The dust has settled on The International 2025, and once again, Team Spirit stands alone at the top. Their victory was not achieved through brute force or risky early-game rushes; it was a clinical, highly disciplined execution of a strategy we call “Control Carriers.” Spirit proved that in the current highly volatile Dota 2 meta, stability, early dominance, and superior vision control trump unpredictable aggression.

Their approach was built on two core pillars that every player should study: draft flexibility and decisive map management.

The Draft: Versatile Carries and Reliable Supports

Team Spirit’s drafting phase consistently prioritized heroes who could adapt to different scenarios, avoiding the trap of one-dimensional carry picks:

  • Flexible Core: Their carry players often picked heroes like Templar Assassin, Morphling, or Drow Ranger. These heroes are highly flexible: they can secure the lane, quickly transition into high-damage dealers, or adapt into team-fight initiators if needed. They rarely chose carries who need 30 minutes of undisturbed farming.
  • Aggressive, High-Impact Supports: Spirit’s success hinged on their supports. They consistently drafted aggressive heroes with powerful early-game crowd control (CC), such as Earthshaker, Elder Titan, and Shadow Demon. These supports not only secured the lane for their cores but could instantly transition into roamer roles to maintain map pressure.

This combination ensured that Spirit rarely lost a lane and always had early mobility.

Map Control: The Vision Fortress

Spirit’s signature style of play revolved around using their early lane lead to lock down the entire map, strangling the opponent’s resource income:

  • Outpost Priority: They recognized the increased importance of Outposts in the recent patches. Spirit consistently fought hard to secure both Outposts after the 10-minute mark. The extra experience and gold from dual Outposts created a compounding advantage that quickly translated into item leads.
  • Aggressive Ward Placement: Their supports were relentless in placing aggressive deep wards in the opponent’s jungle. This vision fortress meant that enemy cores were never safe, and any attempted farming foray was immediately punished with a coordinated gank.
  • Roshan Management: Spirit excelled at securing Roshan. Their disciplined approach meant they often took the first Roshan without a major fight, using the Aegis to immediately secure key Tier 2 towers, further tightening the economic noose around the enemy team.

Team Spirit played a nearly flawless brand of Dota. They proved that consistent execution, disciplined farming, and overwhelming map control, powered by flexible core heroes, is the ultimate winning formula in the competitive landscape of Dota 2. Their victory is a masterclass in risk management and strategic superiority.