Team Spirit TI 2025 team profile: Aiming for the hat-trick

At The International 2023, they did it for Larl and for becoming double TI champions. This year is for Rue and for a three-peat record that only Team Spirit would hold.

It’s TI time once again, and Team Spirit are back in form. Everyone has their eyes set on them as they head into the pinnacle event of the season in peak form and as the biggest contenders at the Aegis. It’s a competitive form cycle that Team Spirit got us all used to. They’ve done this enough times to have learned to pace themselves and come in the best shape possible when it matters the most.

Team Spirit is one of the just three organisations to have won The International twice. The other two are OG (TI8 & TI9) and Team Liquid (TI7 &TI13). Spirit’s first TI victory from 2021 at TI10 was a Cinderella story of a small team that was just making its TI debut. They crashed out in 13/16th place next year to come back stronger and lift a second Aegis in 2023. Last year’s TI was again devastating for them as they got eliminated 9/12th, and here we are, in 2025, with Team Spirit aiming at another title, a historic one as they could become the first team to hoist three Aegises.

Team Spirit roster

• Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk
• Denis "Larl" Sigitov
• Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov
• Aleksandr "rue" Filin
• Yaroslav "Miposhka" Naidenov
• Coach: Airat "Silent" Gaziev

This season, Spirit have been constantly in the top 4 of any major tournament until they surged to first place at Esports World Cup. They’ve won that in July this year without dropping a single series and with a 12-1 overall game score record.

The unbreakable

Over the years, Spirit have mastered so many aspects of the game that they are now probably the only team to excel in almost everything. They always know exactly how to execute their strategies, which almost always revolve around Yatoro. Regardless of winning or not this TI, Yatoro has already built a legacy. Arguably the best carry player in the world, he won his first TI by playing a different hero in every game during the main event. This is actually something that at this point defines Team Spirit, as every one of their players has immense hero pools.

Most recently, it was Collapse’s turn for a “hero challenge.” He did it at the Esports World Cup in July, where he played a different hero in each of the 13 Team Spirit games. Collapse is also regarded as the best offlaner in the world, and that has been the case even before his recent feat at EWC. He has a few heroes in his arsenal that are simply deadly for any enemy team, hence he tends to be the most targeted when it comes to bans.

His map awareness, initiations and team fight control allow Team Spirit to excel in brawls. They always showcase a level of synergy and coordination unmatched by any other teams. Spirit is also the team that excels at playing from behind and the team that actually feels comfortable and thrives in this scenario. Most teams usually end up in late scenarios against Spirit where no matter how far ahead they are in terms of gold and experience, they still end up losing the game. That’s largely because of how well Spirit controls the map, how perfect their vision is, and how well they understand their timings and the win condition.

They are definitely the team with the biggest target on their back at TI 2025. Historically, no team that came as the biggest favourite at the title has actually won The International ever, but that is very likely to change this year.

The International 2025 is set to start on the 4th of September with a modified Swiss-group stage. The first three teams to land four wins will head straight to the playoffs. Fourth to 13th-place teams proceed to a special elimination round where only five will survive. The bottom three-placed teams in the Swiss stage will be eliminated.

Day one in the Swiss group will feature 16 best-of-three series as the first two rounds will be played integrally. Stay tuned on rdy.gg for the latest news and results from the pinnacle Dota 2 tournament of the year.

More TI 2025 team profiles

• PARIVISION: A team with a vision
• Team Falcons: A solid pick
• Nigma Galaxy: There are no coincidences
• Xtreme Gaming: Friends in need are friends indeed
• HEROIC: Consistently unpredictable
• NAVI: The rite of passage
• Nemesis: Filipino passion meets TI pressure
• Aurora: Eclipsed by titans
• Wildcard: Swing for the fences