The International 2018 is the concluding tournament of the Dota Pro Circuit and the eighth annual edition of The International. The tournament will be held on Canadian soil for the first time, as it moves to the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada.[1] For the first time, a point system based on official sponsored Majors and Minors were used to determine invites to The International.
Format [ edit ]
Open Qualifers - June 14th - June 17th, 2018 Twelve Regional Single-elimination Open Qualifiers, two brackets for each region. The winners of each Open Qualifier will advance to the respective Main Qualifier.
- Regional Qualifiers - June 18th - June 25th, 2018 Six Regional Qualifiers. The winners of each Main Qualifier will advance directly to The International. The runners-up of the China, Southeast Asia, and North America Main Qualifiers will advance directly to The International. The third place team of the North America Main Qualifiers will advance directly to The International.
- Group Stage - August 15th - August 18th, 2018 All eighteen teams are divided into two groups where they play in a Round Robin format. All matches are played in a Bo2 . The top four teams in each group advance to the Upper Bracket of the Main Event. The bottom team in each group is eliminated. The remaining teams advance to the Lower Bracket of the Main Event.
- Main Event - August 20th - August 25th, 2018 Sixteen teams play in a double-elimination format over six days. Eight teams begin in the Upper Bracket, eight in the Lower Bracket. First Lower Bracket round is Bo1 , Grand Finals are Bo5 , all others rounds are Bo3 .
Broadcast Talent [ edit ]
Prize Pool [ edit ]
The initial prize pool of the tournament is $1,600,000 USD .
An additional 25% of all Battle Pass sales are added to the total prize pool.[5] These sales include Battle Pass purchases at multiple levels as well as points purchases used to level up the Battle Pass in game.
The current total prize pool is $24,457,043 USD ($22,857,043 USD added).[5]
Place $ USD Percent Team $10,761,099 44% TBD $3,913,127 16% TBD $2,567,990 10.5% TBD $1,711,993 7% TBD 5th-6th $1,100,567 4.5% TBD TBD 7th-8th $611,426 2.5% TBD TBD 9th-12th $366,856 1.5% TBD TBD TBD TBD 13th-16th $122,285 0.5% TBD TBD TBD TBD 17th-18th $61,143 0.25% TBD TBD
Participants [ edit ]
Invited Teams [ edit ]
Qualified Teams [ edit ]
Results [ edit ]
Group Stage [ edit ]
Click here for more information about the Group Stage matches.
Main Event [ edit ]
Upper Bracket Round 1 (Bo3) Group A Seed 1 Group B Seed 3/4 Group B Seed 2 Group A Seed 3/4 Group B Seed 1 Group A Seed 3/4 Group A Seed 2 Group B Seed 3/4 Upper Bracket Round 2 (Bo3) Upper Bracket Finals (Bo3) Lower Bracket Round 1 (Bo1) Group A Seed 5 Group B Seed 7/8 Group B Seed 6 Group A Seed 7/8 Group B Seed 5 Group A Seed 7/8 Group A Seed 6 Group B Seed 7/8 Lower Bracket Round 2 (Bo3) Lower Bracket Round 3 (Bo3) Lower Bracket Round 4 (Bo3) Lower Bracket Round 5 (Bo3) Lower Bracket Finals (Bo3) Grand Finals (Bo5)
Click here for more information about the Main Event matches.
