The International 2011: review and tournament retrospective
Yuriy SheremetEven a person who is far from esports heard about the tournaments called The International. This event gathers dozens of thousands of Dota 2 fans and millions of viewers on broadcasts. Money, which can be compared to prizes at tennis, golf, and hockey championships, are up for grabs at this tournament. Almost everyone knows about The International but not everyone remembers how everything started. Let us remember about the very first tournament of the series in history. We are going to Cologne, Germany back in 2011.
The birth of Dota 2
In 2011, esports was not as big as we have got used to. At that moment, all professional teams were playing the first version of Dota and a prize pool of 10 000 dollars seemed obscenely big. Everything changed when the company, which had developed the legendary CS and Half-Life, together with the author of the original DotA, Icefrog, announced the second part of the worldwide-loved custom map. Yes-yes, DotA was a custom map for Warcraft 3 then, despite it had a big fanbase. Almost all were skeptical about Valve’s idea but then the company announced the tournament The International 2011.
The unimaginable prize pool
As we have noticed earlier, prize pools were low in 2011, compared to the modern standards. However, the prize pool of the first The International seemed to be colossal. The winning team earned a check for 1.000.000 dollars. Once again, very many professional players, including the captain of Na’Vi, Ivan «ArtStyle» Antonov did not believe that such winnings were real. But as we already know, a million was just the beginning but we will talk about this later.
Invites to beta test
The tournament itself was remembered not only for bright and beautiful matches but for the fact of the first appearance of Dota on monitor screens. Of course, everything looked not that good. At that moment, the game was in a state of early beta-test. Only the chosen ones were able to play it. Even some teams, which had received an invitation to the first TI, received access to the game just in a week before the start of the event. THat’s why The International seemed to be inaccessible and exclusive. Certainly, everyone was able to buy a key after its end but only a few people had an opportunity «to touch» the game by themselves during the first TI.
Regarding the teams, which have received direct invitations – there were 16. The list looked in the following way: Meet Your Makers, MiTH.Trust, Natus Vincere, Virus Gaming, MUFC, TyLoo, Mineski, IG, EHOME, Scythe Gaming, Storm Games Clan, OK.Nirvana.CN, Ok.Nirvana.Int, GosuGamers, Next Evolution, Moscow Five, and the substitute team – NORDIC-eSport. The majority of these teams disbanded after the tournament. But such tags as Na’Vi, EHOME, IG, and Mineski are famous nowadays too but it would not happen without the first The International.
The format of the event and the gameplay of the game
The format of The International 2011 was different from the two-group system, which is familiar now. The teams were divided into 4 groups, each group included 4 teams. The top two teams from every quartet proceeded to the upper bracket of the playoffs. The rest teams started their way from the loser’s bracket. The remarkable thing is that all matches, except for the winner’s and loser’s finals, were played in a bo1 format, like the group stage.
The game, which is in early beta, the playoff bracket with bo1 matches. The International 2011 was a real test, which was passed only by the strongest.
The bug with Gem
Continuing the topic of the Dota gameplay at The International 1, we can’t but mention probably the biggest occasion of the championship. It happened in the first match of the upper bracket between the representatives of the CIS region – Na`Vi и M5.
Moscow five felt pretty confident in that match. The team was leading in the match, so it decided to buy a Gem of True Sight to reinforce its advantage on the map in general. But things went wrong, the game thought in the opposite way. The problem was that M5’s Gem simply stopped working. When the mid player of M5, having taken invisibility, went to check the situation with a Gem, the item did not show Sentry Ward, which was staying on Na’Vi’s ground. Such a bug led to that Na’Vi, having killed Storm Spirit, broke the mid lane and won the match and the tournament, as a result. Who knows how this situation would have ended if the Gem had worked correctly.
The main victory
Of course, The International can’t be remembered without the main triumphant. Then, they were the Ukrainian team Natus Vincere. Before the tournament, Na’Vi had been considered to be the main favorites. At that moment, the team had been performing nicely in the first DotA. The group stage of The International just confirmed it.
The team did not lose a match in Group D and made it to the playoffs from the first place. There, they faced M5 in the first map and advanced further through the bracket, not without the help of the bug. The second opponent for Natus Vincere was the Chinese team IG, which was defeated by Na’Vi but it was difficult. The winner’s final was over for Natus Vincere with a score of 2-0. The CIS team faced EHOME, which was considered to be tough at the moment, in the final. NaVi managed to beat the Chinese top team in the epic battle with a score of 3-1 and won the championship.
This victory is still the most important one for Dota 2 in the CIS region. After the triumph of Natus Vincere, there was no team in the region that advanced to the top 4 of The International. Na’Vi made it three times in a row but we will talk about it the next time when we will remember the first «official» The International.
Yuriy Sheremet – Expert in mobile gaming and esports among shooters and MOBA games.
At EGamersWorld, Yuriy, as in 2020 when he joined the portal, works with content, albeit with adjustments to his area of responsibility.