In DOTA 2, “Team Spirit” from Moscow won the world championships “The International” in 2021. For this achievement, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulates the entire team with a message.

What is the occasion? On October 17, the final of the DOTA-2 world championship “The International” ran. There, the Chinese star team “PSG.LGD “faced the Russian team “Team Spirit”. A best-of-five was played, which Team Spirit finally won 3:2.

The players thus secured the biggest e-sports tournament prize to date. Even Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to the players congratulating them on their outstanding skills.

Putin emphasizes the outstanding leadership qualities of the players

How did it go for Team Spirit? The final of the International was close. First, Team Spirit secured the first two matches to take a 2-0 lead. But in the following two matches the Chinese of Team PSG.LGD won. It wasn’t until Game 5 that Team Spirit was able to win again and take the prize to Russia.

As prize money, there is more than 18,000,000 dollars for the winning team, which is about 15.7, million euros. This is the largest prize payout in the history of e-sports (via PCGamer.com).

This is how Vladimir Putin congratulates: After their victory, Team Spirit received an official letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin:

“Congratulations on your well-deserved victory at The International-2021, the DOTA-2 World Championship. For the first time in history, Team Spirit’s Russian team has won this prestigious competition. Well done!” (via kremlin.ru, translated by deepl.com)

In the rest of the letter, Putin elaborates on the team’s special achievement.

In it, he speaks of solidarity and leadership that brought the team to the finals and of an initiative that secured the victory.

On the way to the finals, you showed great leadership and solidarity, and in the decisive battle, which was a true test of skill and character, you were able to focus and wrest the initiative from your strong opponents at the crucial moment. Indeed, it was proven that our cyber athletes are always focused on the result and are capable of conquering any peak.

I wish you success and good luck.

Vladimir Putin

(via kremlin.ru, translated with deepl.com)

The last major victory for an Eastern European team at the International of DOTA 2 was brought home by Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) in 2011.

The MOBA “DOTA 2” is known for handing out huge prize pools at the World Championships. A large part of these prize pools is made up of the in-game purchases that players make in DOTA 2. Thus, they have a direct influence on how much money the individual teams can win.

Even before the big International 2021, DOTA 2 paid out a total of $235 million in prize money – But only 0.002% of that went to women.