Additional Data [ edit ]
Country Representation [ edit ]
# Country / Region #P ΔTI7 Players 1 China 27 +5 Agressif, Ame, BoBoKa, Chalice, eLeVeN, Fade, Faith, Fenrir, fy, Freeze, LaNm, Moogy, Kaka, Ori, Paparazi灬, Pyw, Q, Sccc, Somnus丶M, Srf, Sylar, XCJ, XinQ, Xxs, Yang, zhizhizhi, Zyd 2 Philippines 8 -3 Abed, Armel, DJ, Kuku, ninjaboogie, Raven, Sam_H, Tims 3 Russia 7 +2 9pasha, Nofear, nongrata, RAMZES666, RodjER, Silent, Solo 4 United States 6 +2 CCnC, MSS, ppd, Sneyking, SVG, UNiVeRsE 5 Malaysia 4 0 MidOne, Moon, Mushi, xNova 5 Brazil 4 +4 Duster, hFn, Kingrd, tavo 5 Sweden 4 +1 Pajkatt, pieliedie, s4, zai 5 Ukraine 4 -1 ALWAYSWANNAFLY, Iceberg, No[o]ne, Resolut1on 9 Denmark 3 +1 Ace, Cr1t-, N0tail 9 Finland 3 +1 JerAx, MATUMBAMAN, Topson 11 Germany 2 -1 Fata, KuroKy 11 Jordan 2 0 Miracle-, YapzOr 11 Pakistan 2 +1 Suma1L, YawaR 11 Australia 2 0 ana, kpii 11 Canada 2 -2 Arteezy, EternaLEnVy 11 Israel 2 0 33, Fly 16 Bulgaria 1 0 MinD_ContRoL 16 Estonia 1 0 Puppey 16 France 1 +1 7ckngMad 16 Macau 1 0 ddc 16 Lebanon 1 0 GH 16 Romania 1 +1 w33 16 Singapore 1 +1 iceiceice 16 Thailand 1 +1 Jabz
Additional Content [ edit ]
Streams [ edit ]
VODs [ edit ]
Previews [ edit ]
Starting on August 8th, Valve released a series of videos recapping the 18 teams' path to The International 2018.[8]
It's easy to forget that the personalities around the scene are as excited as we — the fans — for TI8. Until you check social media, that is. The first day was filled with tweets with shoutouts and interesting facts. Here's what you might have missed.
The stats
Alan "Nahaz" Bester was — as we've come to expect — spot on with some stats tweets. In the following two, he brought up some interesting tidbits that you may have missed.
Game 2 vs @FNATIC was only the 2nd time in over 350 games with their current roster that Liquid have been held to 1 kill or fewer at 30:00 (they were held to 0 kills in a Bucharest Major loss to EG). — Nahaz (@NahazDota) August 15, 2018
Since TI7, Wraith King had been picked 30 times in 1255 pro #Dota2 LAN Drafts, with an 8-22 record. He's the most picked hero so far at #TI8, with 8 appearances in the first 14 drafts at the event.https://t.co/dapPSxmzKa pic.twitter.com/uLjWu5jnyv — Nahaz (@NahazDota) August 15, 2018
Paul "Redeye" Chaloner may be most known as one of the hosts for this year's TI but people forget that part of his job is to keep track of stats. So here's a nice summary of day 1:
Day 1 #TI8VG.J Storm 4-0Evil Geniuses 5-1Top Farmer: @SumaaaaiL 747gpmTop KDA: @Resolut1on_ 16.40Top ave kills: @w33haa 11.50Best gpm: Sumail 963Heroes played: 83Heroes picked or banned: 93Longest game: 67:42 TNC v VGShortest game: 18:24 Secret v Serenity — Redeye (@PaulChaloner) August 16, 2018
The funny
While Dota is very serious for some, others choose to try to find the funny side. Ken "Hot_Bid" Chen — producer at Beyond the Summit — is a good example of the latter. This is what he Tweeted out as Fnatic held a huge lead against Team Liquid:
Fnatic up 9k at 12 minutesDotaplus: 50-50It knows #trusttheplus — Ken Chen (@Hot_Bid) August 15, 2018
There was a unique incident during the Evil Geniuses vs Invictus Gaming game. You can read all about it in our daily recap but a TL;DR is that Tal "Fly" Aizik and Artour "Arteezy" Babaev were forced to switch roles. Never missing an opportunity at a good joke, Team Empire took to Twitter:
I am your carry now pic.twitter.com/3aISfawOHW — Team Empire (@team_empire) August 15, 2018
Compendium predictions are serious business. But that doesn't mean you can't have a bit of fun with them. Adam Erwann Shah "Adam" bin Akhtar Hussein was half serious, half joking with this tweet
If you don't have fnatic for longest game average you're doing something wrong #protips — Adam Shah (@_adamdota) August 15, 2018
The callouts
Sometimes you see something isn't right and just have to bring it to the attention of the general public. Could be a hero, an item, a player, or something else. Nahaz has — for a while now — had issues with the strength of Ring of Aquila and he thinks it has gotten out of hand:
You know Aquila is OP when Huskar has Wraith Band as a starting item 😅 #TI8 — Nahaz (@NahazDota) August 15, 2018
The Dota community has their own selection of hated heroes to avoid at all costs. Well when there's not millions of dollars on the line, of course. We're not sure if Maurice "KheZu" Gutmann think these pickups are funny or sad, but we're sure it's a callout.
