Team Spirit's Carry and the First Three-Time TI Winner

Record

He signed with Spirit on 19 December 2020, when the club took over the young Yellow Submarine roster. The team has kept him on carry ever since, with one gap: after a 9th–12th finish at TI 2024 he stepped back, then returned to the active roster on 5 January 2025.

The misses matter as much as the wins for a bettor. TI 2022 ended in 13th–16th, TI 2024 in 9th–12th and TI 2025 outside the playoffs. His Spirit sides have been brilliant over a season peak and ordinary between them.

The 2026 season so far. The first half was poor by Spirit's standards: 2nd at FISSURE Universe Episode 8, 7th–10th at BLAST Slam VI and 11th–12th at DreamLeague Season 28, all in February, then 4th at PGL Wallachia Season 7, 5th–6th at ESL One Birmingham and two 7th–8th finishes in April. At the Esports World Cup in July they went out in the quarter-finals, 0–2 to Team Yandex. Then came Shanghai: a 3–2 group, a 2–1 elimination-round escape, a drop to the lower bracket and four series won from there, the last of them a 64-minute deciding game in a 3–2 final.

What is known about Yatoro

Range on carry. At TI 2021 he played 14 different heroes in the main event, and his signature list runs from Morphling to Terrorblade, heroes with very different timings. A wide pool makes Spirit hard to draft against: banning two of his carries rarely leaves him without a third.

Kills. Liquipedia records his career high as 31 kills, set on Kez against Team Liquid in the TI 2026 group stage, and lists him as the record holder for rampages on The International main stage, with six. In the 2026 final he opened with a 16/1/3 Terrorblade and followed with a 17/2/8 Shadow Fiend.

Ranked form. He was the first player reported at 16,000 MMR, in November 2024, and posted 17,000 in December 2025. Ladder numbers do not decide series, but they show a player who keeps his mechanics sharp between events.

The weak spot. Spirit's dips have been long. When the team is out of rhythm, as in the first half of 2026, his numbers fall with it; he is a carry who needs the lanes won around him.

BLAST Slam IX: chances and why

BLAST Slam IX runs online from 20 to 29 November with sixteen teams and $750,000 in prizes. Liquipedia lists four GSL groups from 20 to 23 November, seeding and last-chance matches on 24 November and a double-elimination playoff from 27 to 29 November, with a best-of-five final. As of 5 October, twelve places are invitations not yet named, and Spirit's entry is not confirmed; everything below assumes they are invited.

Our estimate: Team Spirit win BLAST Slam IX about 18 per cent of the time, a fair price of roughly 5.50. This is our estimate, not a bookmaker price.

1. They are the world champions with the same five, and late-season form counted for more than spring form in 2026.
2. An online event removes the travel and crowd factors, which tends to help the strongest teams.
3. GSL groups and a double-elimination playoff leave room for one bad series, as Shanghai showed.
4. Against: their 2026 record before August was mid-table, and a title team can lose its edge in the weeks after a long event.
5. Against: sixteen teams and best-of-three playoffs keep the outright wide open; no team should be shorter than about 3.00 in our view.

Read the tournament format and stream guide for the groups once BLAST names the field.

How to bet on Yatoro

Player markets on a carry are thinner than team markets, so most bets on him are really bets on Spirit. The useful ones:

• Series and map winner. The base market. Spirit's group games are best-of-three, so a 2–0 or 2–1 correct score is often a better price than the plain winner.
• Map handicap. Spirit -1.5 maps pays only on a 2–0; our handicap betting guide explains when that is worth taking.
• Player kills over or under. Where offered, his line depends on the hero. A Terrorblade or Shadow Fiend game runs higher than a slow farming carry.
• Most kills on a map. He often tops Spirit's kill table, but Larl in the middle is a real rival for that market.
• Outright and top-four. Convert any outright price with the odds calculator and compare it with our 18 per cent before deciding.

Live betting suits a carry. If Spirit's draft gives him a late hero and the lanes go even, his side's price can drift in the first fifteen minutes; that is where the live betting guide earns its read.

Where to watch

BLAST shows its Dota events on its own channels: BLAST.tv, Twitch and YouTube, with the official streams listed on the tournament page. Some betting sites also carry selected matches inside the account once you are signed in; we chose sites where that exists, but which matches each one shows is not the same everywhere.

More from Spirit and Dota 2

His offlane partner is profiled in Collapse, Spirit's offlaner and the mid player in Larl, Spirit's midlaner. The Dota 2 betting page covers markets in general, and the esports section the rest of the calendar.

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