Team Spirit's Practice Room at TI10

A video three days before the TI10 group stage

On October 4, 2021, three days before The International 10 group stage in Bucharest, Team Spirit posted a video on Twitter. In it, team manager Korb3n shows off the practice room the team was assigned at the tournament.

Rooms were allocated by 2021 DPC points, and conditions varied a lot between teams. For comparison, Virtus.pro showed off a spacious two-room suite with a balcony.

The video spread through esports media the same day: Upcomer, Inven Global and Cybersport.ru all covered it on October 4, recounting what Korb3n had shown.

A sink, a microwave and not a single roll of toilet paper

According to esports media, it was a converted hotel room with a sink, a microwave, and folding tables. Reports said such rooms doubled as kitchens and the chairs couldn't recline; some retellings say the room was literally in the hotel kitchen. One of the players compared it to a college dorm.

There was no toilet paper in the bathroom. There was no internet either: 20 minutes before practice, half an hour before a scrim, or an hour and a half after check-in, depending on the source, since they disagree on the number. Korb3n summed it up: “Other teams have normal practice rooms.”

The toilet paper detail is mentioned by Inven Global, Hawk.live and esports.gg; it doesn't appear in the Upcomer, Cybersport.ru or ONE Esports coverage.

The scene reacts and a new room arrives

The clip sparked a wave of discussion among players and viewers. Alliance's Kellymilkies called the allocation “shameful.” After the criticism, on October 7, 2021, Spirit were given a more spacious room.

Upcomer described the reaction to the clip as a community outcry over the conditions the organizers gave teams at TI10.

The team showed off the new room too, in its second vlog from the tournament, where the players also shared their thoughts on the TI10 groups.

From a hotel kitchen to world champions

Team Spirit won TI10 and about $18.2 million. In hindsight, the clip about the cramped room turned into a rags-to-riches symbol, and one English-language esports site ranked it number one in its top 10 Dota 2 memes of 2021.

The meme's point is an underdog in tough conditions beating the favorites. The missing toilet paper is jokingly called “the secret to victory”; after Spirit beat OG, a Russian-language site ran a piece headlined “Every team that had toilet paper is weak.”

A photo with the Aegis instead of the room

The practice room itself isn't in the catalog image. It's a photo of Team Spirit players walking across the stage in Bucharest; one of them is holding the Aegis over his head, with camera operators all around.

The photo shows the ending of a story that started with a sink and a microwave: the team that complained about its conditions is holding the top trophy.

The room itself is known from Team Spirit's video, while the Aegis photo comes from the end of the tournament.

Captions about spartan conditions

These examples are made up for illustration: “No internet, no toilet paper, so the Aegis is coming”, “Office with no AC? Spirit have won in worse”, “The secret to success: a microwave and a folding table.”

Related memes include the “$18 Million Haircut” and “ez game”; all of them come from Spirit's championship run at TI10. Captions about the room fit when someone complains about conditions before something important.