Skewer to the airport: Collapse’s Magnus

Collapse and Magnus at The International 10

Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov played for Team Spirit, which won The International 10. One of his main heroes at the tournament was Magnus, and his signature move was Skewer, the ability Magnus uses to drag enemies along with him: the hero charges forward on his horns, hauling every enemy he hits.

Spirit made it through the tournament via the lower bracket and beat PSG.LGD 3–2 in the grand final on October 17, 2021. In game five, the deciding game of the final, Magnus was again one of the key heroes. It was Team Spirit’s first International title.

Skewering SumaiL to the fountain against OG

The most famous moment came in game one of the lower bracket series against OG. Collapse skewered SumaiL from a tier-three tower deep into Spirit's base, all the way to the fountain, and that moment helped the team pull off a comeback. Esports.net included it in its list of the top 10 plays from The International.

Skewer is usually used to drag one or two enemies into your team's damage, but in Collapse's hands the ability looked like a way to haul an opponent across half the map. In a Sports.ru interview on October 29, 2021, he himself compared Skewer's range with the +425 talent to “a very long bus,” describing how far the ability drags enemies.

Why “to the airport”

In its roundup of the top Dota 2 memes of 2021, esports.gg gave Collapse's Skewers an honorable mention: they were so strong that he was “literally skewering opponents to the airport.” The “airport” here means elimination from the tournament: the losing team flies home. Spirit were making their run through the lower bracket, where every win knocked the opponent out of the tournament.

The same roundup includes an image from r/DotA2 captioned “Skewer to the Airport,” and there is a YouTube video titled “Collapse MVP Magnus ever Ti10 send OG back to the airport.” Who made the airport joke first is not known for certain.

The joke has a Russian-language cousin, the “Magomed the taxi driver” meme, which Collapse himself talked about in the same Sports.ru interview. He did not use the word “airport,” though, but both jokes play on the same idea: Magnus as a ride that takes opponents exactly where they don’t want to go.

The collage: Magnus, two teams and an airport

The picture on the card is a fan collage. At the top is artwork of Magnus with his battering-ram horn, below it are photos of two teams of players in jerseys, and at the bottom is an airport, with a control tower and planes on the apron.

The composition reads top to bottom like the meme's plot: Magnus scoops up his opponents and delivers them straight to the planes. The collage doesn't label who is in the team photos.

Example captions with Skewer

The joke is used when someone sends an opponent packing in a single move or drags them far away from their goal. These examples are made up for illustration: “My boss sent our project to the airport with a single email,” “Collapse when he sees five enemies at his tower: your taxi is here,” “My cat when a guest takes his spot: skewer to the airport.” The caption also fits gameplay clips with an especially long drag.

The meme sits alongside other jokes about Team Spirit’s championship run at TI10: “Magomed the taxi driver” and TORONTOTOKYO’s “ez game,” which happened in the same series against OG in which Collapse dragged SumaiL to the fountain.