The International 2019: review and tournament retrospective
Yuriy SheremetAnd now we have approached the last held The International - TI9. We have covered a long way to appear here. So, let us begin. Start out for 2019, the year which became a culmination of the whole Dota history.
Welcome to Shanghai
As we have already mentioned in the previous episode, The International tournaments became off-premise. It also happened to TI9. In 2019, Vancouver got replaced by Shanghai. Valve chose a major Chinese city as a place for holding the ninth The International for a reason. All the esports community knows how popular computer sports are in China. It especially concerns Dota. So the decision to hold the major tournament of the industry in Shanghai was not surprising. And the prize pool of the tournament really amazed everybody. In 2019, teams were fighting for 34 million dollars. It was 10 million bigger than the previous prize pool, this raise had happened only in 2014. It is likely that the great weight of the money was put in by Chinese fans as this tournament became a home tournament for them.
Road to The International 9
Remembering each The International, you may not remember the path participating teams took. In 2019, Valve corrected the DPC system. Now there were fewer final tournaments. Instead of 22, we got 10 championships: 5 Majors and 5 Minors. The number of tournaments decreased but the number of direct invites increased. Twelve teams got to the ninth International without qualifiers. The other six places were given to each of the regions.
When the number of tournaments changed, the leaders of the DPC bracket did not change dramatically. The upper part of the bracket was ruled by Secret, VP, and Vici winning all three Major tournaments of the season. EG, Team Liquid, PSG.LGD, Fnatic, NiP, TNC Predator, OG, Alliance, and Keen Gaming joined them that year. The qualifiers for the tournament let Newbee, Infamous, Chaos Esports Club, Na`Vi, Royal Never Give Up, and Mineski perform at the tournament. The list was revealed and that was the time for the tournament itself.
The veterans returned: Alliance and Na`Vi
The International 2019 was a gift for true olds. Na`Vi and Alliance returned to the tournament. These are the teams that created one of the most epic finals in the history of The International and Dota in general. Of course, the rosters of the teams had changed sich the times of “El Classico” in 2013 and the game of these teams was far from the one that the teams showed during the final of The International 2013.
The Swedish team got to The International 2019 directly leaving Gambit behind and winning the trip at the last major of the season. At the very tournament, the Swedish players lacked only one map to get to the upper bracket of the playoff. They lacked the same to advance in the losers’ bracket. All the fans of Alliance remember the aggravating miss click while drafting that influenced the result drastically. As a result – the tag champion of The International 2013 took the sixteenth position. The same happened to Na`Vi
The CIS team showed a worthy battle at the group stage but could not make it to the upper part of the bracket. Na`Vi were dragged down by inexperience and overestimating their skills. The champions of The International 2011 finished together with Alliance on the sixteenth place.
VP’s failure
The International 2019 turned out to be disastrous for the CIS region. If Na`Vi were not expected to show special results, the second place of the DPC bracket, the team Virtus.Pro, disappointed many people.
Bears approached the tournament as one of the main favorites. But the group stage made it clear that the team had serious problems. The team could hardly pull themselves together and make it to Top 4 of the group providing themselves with getting to the upper part of the playoff bracket. But the playoff did not last a long time for ‘Bears’. At the first match, the gamers got defeated by LGD 0-2 and at the losers’ bracket, they were not able to beat RNG and left the tournament losing two maps. As a result, 9-12 place, the worst in the history of the tag.
Viva Peru
If the CIS teams could be considered one of the main disappointments of The International 2019, the Peruvians from Infamous became a real revelation. The team from South America forced action in the group. And the playoff dazzled even more.
Even though Infamous were not able to get to Top 4 of the group and pass to the winners’ bracket, they did a great battle in the losers’ bracket. Having beaten Keen Gaming and Newbee, the team had to play Team Secret. The Europeans grands managed to deal with Infamous even though there were some problems. As a result, the Peruvians took the 7-8 place which had not been expected.
They wrote the history again
How can we speak about The International without remembering the main triumphants. In 2019 something happened that many people had been discussing for a long time. For the first time in 9 years, we got a two-time champion in the world. Before that, no team, no player had raised Aegis over the head twice. OG managed to do it not only for the second year in a row but also with the same roster.
At the group stage, the team made it clear that the gamers were not going to trail far behind. The confident game provided the players with the first place of the group and getting into winners’ bracket. And that was where the deja vu happened.
The first opponent was Newbee who signed the North American roster VJ. As well as at the eighth The International, OG did not leave them a chance. At the second stage, N0tail again met with his ex-friend, Fly. Again OG appeared to be stronger. At the winners’ final, the gamers again met with a principal opponent – PSG.LGD. For the second time, OG managed to send FY and the team to the lower bracket and made it to the grand final.
Another grand of the west Dota, Team Liquid, joined them at the decisive match. KuroKy also aimed at the second championship. But his dreams were not to come true. Even though Liquid managed to win the first map, the next three of them resulted in OG’s final breath.
Wisp by Ana and Tiny by JerAx brought the purple-green the second championship and the officially best Dota team of all times to us.
Conclusion
Here is the end of our trip. We became witnesses of history. We are to see the anniversary tenth TI. That is for sure, we will have something to remember after it. And now, see you later!
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.