With more than 20 million on the line lets take a look at who’s hot and who’s not hot. First I’ll start with who’s hot after the group stage and day 2 on the main stage.
Evil Geniuses, last years international winners, return this year with some new old blood. After a mess of roster changes settling with only one member Aui_2000 being changed for past team member Zai causing them to go through the qualifier instead of getting an invite. EG are back placing 2nd in their group stage and showing us the godlike team work that made the first team put their names on the Aegis of champions twice.
Digital Chaos, a team formed from members being kicked from other team right after huge wins is a great revenge story. With an amazing fighting spirit that won’t quit, DC have already gone higher than the teams that kicked them. with the revenge and meme lord SirActionSlacks as their substitute DC placed second in their group have kept on climbing on the main stage.
EHOME, after making it through on a wild card spot. EHOME are here in full force showing. From wild card to first in their group stage off of some amazing team fights, EHOME are ready for the main stage. Legendary player Iceiceice is back for his 6th International hoping to get his and his team’s names etched onto the Aegis of Champions.
MVP Phoenix wouldn’t let Nexon closing the Korean Dota 2 servers stop them. Thankfully Valve picked up the servers so they could keep playing. MVP having been playing an amazing team death match RNG Dota 2 with their unbelievable Phantom Assassin crits and amazingly short games. MVP will be pulling their strength from the RNG gods all the way to the Aegis of Champions.
TNC underdog known by the nickname “Jimmy and the boys” that was assembled 2 weeks before the qualifier, with only some small tournaments under their belts. No one expected them to win the David VS Goliath match against OG but they pulled off a 2:0 victory with some amazing team fight coordination.
Wings responsible for bringing the Drow strategy back into the light and some absolutely clowny hero picks like Pudge and Techies. With extremely efficient farming and a nightmare to draft against Wings are on their way to a top 4 finish. I can’t wait to see what other crazy picks they will bring out on their way to the top.
Now let’s move to the not hot, showing that MMR isn’t everything and teamwork is everything.
OG dominated their group stage finishing first. Just to get to the main stage and get knocked out in two series. People had high hopes after OG claimed 2 Valve majors in the last year and were favoured to win the international. 9K MMR player Miracle seems to have back to back days of underperformance combined with some drafting errors ended their ti6 dreams.
Team secret, dream team turned into meme team. A team of hand-picked players designed to win that went and finished low in the group and got knocked out on day one of the main stage. With a combination of no teleports coming in from supports when lanes were getting dove and comically bad usage of the in-game item black king bar, either activating it at the wrong time or just refusing to buy one when needed, Secret secure their bottom 4 spot.
Team Liquid, the masters of second place. A team known of star power needed to place first. Now fighting to drag themselves up from the lower bracket with a very unsure play style. Confusing the analysts by finishing second to last in their group stage.
The international ends with the finals on Saturday the 13th and I can’t wait to see who is crowned the champion. On Thursday night the 11th the all-star match will take place and rumor is a new hero will be picked during the match.
Patrick Algeo digital sports fan and writer for All Your Base Online
