The International 2017: review and tournament retrospective
Maksym YushytsynWelcome to the excursion in the history of The International. Last time, we remembered historical episodes at TI 2016. The «most breaking» tournament in the series, The International 2017 was noticed in that material. We will talk about it today. Have a nice immersion.
The last tournament beyond the DPC season
The International 2017 has become the last tournament in the series, to which teams were given direct invites. The system of Majors was still being finished by Valve, so teams were given invites by the principle of TI 6: performance during the season was the main factor of proceeding to TI. That year, the following teams went to Seattle directly: OG, Team Liquid, VP, EG, IG, Newbee. It was especially pleasant that a direct invite was received by the CIS team. But we will talk about it later.
Europe wins a rematch or the triumph of Team Liquid
2017 was too successful for Liquid. KuroKy and the company achieved victories at six large tournaments before The International 7. The changed roster brought results after TI6. Miracle- was unmatched that year.
It was not surprising that the European team had been considered to be one of the main favorites before the start of The International 7. It became clear in matches of the group stage that Liquid wanted to win the title. Having passed the group stage almost perfectly, the team went directly to the upper bracket. But unexpectedly for many people, Liquid lost to IG in the first match with a score of 1-2. It seemed that they would suffer from OG’s fate but KuroKy and the company did not want to give up.
Team Liquid beat Secret in the second round of the lower bracket. KuroKy eliminated his old friend Puppey. Then, Liquid dealt with Team Empire and they were waited in the following match by VP. The battle between «the Bears» and «the horses» has become one of the most spectacular matches of the tournament. Liquid who were the winners defeated two Chinese teams on their way to the final: LGD and LGD.Forever Young. The European team literally destroyed the opponents from Newbee in the final.
Of course, besides the fantastic performance by Team Liquid, the community remembered KuroKy’s tears who finally earned the deserved trophy.
China’s failure
In 2017, China was too close to ruin the tradition of rotation of the champions at TI. The top 4 of The International 7 included 3 teams from the Celestial: LGD, LGD.Forever Young, and Newbee. But as we already know, Team Liquid left no chances to their eastern colleagues. Despite the Chinese teams were fighting decently during the whole tournament, the failure in its final stage will be heard from in the future. Because the next The International will be fatal for this region but we will tell about this later.
The performance of the CIS region
CIS was represented by two teams in 2017: VP and Empire. VP lacked only a bit but Empire even beat all expectations.
Virtus.Pro came to the tournament as the favorite, like Liquid and OG. They spent a year nicely, having brought one of the best finals of the Major in history and received an invite absolutely for a reason. Despite «the bears» had some issues in the group, they made it to the winner’s bracket. There, the team beat LGD, the top team both on the Chinese and world Dota scene, in the first round. In the second round, the team fought with LGD again but it was Forever Young this time. «The bears» did not win the match but they were fighting decently. They were waiting for their opponent in the lower bracket and it was Team Liquid. As we have noticed earlier, the match was simply fantastic. Virtus.Pro lacked only a bit. The first map of the match lasted more than 100 minutes but Liquid finished the business in their favorite manner. Virtus.Pro placed 5th-6th, which still remains the organization’s best results with any rosters.
Everyone expected such matches from VP and the result was even better but Empire was probably expected to achieve nothing. The team had faced issues with Chappie’s visa before the start of the tournament and the team had to find a stand-in. «The last hope of CIS» Roman Resolut1on who initially had to work in the analytical studio became the salvation. Despite «the imperials» performed weakly in the group stage, they created real chaos in the lower bracket. The team beat C9 and the champions of 2015, EG, after that. The future champions, Team Liquid managed to stop their victorious rush.
2017 was the second year after 2011 in terms of the success of the performance of CIS teams at TI. Later, VP tried to win Aegis twice but none of them were successful. But as it is said: «This is another story».
The announcement of Artifact
Undoubtedly, the announcement of the new game in the Dota universe has become another big event at TI7. Valve prepared something special for the public: a collectible card game in the Dota setting. The community was intrigued, to say the least. There were discussions right after the announcement that we would see Artifact The International and that this game will move Hearthstone from the leading position on the CCG market. No one knew at that moment what a complete failure Artifact would appear to be.
The conclusion
The International 2017 is a transiting and breaking moment in Dota history. The first official DPC season, the rejection of direct invitations, and the system of regional qualifiers would be announced after it. This was the last tournament, which took place in familiar Seattle. This was the tournament with the most devastating score in the final. This was a memorable tournament. See you next time.