Illidan Slams Team Spirit’s Strategy After Devastating ESL Raleigh 2025 Loss

Team Spirit streamer Ilya “Illidan” Pivcaev has spoken out about his team’s loss to Parivision in the grand finale of ESL One Raleigh 2025, which concluded last Monday (April 14).

Both Spirit and Parivision entered the final as equal—with fans heavily favored Spirit. But in a surprising turn of event, Parivision dominated the series with a 1-3 scoreline. Adding salt to the wound, Spirit’s defeat was sealed by an explosive performance from their loanee, the 17-year-old Alan “satanic” Gallyamov.

The result sparked debates among viewers about Spirit’s gameplay and draft choices, which many felt failed to counter Parivision’s compositions. Illidan appeared to agree, pointing to strategic missteps as the main reason for Spirit’s ineffective play.

“I think Spirit had really bad drafts on the first two maps and in the last game. I don’t think Gyrocopter is their hero, especially against such draft opponents. I understand that they had the idea to play tempo, but it didn’t work at all,” Illidan stated during his latest Twitch livestream.

Illidan’s criticism holds weight when reviewing games 1 and 2, where Parivision’s drafts outclassed Spirit’s on a technical level. One glaring example was Spirit’s struggle to contain the Tiny and Bristleback picks played by Parivision’s Volodymyr “no[o]ne” Minenko and Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin.

Despite the loss, Spirit’s status as a top-tier contender in the international Dota 2 scene remains unshaken. Analysts believe that a few tactical tweaks could reignite their dominance.