Dota 2: Spirit, Shopify Rebellion, and BetBoom survive to final day of DreamLeague Season 21

Only three teams remain standing after the penultimate day of Dota 2's DreamLeague Season 21: Team Spirit, Shopify Rebellion, and BetBoom Team.

Spirit continue to be the most dominant team of the tournament after they defeated Shopify Rebellion in the upper bracket finals to become the first team in the grand finals.

In the lower bracket, OG eliminated Tundra Esports before falling to BetBoom, who will be facing Shopify Rebellion in the lower bracket finals for the right to challenge Spirit in the grand finals.

Here's how all the action in day six of DreamLeague Season 21 went down:

Lower bracket quarterfinals

OG 2-1 Tundra Esports

The day started with a highly-anticipated elimination match between OG and Tundra, which pit the two-time The International (TI) champions Sébastien "Ceb" Debs and Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen against each other for the first time in their careers.

Topson struck first, keying a 41-minute game one win for Tundra with an unorthodox mid Clinkz pick. With Topson wreaking havoc across the map, Oliver "skiter" Lepko's Ursa had free reign to farm up and eventually lead the team to taking the series opener.

Topson racked up 16 kills and nine assists on five deaths to pace Tundra's 39-17 kill lead in game one. Skiter also pitched in with 13 kills and four assists against two deaths.

OG were quick to strike back in game two behind the one-two punch of Artem "Yuragi" Golubiev's Sven and Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov's Leshrac, who dominated the midgame teamfights and allowed the team to force the series to a decider after 48 minutes of action.

Yuragi led the way with 18 kills and 19 assists on just one death to pace OG's 42-17 kill lead. Bzm also had 10 kills and 21 assists on five deaths.

Game three then saw OG close out the series in just 20 minutes behind an excellent showing for bzm on Earth Spirit, who fuelled his team's 32-6 kill lead with 19 kills and seven assists on just one death.

Upper bracket finals

Team Spirit 2-1 Shopify Rebellion

The second match of the day was a clash between the two strongest teams of the tournament, with Spirit prevailing over Shopify Rebellion after a hard-fought three games.

Spirit came out swinging to start the series, dominating Shopify Rebellion to the tune of a 39-10 kill lead in 33 minutes. Spirit captain Yaroslav "Miposhka" Naidenov had a standout performance on Phoenix, finishing with a game-high 12 kills to go with 10 assists on two deaths. Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk on Sven also pitched in with nine kills and 18 assists against two deaths.

In the 38-minute game two, Abed "Abed" Yusop willed Shopify Rebellion to a decider with a stellar performance on Primal Beast to make space for Artour "Arteezy" Babaev's Muerta. Abed had 13 kills and nine assists against two deaths to pace the North American powerhouse's 31-16 kill lead.

Spirit were firing on all cylinders in game three, routing Shopify Rebellion after 41 minutes to claim the first spot in the grand finals. Spirit closed out the series with a 45-24 kill lead and with all player having at least eight kills.

Denis "Larl" Sigitov on Pangolier led the way with 10 kills, Yatoro on Terrorblade and Myroslav "Mira" Kolpalkov on Dark Willow both had nine, while Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov on Beastmaster and Miposhka on Enchantress each had eight.

Lower bracket semifinals

BetBoom Team 2-0 OG

The day ended with BetBoom putting an end to OG's spirited lower bracket run in a dominant 2-0 sweep.

The series started with both teams on relatively even footing before BetBoom blew the doors wide open in the midgame, eventually snowballing to the win after 39 minutes and with a lopsided 29-9 kill lead.

Vitalie "Save-" Melnic on Bane had a standout performance with a game-high eight kills and 14 assists on just one death. Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko on Beastmaster also had a clean five-kill, 14-assist showing.

OG put up a much better fight in game two, managing to stall things out to 59 minutes behind Yuragi's Ursa and bzm's Zeus before succumbing to a relentless BetBoom onslaught. Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko on Terrorblade and Danil "gpk" Skutin on Queen of Pain led the way for BetBoom with a clean 11 kills apiece to go along with a combined 26 assists.

With the day's results, OG and Tundra Esports exit DreamLeague Season 21 in fourth and 5th-6th place, respectively. OG will be taking home US$85,000 for their efforts while Tundra earned US$57,500 in consolation.

Meanwhile, Spirit guaranteed themselves at least a second place finish and US$175,000 in winnings. Of course, they have their eyes set on the grand prize of US$300,000.

DreamLeague Season 21 is split into two phases: the Group Stage, taking place from 18 to 20 September, and the Playoffs, scheduled from 21 to 24 September.

The Group Stage split the 12 participating teams into two single round-robin groups of six teams each, where they fought to be among the eight squads advancing into the Playoffs. All matches in the Group Stage were a best-of-two.

The Top 4 teams in each group advanced to the Playoffs, with the Top 2 teams earning an upper bracket berth while the third to fourth-placed teams having to start in the lower bracket. Meanwhile, the bottom two teams of each group were eliminated.

The DreamLeague Season 21 Playoffs will follow a double-elimination bracket format, with four teams starting in the upper bracket while four others will be seeded into the lower bracket. All matches in the Playoffs will be a best-of-three except for the Grand Finals, which will be a full best-of-five series.

With almost all of the participating teams in DreamLeague Season 21 set to play in TI 2023, it will also serve as the undercard event to this year's Dota 2 world championship tournament.

TI 2023 will be hosted across multiple weekends from 12 to 29 October in Seattle, the United States. This year's tournament also features a revamped format split into two distinct phases, called 'The Road to The International' and 'The International' itself.

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