Broodmother, Alchemist, Huskar & Omniknight all picked in the first round of matches, OMEGALUL — Maurice Gutmann (@KheZzu_) August 15, 2018
The first day had quite a few issues with the stream. Studanal — a Russian casting studio — seemed to enjoy it as much as the viewers, prompting them to call out TI8 as a whole.
TI8 Production Value pic.twitter.com/1BVS5YNQf5 — Студия Аналитики (@studanal) August 15, 2018
The shout-outs
While there were a few call-outs, those were vastly outnumbered by the shout-outs. Omar "Madara" Dabasas was amongst the first to give a shout-out to Amer "Miracle-" al-Barqawi for his insane manta bait, which we included in our best moments compilation:
@Liquid_Miracle is actually such a boss what a manta bait for black hole and Liquid all together for comebacking in this game is just fuckn insane — Omar Dabachach (@MadaraDotA2) August 15, 2018
Jonathan "Loda" Berg may have retired from competative play but that doesn't mean he doesn't keep tabs on his old teammates. So when Gustav "s4" Magnusson pulled off some great Enigma plays he decided to give him a shout-out sprinkled with a bit of self-distance.
S4 black hole. Is that even balanced? 🤔 — Jonathan Berg (@LodaBerg) August 15, 2018
Redeye is on top of his stats, as we saw earlier. Here's a nice mix between a shout-out and a tidbit: Kuro "KuroKy" Salehi Tahasomi has played more than 150 games at TI, more than anyone else. Congratulations!
The next game for @TeamLiquid (2nd game vs OG) Will be the 150th game at The International (all time) for @LiquidKuroKy - The first player to reach the mark in dota history. #TI8 pic.twitter.com/6flxe4Iprh — Redeye (@PaulChaloner) August 15, 2018
Jonathan "PimpmuckL" Liebig made it to his first TI and he seems to be enjoying every moment of it. To express the love for his job, he gave Team Liquid and PSG.LGD a shout-out.
The first day of The International 2018 is over, and what a day it has been! We saw the rise of underdogs, favorites stumble, and games that came down to the wire. Everything anyone could ever wish to get out of TI. If the rest of the tournament is as good as this, we’re in for a real treat.
* * *
Group A: EG looks on point
Group A was the main focus of the day, as we saw three rounds of play out of the group. After the dust had settled, we saw a big surprise as Evil Geniuses took the lead in their group. The boys in blue did so while looking very impressive as well. While the entire team performed well, no one could outshine Syed Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan. After a rather lackluster season for the young mid-player, it seems like he has found his way back to the form that helped carry EG to winning the tournament back in 2015. In EG’s first series, we saw one of the most dominant performances of the day from Suma1l as he killed Liu "Freeze" Chang’s Huskar 4 times in the first 6 minutes while also having time to squeeze in a kill on Zhou "Yang" Haiyang’s Legion Commander. With a result as good as this, it’s all about conserving this momentum for day 2 for EG.
