The first two days of the Dota 2 International 2016 have been a rollercoaster of emotions. We’ve seen old rivals face off, new hopefuls emerge, and most importantly fan favourites receive an early exit. Despite the chaos, one thing is for certain – this is shaping up to be the best Dota 2 International, ever. For me, at least, the production has been the highlight, with the drama coming a close second. Yes, the games are amazing, but that’s to be expected.
The have Augmented Reality heroes. I mean, come on?
Dear Arteezy
Oh Arteezy, you left Team Secret after last year’s International to join the champions Evil Geniuses. Unfortunately you did not win a major, and returned to Team Secret. Now you find yourself losing almost everything in the group stages, only to be knocked out in the first game of the loser bracket at the main event. Poor Arteezy, why do you do this to us? We’ve poured our hearts into your journey, and supported you all the way.
TFW you gotta join EG again now pic.twitter.com/Vlq2CIDiZg
— Team Empire (@team_empire) August 9, 2016
Team Secret were a hot topic for the upcoming International. The late addition of both Bulba and Arteezy meant they’d have to initially play in the European Qualifiers in order to qualify for the event. They did just that and managed to not drop a single game, qualifying for the event. In their preparation, however, they perhaps did not consider that every single team attending the International would be playing their hearts out for the $20 million prize pool, and thus met some fierce competition in the group stages.
Team Secret went 2-1-4 in the group stages which meant they would face LGD, the Chinese titans, in their first game of the loser-bracket. These games were best of one, and the analyst desk made a fair point when they said Team Secret are not the best team at fighting from the bottom. They were right, but did not expect them to go out in the first round.
Goodbye Team Secret, and farewell Arteezy.
GG for OG
Perhaps the biggest upset of the entire tournament happened last night when TI6 hopefuls OG were knocked out of the competition. OG came in as the number one favourites after winning two of Valve’s Dota 2 Majors over the past year. The came into the competition strong, topping Group A 4-3-0, not a single loss. The entered the winner bracket as the top seed, meeting MVP Phoenix in their first game. The first map was close, with MVP Phoenix taking the win 41-31. The second game was more in OG’s favour as Miracle’s Obsydian Destroyer soared ahead. Game three was a rather convincing win for MVP Phoenix as OG only managed four kills to their 36. This sent OG to the lower bracket, where they would meet TNC Gaming.
Now reaching the second round of the loser bracket, games were best of three. Having a day to reconcile and gather themselves, OG were poised to continue their route back to the Grand Final. Here they met TNC Gaming, a Pilipino team, and DeMoN (an American). Whatever happened over that previous day seemed irrelevant as OG were knocked out 2-0 by TNC, a team who started off in the lower bracket.
The final moments of game two saw a Rapier picked up by Miracle- for one last attempt to no avail.
Notable mentions
Another team who saw an early departure, and were perhaps fan favourites, were Natus Vincere. They lost their first game in the lower bracket against a strong Team Liquid, which saw their former teammate Kuroky visually upset after sending his former teammate Dendi home. Navi were not set to win the competition, but their absence last year and direct invite for 2016 gave fans hope as the former TI champions could perhaps resurface under the new roster. That was not meant to be, unfortunately, and Navi left as soon as they arrived.
At the moment both Alliance and Newbee (former champions) are in the lower bracket, set to face Fnatic and Team Liquid respectively. If they are both knocked out tonight it will be up to Evil Geniuses, the only remaining champions, to try defend their title and become the first team ever to win two International titles consecutively.
Last Updated: August 10, 2016
Pariah
August 10, 2016 at 12:55
That “consecutively” at the end is just icing if it happens. They’ll be the first to win two TIs at all.
But yeah DOTA is a fickle game. This tournament has almost always held surprises and upsets. And with major patches happening usually just before, it leaves teams little time to settle on the new meta, which makes for an interesting event.
UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy
August 10, 2016 at 13:53
OG is out?! Well I obviously missed a lot… I still hope Liquid takes it! Kuro deserves that win.
Matthew Holliday
August 10, 2016 at 15:54
There is so much to watch, its crazy
I have no idea whats going on this TI
Watching Alliances games last night was just embarrassing, after i heard they had got the gang together, I was like “lol, really?” then heard they were doing well and i was like “awesome”
then I watch a game and they fell to pieces…
but mostly the sheer amount of dota to watch this year, with lower bracket being bo3 and stuff is just overwhelming…
watching the games in the client, you miss out on so much of the production value stuff and things. the vods that go up on youtube need to include some of that stuff, cus I am not grinding my way through a 9 hour stream.