The official start of summer is here, which means the International is just around the bend.
If you are a DOTA 2 fan, you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you’re new to eSports and just learning the ropes, pay attention because this is one of the most important tournaments of the year across all eSport leagues.
Sites like Pinnacle and Sportsbetting.ag had last year’s winner listed at +1584 or 16.840 to win. So, the longshots took down the favorites, Team Liquid, Virtus Pro, and PSG.LGD and cashed in big.
The International
Each year, Valve Corporation puts on TI (The International) Dota 2 tournament. The first iteration was held back in 2011 at Gamescom in Germany, and it has been running annually ever since, albeit, switching locations.
Since it’s inception in Germany, the tournament has taken place in Seattle each year either at the Benaroya Hall or KeyArena. But last year, the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC hosted the event switching it up and keeping The International … well … international.
From August 20th to August 25th, The International will head across the Pacific to take place at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai. There will be plenty of seating, but if you can’t afford a ticket to China or simply get the time off (most of us can’t, so don’t feel bad), you can catch the event LIVE on Twitch.
The European squad, OG took the first place trophy last year, along with $11,190,158.00 in prize money. China/France’s PSG LGD (Yes, LGD partnered with the football club) took silver and $ 4,069,148.00. And The USA’s Evil Geniuses grabbed the final spot on the podium along with a cool $2,670,379.00 in cash.
As you can see, this tournament is massive. Fourth place took just under $1.8 million, 5th and 6th grabbed $1.14 million each, 7th and 8th $635K, 9th through 12th each got $381K, 13 through 16 won $127k, and 17th and 18th (last place) each went home with a little over $63K. So, there is no real loser in this Dota 2 competition.
Who Will Be There?
We don’t have the complete breakdown of teams yet, but we do know that this years theme will be the color purple – man, Oprah is probably thrilled. The 18 teams will be broken into two groups of nine where they will do group-stage battle.
A few teams that we can be sure will be there because they are cumulative points leaders are:
- Team Secret
- Virtus.Pro
- Evil Geniuses
- Vivi Gaming
- PSG.LGD
- Fnatic
- Team Liquid
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
The reigning champs are currently ranked 10th. Will they qualify for The International and beat the odds again? As much as I hate to disappoint OG fans, it’s very, very, very, unlikely that lightning will strike twice them. Look more towards the standard usual suspects to stand on the podium. If there is going to be a longshot win, it is going to come from a team like Fnatic or Team Liquid.
Remember you can get your TI9 Battle Pass to gain access to special modes, rewards, taunts, items, and consumables within Dota 2. There are super cool battle caches that will be available up until August 25th.