The International 2022 group stage results: twists and turns, COVID-19 and surprises

The first stage of the Dota 2 World Championship has come to an end. Within the group stage, 90 bo2 series were played, as well as tiebreakers in both groups. We wrote earlier about how the last round of the group stage ended. Below you can find the position in the groups and a brief analysis of past events.

Group A

Tournament table:

At the beginning of group A, there were no surprises, except for the fact that Hokori took cards from stronger teams. Unpleasantly surprised at the start of PSG.LGD, who failed the first game day, but then were able to rehabilitate themselves. An extremely pleasant surprise was the performance of Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid. The first got into the tournament by the sum of DPC points, and MATUMBAMAN and the team made their way through the Last Chance Qualifier.

A real tragedy happened to the Royal Never Give Up team. The first half of group A, the Chinese looked like clear favorites and showed an excellent game. But then the whole team fell ill with COVID-19 with symptoms. They played out the RNG group stage, sitting in separate numbers and in a sad physical condition. As a result, the Chinese champions lost 4 matches in a row with a score of 0:2. The team will start its way to the playoffs from the lower bracket. If the team cannot recover or heal, then in this state Royal Never Give Up will most likely take the top 16 in the tournament. The pandemic is not over yet, this is worth remembering.

Soniqs and BetBoom Team performed the weakest. They lost in the tiebreaker to BOOM Esports and take places in the top 20.

Group B

Tournament table:

In group B, Thunder Awaken and Tundra Esports were able to please. Thunder Awaken became the first team from South America to reach the upper bracket of The International playoffs. Tundra showed a quality game and did not lose a single match, finishing with a 5-4-0 statistic. Disappointed Team Spirit, who lost maps too often against the teams they should have beaten. As a result, the reigning world champions will start their journey with a bo1 match in the lower bracket. Talon Esports played well, they lacked quite a bit to get into the final stage of TI. They lost to Entity 0-2 in the tiebreaker for 8th place in the group.

Tomorrow, according to the plan, is a day off, after which the playoff matches of The International 2022 will start. Traditionally, on the first game day, we will see bo1 matches in the lower bracket, as well as two bo3 matches in the winners' bracket.

Recall that The International 2022 runs from October 15 to 30 this year. The top 20 teams from around the world compete in LAN format for the title of world champion, as well as the largest prize pool of the year. At the moment, its amount is $16,671,005. The venue is Suntec Singapore and Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore.

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