Winning The International, the biggest tourney of Dota 2 of every year, is no small feat, but it’s one that Tundra Esports achieved over the weekend. And while celebrating such an achievement is fair and expected, it looks like the team may have partied a little too hard. On Twitter, the team says that it has lost the Aegis of Champions, the trophy for winning The International.
From the replies to the tweet, it’s not inconceivable to imagine that this is some sort of elaborate prank. Many of them are non-serious in nature, with a number of them involve images of other individuals holding on to the Aegis of Champions. Even Singaporean Dota 2 pro Daryl “iceiceice” Koh joined in on the fun, claiming to be pawning the trophy of to the highest bidder. But with Tundra putting out a call to action after a few hours after the initial tweet, it’s safe to say that this is not an out of season April Fool’s joke.
Guys, please help.
Last night got a little out of hand, you won’t believe this but we lost the Aegis…
— TUNDRA (@TundraEsports) October 31, 2022
The irony of it all is that Tundra took the top spot in TI 11 in a pretty clean sweep. Not only did the team take the win with no losses against its opponent Team Secret in the grand finals, the team made it through the playoffs without losing a single series. With the trophy now missing, the win streak with minimal mistakes ended up with a pretty big real-life blunder.
You can borrow one of ours till you find yours 🛡️
Es de bien nacidos ser agradecidos 😇
— OG en Español (@OGlatino) October 31, 2022
So far, it is still unclear as to the whereabouts of the Aegis of Champions. With an item that large, it’s difficult to imagine it simply being misplaced. For what it’s worth, fellow Dota 2 pro team OG has offered to let Tundra borrow one of theirs until it is found. For context, OG was the winner of both TI 8 and TI 9, and is the first team to win two TI tourneys, as well as the first to win two back to back.
(Source: Tundra [1], [2], OG)
