The main event of Dota 2‘s The International 4 tournament is nearly upon us, and we’ve now got a pretty good idea of which teams will be battling it out at KeyArena. Considering that most of the commentators yesterday weren’t actually sure on which teams would be going where (due to multiple games being played at once, and the round-robin format meaning teams could be knocked out due to games they weren’t playing) I figured it might be a good idea to elaborate on what we know.
Eight teams will be going to KeyArena on 18 July to play a whole lot of Dota 2, and right now we know who seven of them are. As the winners of Phase Two, Vici Gaming and Evil Geniuses are advancing straight to the Winner’s Bracket. The rest have yet to be seeded (although we’ll know more tonight and tomorrow night), but we’ll definitely be seeing Team DK, Invictus Gaming, Natus Vincere, Cloud 9, and LGD Gaming. The remaining slot will be filled by either Newbee or Titan, who will be fighting it out for that placement tomorrow evening.
LGD earned their slot earlier today by convincingly hammering Team Liquid’s Dota 2 team in a best of three. Liquid played exceptionally well throughout the qualifiers and the playoffs, showing off fantastic teamwork – and surprising many, because up until then, they’d been playing considerably below expectations. So well done! Not the result they were hoping for but a hell of a performance nonetheless, and one that earned them a cool $50,000.
You may have also noticed that TI3 champions Alliance haven’t been mentioned anywhere. Alas, they’ve already been knocked out: they went 6-9 in the playoffs, sending them home with a 12th place finish out of the 16 teams competing.
Interesting facts: this means that there are two American Dota 2 teams (Evil Geniuses and Cloud 9), four Chinese teams (Vici Gaming, Team DK, Invictus Gaming, and LGD Gaming) and one European team (Na’Vi) currently in. The remaining two “maybe” teams – Titan and Newbee – are Malaysian and Chinese, respectively.
So! Vici, EG, DK, Invictus, Na’Vi, Cloud 9, LGD, and either Newbee or Titan will be fighting it out between 18 July and 21 July for the Aegis, and the title of Bestest Dota 2 Team Of That Particular Moment. And also just under $5 million USD, but I’m sure the pride is more important.
Published: Jul 13, 2014 09:35 pm