The International 10, premier DotA 2 competition with the biggest prize pool in esports every year, began on October 7th, with finals taking place today for the lion's share of $40,018,195 USD.

PSG.LGD faced Team Spirit in the Grand Finals. PSG.LGD, the Chinese powerhouse, advanced to the finals through the upper bracket without losing a single series, while Team Spirit, the tournament's dark horse, accelerated through the lower bracket by defeating some of the tournament's big names, including OG, Virtus.Pro, Invictus Gaming, and Team Secret.

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PSG.LGD vs Team Spirit

Game 1:

(Image Credits: Valve)

Team Spirit got off to a good start with a better draft as PSG.LGD had no answer to Yatoro's Naga Siren. As the game progressed, Team Spirit began to gain a gold lead, as well as the lanes shifting in their favour, making matters worse for PSG.LGD. Yatoro's item selection was spot on; he chose Aghanims, which allowed Naga Siren to lock in Ame Ursa and NothingToSay's Pangolier with Ensnare even in their Ultimate or Black King Bar. With 17,000 Gold Advantage, PSG.LGD collapsed and tapped out at 38 minutes.

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Game 2:

(Image Credits: Valve)

In this match, PSG.LGD kept the lanes contested and erased Team Spirit's early modest gold advantage by getting an 18-minute Roshan. However, the NothingToSay Leshrac is caught in Collapse's Blink+Shockwave+Skewer combo and dies in the bottom late. The fight dragged on, and Collapse managed to land a 2 man Reverse Polarity while Yatoro's Luna was free hitting, taking the aegis away and eventually winning the team fight with the morphing kill putting Team Spirit in command.

PSG.LGD battled for Roshan in the 38th minute but failed horribly as Yatoro's Luna ripped through the Leshrac with high physical damage and Ame Morph was trapped with Reverse Polarity into Bane's Fiend's Grip. While Ame lacked the gold to re-enter the game, the rest of PSG.LGD did, but Team Spirit won the protracted fight owing to Collapse's flawless Skewer and Horn toss combos. As a consequence, all four players die once again which forced PSG.LGD to GG and giving Team Spirit a 2-0 series lead.

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Game 3: 

(Image Credits: Valve)

With Ame Spectre and NothingToSay Tinker, PSG.LGD slipped in a global fighting presence into the draught, whilst Team Spirit had gotten their Magnus for Collapse yet again. Tinker outplayed TORONTOKYO's Invoker in the midlane, while Spectre had a solid lane as well. Tinker purchased an early Blink while Spec got Aghanims, and with Faith Bian Bloodseeker dropping ruptures, it caused havoc on Team Spirit and gave PSG.LGD control of the map. 

Team Spirit was left with little breathing room as PSG.LGD made significant progress in gold and items. PSG.LGD won the map around 50 minutes with a score of 42 to 17 kills and a gold advantage of 50k.

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Game 4: 

(Image Credits: Valve) 

After beating Team Spirit's Magnus pick in Game 2, PSG.LGD grabbed Magnus and Bane for themselves in Game 4 and played some clean Dota from the laning stage to the end of the map. After securing an early aegis at the 14-minute mark, PSG.LGD cracked opened Team Spirits' base at 20 minutes taking down two sets of barracks at the back of Ame's Luna and eventually ended the map with 23 to 2 kills and a staggering 26k net worth lead at 26 minutes.

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Game 5: 

(Image Credits: Valve) 

In the decider game, PSG.LGD chose the Tiny and Lycan combo that they used to crush Team Secret in the Upper Bracket finals, while Team Spirit grabbed some of their favourite selections, including Terroblade, Ember Spirit, and, of course, the Collapse Magnus.

The game was slow-paced at first, but PSG.LGD succeeded Team Spirit in the laning phase to gain a 3k gold advantage. The tide began to turn when PSG.LGD forced combat under Spirit's T2 at 19 minutes and was defeated. As Yatoro on Terroblade was now farmed, Team Spirit gained momentum and moved to capture the aegis. PSG.LGD grew weaker and weaker, while Collapse Magnus once again managed to trap Ame with Reverse Polarity and killed him at 31 minutes. As Ame ran out of buyback gold, Team Spirit launched the Throne push, forcing all PSG.LGD buybacks. The 35-minute Roshan fight turned out to be the final fight of The International 10, PSG.LGD showed some resistance but fell again because since they had no answer for the Terroblade, and as the cores on PSG.LGD dieback, Team Spirit charged in for the final push and succeeded to conquer the series 3-2.

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(Image Credits: Valve)

The tale of Team Spirit will be remembered for years to come; the team that came through the open qualifications and fell to the lower bracket on the first day now takes home the lion's share of the $40,018,195 prize pool, earning $18,208,300.