Team Spirit have been crowned the champions of Dota 2 The International 2021.
Team Spirit dominated the first game with 18 kills as opposed to PSG.LGD's five. The second match was even more decisive as TSpirit got 24 kills with PSG.LGD only getting 8. The Russian team was in the lead in terms of Towers and Barracks over the first two games as well.
TSpirit was on quite a run until the final, even knocking out last year's champions, OG and also beating Secret in the lower bracket finals earlier today. They lost rounds to PSG:LGB, but still manged to take the crown in the final match.
It's been a strange ride for The International 2021. The total prize pool of $40 million has been the largest one to date. It was earlier set to be held in Stockholm, Sweden, however permission was later denied by the Swedish Sports Federation who voted not to accept esports into the sports federation.
It was later announced that The International would be held in front of a live audience in Bucharest's Arena Nationala. But only days before the tournament, Valve halted ticket purchases and issued refunds due to a spike in the city's Covid cases. To mitigate the awkwardness of a silent arena Valve gave online viewers the option of "Spectator Cheering", however the feature was removed after receiving criticism from fans.