In the final of ESL One Raleigh 2025 Dota 2, which took place on the night of April 14th, PARIVISION emerged victorious. They confidently defeated Team Spirit with a score of 3:1. This was unexpected, as Ilya `Yatoro` Mulyarchuk`s squad had been undefeated throughout the tournament. Considering their previous encounter with PARIVISION at another event, where PARIVISION offered little resistance, their dominant win in this final was surprising. However, the outcome of the grand final was largely determined during the draft phase, where Team Spirit made critical errors in all three losing games.
It`s crucial to note that Ancient Apparition and Ringmaster were the most successful support heroes throughout the entire tournament. This is evident in both their high pick rate and impressive win rate.
The significance goes beyond mere statistics. The synergy between Ancient Apparition and Ringmaster is what makes them so powerful together, creating a balanced draft. Ringmaster excels in the early game, dominating the lane and becoming an ideal setup hero in the early mid-game. Ringmaster often secures a significant portion of his team`s initial kills, enabling proactive play before the carry fully comes online. Ancient Apparition, on the other hand, addresses late-game needs. With him, eliminating any enemy core hero becomes almost routine, and late-game strategies often revolve around his ultimate.
By securing this support duo, a team ensures a strong mid-game and gains a potentially meta-defining ultimate for late-game team fights. PARIVISION understood this, consistently prioritizing this pair in their drafts. Why Team Spirit allowed their opponents to pick these heroes for two consecutive maps remains unclear.
The statistics further highlight the effectiveness of the Ancient Apparition and Ringmaster pairing for PARIVISION. They were the team`s most picked and most successful heroes in the championship. This raises questions about Team Spirit`s draft priorities in the final.
Across two maps, Team Spirit not only conceded the powerful support combination but also maintained a largely unchanged hero draft for themselves. The drafts of these two lost games differed only in two aspects: a position swap between Medusa and Terrorblade, and a different mid-laner for Larl.
Sticking to a draft concept is acceptable, but only when that concept is effective. In Team Spirit`s case, it became apparent as early as the first map that their draft had a fatal imbalance. They lacked impactful options in the mid-game. While Medusa was incredibly durable, a single well-executed enemy ability could disrupt their entire strategy. A telling moment was on the first map: PARIVISION, even without a gold advantage, played extremely aggressively and pressured Team Spirit, confident in their superior draft. Just one pick-off on Yatoro was enough for PARIVISION to push down two lanes and destroy Team Spirit`s base, despite not having Aegis or a gold lead.
Team Spirit seemed to draft with a plan for a post-45-minute game (though even then, their strength is questionable). However, by the 35-minute mark, their opponents were dictating the game entirely, and they had virtually no response.
The second map was equally revealing. Disregarding moments where PARIVISION overextended and made minor errors, Team Spirit couldn`t initiate team fights on their terms.
While one might point to “support difference,” the issue wasn`t solely player performance (although Miposhka`s `Global Silence` usage in the grand final wasn`t optimal). The core problem was hero selection. Bounty Hunter, for instance, is a decent hero. Team Spirit had even won with it frequently in recent months. However, consider the drafts in previous championships where they picked Bounty Hunter:
Those drafts clearly indicate Bounty Hunter`s role in aggressive, early-game strategies, accumulating gold through Track and out-pacing opponents. These drafts were about playing proactively and pushing forward. Now, compare this to the grand final drafts. With Medusa and Terrorblade as cores, how was Rue supposed to effectively utilize Bounty Hunter?
Team Spirit became the most versatile team of the championship, utilizing 44 unique heroes throughout the tournament. In comparison, PARIVISION, the second most versatile team, picked 38 heroes, despite playing more maps.
However, Team Spirit`s versatility in the grand final appeared more like indecision. Initially, they heavily relied on the Silencer + Bounty Hunter combination, despite not picking Bounty Hunter even once before the final (and its questionable effectiveness in this context has been discussed). They then unexpectedly replaced Bounty Hunter with Grimstroke, a hero they had picked only once this season.
Similar patterns emerged with other heroes. While Team Spirit is known for experimentation, it`s noteworthy that in this crucial series, they began picking heroes they hadn`t used throughout the championship. They seemed to be incorporating heroes that had worked for them in previous events, rather than those effective in the current tournament meta. This was evident with picks like Warlock and Terrorblade.
Ultimately, by incorporating these somewhat “outdated” heroes from previous events into the current meta and tournament system, Team Spirit failed to create a cohesive and functional strategy, ultimately confusing themselves.
Individual errors, while present, became secondary and were likely a consequence of the flawed drafts.
PARIVISION, on the other hand, had their true final in the match against Tundra. Their performance against Team Spirit simply reaffirmed their dominance in terms of stability, synergy, and meta understanding throughout the US championship.
Finley Holt