In a repeat of their success at The International 10, Team Spirit came in clutch to win one of the biggest prize pools of all time at Riyadh Masters.
With the prize pool for TI likely to drop even further this year, Riyadh Masters could be the biggest purse for Dota 2 in 2023. With $15 million on the line, the best Dota 2 teams in the world pulled out all the stops with fantastic matches throughout the event. However, in the end, Team Spirit will walk away with the lion’s share after a decisive 3-1 finish over Team Liquid in the grand final.
Spirit’s run started in the group stage, as the team was directly invited to skip past the play-ins. The team performed fairly well in the preliminary, earning an 8-6 game record with just one loss to Quest Esports. While not a clear favorite to win, Spirit was already on the radar as a potential deep finisher. It confirmed suspicions with victories over Team Aster and BetBoom in the playoffs, with the latter being a popular pick to win on sites like Canadian GGBet.
The Russian-Ukrainian squad would meet Team Liquid, commonly considered the second-best team in the world, in the upper bracket final. A reverse 2-0 secured a spot in the grand final, which would also be against Liquid. The best-of-five series featured a particularly strong performance from soft support Miroslaw “Mira” Kolpakov, who ran team fights like a clock throughout the grand final.
After winning the grand prize of $5 million at Riyadh Masters 2023, some of Team Spirit’s members now rank in the top ten highest-earning esports players of all time.
The list of top earners is dominated by Dota 2 players, with the first non-Valve MOBA pro appearing at rank 33. However, thanks to the $15 million prize in Riyadh, the very top tier is about to get shaken up. Thanks to their victory at The International 10, four of Team Spirit’s members were already in the top 20. Now they’ve leapfrogged most of the TI7-winning Team Liquid lineup into the top ten.
Team captain Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov is now ranked as the seventh-highest-earning esports pro of all time with $5,257,679.69 in proportional winnings. That puts him only below the double-TI-winning OG lineup and Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi. While Team Spirit haven’t always been a podium contender in the time between TI10 and Riyadh Masters, their sheer earnings prove that the squad is a monster in clutch situations.
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