Making moooves: Space Cow charges to top of Dota 2’s must-picks after TI 2023 grand final bash

Of all the Dota 2 heroes to emerge on top at The International 2023, none had quite the glow-up as everyone’s favorite bovine beast, Spirit Breaker, who proved instrumental to Team Spirit’s record second win at the pinnacle event.

It’s a remarkable return for the Space Cow, who went untouched throughout Patch 7.34c and at DreamLeague Season 21 with many teams preparing to hit TI in Seattle without a care in the world for Spirit Breaker.

However, a last-minute buff with Patch 7.34d, which also saw many nerfs for Barathrum’s major counters, meant an opportunity for the hero to return to drafts tournament-wide.

And return he did—with a vengeance. Tundra Esports’ Nine was the first to pick Spirit Breaker and proved the hero was more than capable of handling a tanky Strength and Universal meta. SB won six of its first eight games at TI, and by the second weekend, it was often being banned in the opening draft phase.

Ultimately, Barathrum finished the tournament with a 58 percent win rate from 36 picks with over twice as many bans, according to stats site Spectral. Spirit offlaner Collapse piloted the hero into TI history by winning with SB in the final game of the tournament and it was a critical piece in the Russian squad’s comeback in game three.

Where a standard Spirit Breaker build consists of a Sange and Yasha for the movement speed-to-damage boost with Greater Bash, Octarine Core was Collapse’s choice, finishing the item before the 20-minute mark thanks to his Hand of Midas.

With Spirit Breaker featuring one of the largest Strength gains in Dota 2, he’s just too tanky to bring down in the lane and can catch back up in farm with the Midas.

Once the Octarine Core was secured, Collapse simply charged as often as he could around the map, working to pressure Gaimin’s cores and forcing them out of the lane while slowly building toward his next power spike at level 20.

Spirit Breaker’s already a tough nut to crack, being a Strength hero in the post-New Frontiers meta, but it’s his level 20 talent that really enhances his kill potential. The 25 percent bonus damage to Greater Bash ensures his Charge of Darkness does more than stun opposition carries, with a follow-up Nether Strike halving most hero’s HP pool immediately.

A follow-up from his team almost always nets him a kill and once a Silver Edge is picked up, even Dota’s scariest hyper carries with defensive passives are no match for Spirit Breaker’s area-of-effect initiation.

The only big question now is how long IceFrog and the Dota 2 developers can really let him run rampant. While there were plenty more heroes who surpassed Spirit Breaker’s win rate, none felt like the complete package in pro play and ranked; incredibly tanky, ultra-fast, and with the burst damage of the best Intelligence mages.

Either way, expect to see way more Spirit Breaker in your Dota 2 pub matches from today as players attempt to emulate the hero’s success at TI12 this week.