The streak lives on!
Team Secret became the first squad to qualify for The International 2022 from the TI11 Last Chance qualifier. The Western European squad conquered the upper bracket of the playoffs with a 2-0 victory over Virtus Pro.
The win also secures Clement “Puppey” Ivanov’s historic record as the only Dota 2 player to attend every iteration of The International.
The highly accomplished captain willed his team to TI11 with a clutch play, saving Remco “Crystallis” Arets’ Sniper in the first game of the series.
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Team Secret conquers the upper bracket of the TI11 Last Chance qualifier playoffs
Roman “Ramzes” Kushnarev’s carry Luna was off to a great start in game one, free farming the top lane which gave him the top hero networth lead. Michał “Nisha” Jankowski kept Secret in the game, making impactful plays around the map with his midlane Batrider.
VP eventually took a significant 10,000 gold lead after focusing down Crystallis’ carry Sniper in the mid-game team fights. With the game slipping out of their grasp, Secret managed to repel VP from their Radiant jungle and immediately went for the Aegis of Immortal.
Secret hurried to secure the Aegis as VP’s heroes were rushing to contest them in the Rosh Pit. To make sure that Crystallis picked up the Aegis, Puppey’s Witch Doctor used his Lotus Orb to protect his carry Sniper. This countered the enemy Beastmaster’s Primal Roar and gave Secret some breathing room.
Puppey then used his Linken’s Sphere to cover Crystallis’ escape as he teleported back to the Radiant base. On top of his two clutch item usage saves, Secret’s captain used all of Witch Doctor’s abilities which prevented VP from getting close to Crystallis.
After the brief skirmish in the Rosh Pit, Secret went on to win the succeeding team fights and secured a 1-0 lead over VP.
In the following game, VP had an ambitious draft, picking an unorthodox midlane Tusk as a direct counter to Crystallis’ Monkey King. With an Aghanim’s Scepter on VP’s Tusk, Danil “gpk” Skutin could Walrus Kick Monkey King out of his Wukong’s Command ultimate.
While the strategy looked good in principle, VP was not able to execute it as Secret’s strong performance prevented the game from reaching late, with game two finishing in just 29 minutes.
Puppey continues to be the only player to attend all TIs
With their 2-0 win over VP, Puppey continues to stand alone as the only player to ever qualify for all iterations of The International.
He won TI1 with Natus Vincere and then qualified for the next three Dota 2 world championships playing for the Ukrainian organization. From TI5 onwards, Puppey continued his TI attendance streak with Secret.
Team Secret will continue to compete in Singapore when TI11’s group stage begins on October 15.
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