirit is still the winningest Dota 2 team of the year thanks to championships at Riyadh Masters and DreamLeague 21. Now the squad looks to once again claim the biggest trophy of them all in the upper bracket of The International 2023. WIN.gg caught Team Spirit ahead of its match against Team Liquid to learn about the team’s mentality at the event.

An interview with Team Spirit at TI 2023

WIN.gg: Virtus.pro is the only team to take a game off you this entire tournament. Why do you think they were the only squad to put up a fight?

Yatoro: I think it’s because of the break. After the group stage, we played pretty bad in that series. In the first game we made a lot of mistakes that we usually don’t do. They took first map, but then we woke up and didn’t repeat the same mistakes from the first game. I think that was the reason. We just played much worse than usual.

Miposhka: I will also say that, as we can see right now, VP is a strong team. It’s not what people expected. In our game, we also felt they were good because we didn’t expect that the series would be so hard for us. They showed that they were really ready for the tournament, ready to reach some…

Larl, Mira, and Collapse in unison: High goals.

Miposhka: High goals. Yep.

(Larl laughs.)

Our captain @Miposhka has a few words before the match vs. @TeamLiquid 👋#SpiritDota #Dota2 #TI12 pic.twitter.com/08BhfQYCzX

— Team Spirit (@Team__Spirit) October 27, 2023

Larl, it’s still possible to play against BetBoom here at TI. Do you look forward to potentially beating your old team? 

Larl: I think its not my old team anymore. It’s so many different players that it doesn’t matter. I don’t have to beat them. If we play against them of course, but I dont think “Oh, I need to beat them because its my previous team.” I already beat my previous teammate [Evgeniy “Noticed” Ignatenko.]

Mira: Is that enough?

Larl: Yeah, that’s enough.

Yatoro, you are a common pick for the greatest carry player in the world. Any thought on that title?

Yatoro: The most important thing it what my team thinks about me, not other people. I’m just a man.

Are there any more plans to shave your heads?

Mira: For shaving our heads, no. We don’t have any plans to shave our own heads, but we plan to shave [Airat “Silent” Gaziev’s] head when we win this tournament. So only one head will have to be shaved. 

Mira, some say you are the most handsome Dota player, but others say it is ToFu from Gaimin Gladiators. What are your thoughts?

Miposhka: You better win that matchup.

(Group laughs.)

Mira: I think ToFu is better, but I don’t mean to engage and fight him for the title. I don’t mind if he wins in the end.