Main events of unbelievable The International 2019

On Sunday, 25 August, the first main esports tournament ended up. Sixteen best Dota teams were playing for the prize pool more than 15 million dollars. As it had been expected, the tournament turned out to be epic and full of shows.

So what will we remember about The International in Shanghai?

Dota 2 got the best players in its history

There was sceptical attitude towards the fact that the community are to see two-time champions of TI sooner or later. That is what happened in Shanghai. The European players from OG successfully defended the champion title. Besides, it was done in an absolutely crazy way, and the game of the best team was pleasant to watch. Having won the prestigious Dots tournament twice, and even in a row with the same roster, OG have written down their names in the esports history and now they bear a title of the best team in the game history in their own right.

The level, demonstrated by N0tail and the team, is just unbelievable. This year OG seemed to have no equal opponents and it is true. Over two years, the team earned 27 million dollars which is an absolutely crazy record which will not be broken for many years. 

Meltdown of the CIS Dota

The commentator of Dota, Vitalii «v1lat» Volochai, at the sixth The International gave his famous monologue started with the words «It is not our game», this is the expression which is the most suitable to describe the results of the CIS teams. 

In 2019, the region was represented by VP and Natus Vincere. At the beginning of the tournament, «Bears» had huge problems and them had a lot of difficulties to make it to the upper bracket. «Born to Win» did not have one map more which would be enough to meet with VP. It seemed to be a good performance in the group (despite the beginning), very worthy game of Na`Vi, nothing said about a disaster. Which happened later. 

Having no chance, VP got to the lower bracket where they had no other choice but to lose taking the 9-12 place. Na’Vi stopped at the 13-16 position because of a stupid mistake. And if almost nobody expected anything from «Born to Win», this result for VP is a fiasco.

Chinese Dota failure

Huge stress for Chinese fans was performance of their countrymen at TI9. Keen Gaming took the 16 place, RNG stopped at the 8 position of the table, VG – 5-6 place, and PSG.LGD – bronze finalists of the tournament. Despite rather good results, three teams in Top 8, one – the third place, these merits are not accepted well. The fault is home arena that reacts impulsively on any failure, especially on the home ground.

We can take a close look at the team PSG.LGD. For the third year in a row, the team gets in Top 4 and got out board for the third year. For the third year in a row the European team becomes world champion and for the third year in a row the Eastern dota stage stays at a loose end. On this background, we especially recall the final of last year’s tournament where the Chinese team got one step away from the desirable Aegis.

Battle of two champions

Even though the tournament looked rather lopsided, OG beat Team Liquid 3-1, as for the storyline, it was unforgettable. The battle of the current champions with the champions of 2017 will be long remembered by the fans.

Team Liquid showed a worthy game during the tournament and managed to make it to the grand final from the first losers’ round leaving behind such teams as PSG.LGD, Secret, EG. «Liquids» showed the game worthy of the final and it was the only team that managed to give at least some kind of opposition to the machine OG.

Ambivalent audience

Apart from the colourful games, The International is a holding place and, of course, audience of the tournament. And everything is great if we take a look at the first point, Mercedez Benz Arena has absolutely performed all its functions, there are a lot of questions towards the audience from the community.

It is obvious that Chinese fans mostly cheered up for their teams, so they did not show any support to the teams from the other regions. But silence and indifference during the ceremony of awarding the FIRST two-time world champion is a question to ask. 

Announcement of new heroes

Another key event was announcement of new heroes – Snapfire and Void Spirit. If the first hero is a rather funny and cheerful granny, appearance of the fourth spirit brother holds out something gloomy and dark. As for the lore of the game, Void Spirit is one of the key characters, so its appearance is awaited by many fans of Dota2 plot.

Conclusion

That is what happened at the main tournament in 2019. The next stop – Stockholm, where The International 2020 will be held.