While the record may not tell the entire story, the group favorites struggled on the first day of play. Both Team Liquid and PSG.LGD went from utter dominance at their last showing — the Supermajor — to looking very human during the first day. While Liquid managed to sneak off with a series win against OG, PSG.LGD failed to secure themself a single 2:0 victory. And there’s no room for those results at The International. After the first day we find Liquid in 2nd place of the group while PSG.LGD is tied for 4th, the last upper bracket spot.
OG managed to push Team Liquid in their series, much thanks to some great teamfighting.
For the aforementioned OG, the day ended with a 1:3 score, but that’s a result they should wear as a badge of honor. OG had the hardest day 1 schedule by far as they had to go up against both Liquid and PSG.LGD. They tied in their first series — versus PSG.LGD — and had Liquid up against the ropes in the first game of their series. So fans of OG should completely ignore the results of the day and instead focus on their play. OG might not be in the top 4 right now, but if they keep this up you shouldn’t be surprised if they snag one of those highly-coveted upper bracket spots.
It still won’t be easy for Johan "n0tail" Sundstein and co. as most games of Group A turned out to be surprisingly competitive. No team in the group went without winning at least a single game, setting us up for a nail-biting group. Teams like Fnatic and Mineski showed off their worth with some solid performances. It was predicted that Group A would be the group of death, and after the first day of play we can’t do anything more than agree with that prophecy.
Group B: VGJ.Storm makes a statement
Coming into day 1 of groups, Team Serenity definitely had their work cut out for them. After a "warm up" game against Team Secret — the team that placed 4th in the DPC — they’d have to take on Virtus.pro, the number 1 ranked team heading into TI8. With this schedule, even a 0:4 record wouldn’t have been terrible for them. A 1:3 day would’ve been a big success. Well, Serenity said "screw that," and made a huge splash as they took a game off both the top teams, ending the day 2:2. With a considerably easier schedule ahead of them, they’ve made themselves a team competing for an upper bracket spot in Group B.
However, they weren't the biggest winners of the day. That award goes to VGJ.Storm. The team didn’t look great at Dota Summit 9 just a few weeks ago but really came to life once the group stage kicked off. They main reason as to why they impressed wasn’t that they went undefeated, but rather that they did so as a unit. No one player stood out. Instead, if one of them faltered, the others were quick to pick up the slack. Thanks to this, they managed to beat both Team Secret — who had a rough first day — and Vici Gaming: two teams who were seen as having potential to compete for the Aegis coming into the tournament.
Speaking of VG and Secret: the two had a rough start to TI, to say the least. Coming into day 1, they both had matches that were seen as good starts to the tournament — "ramp-up" games to figure out the meta. But instead, the pair faltered. We’ve already talked about Secret’s disappointing results — 1:1 against Serenity, 0:2 again VGJ.S — but VG had an even worse first day. After being seen as a potential outsider, their storyline has now been warped into one of potential failure as they dropped both their series 0:2. While VGJ.S may have caught them off guard, there’s no excuses for VG’s losses against TNC Predator.
Group favorite VP looked like they might drop a game to Optic but a huge echo slam from Rodjer swings the game in their favor
As for the group favorites Virtus.Pro, they did roughly what was expected of them. The single-game drop against Serenity was a miscalculation for sure, but they looked solid throughout all games. VP did show their human side as they fell behind slightly in their matchup against OpTic Gaming, but fought their way back into the game and won, showing that you cannot relax when playing them. They ended the day 3:1 and we can expect to see them in the upper bracket unless they they decide to go completely off script for the remaining days.
Moment of the day
The best moment of the day came during EG’s first game against Invictus Gaming in Group A. After some confusion during the drafting stage, Tal "Fly" Aizik and Artour "Arteezy" Babaev didn’t pick their heroes before the post-draft selection time was over. When time expires, the remaining heroes are randomly assigned to the remaining players. In this case Fly was put on the Clinkz while Arteezy received the Phoenix, not the correct roles. Usually, this isn’t a problem, the players simply swap back. However, the rules for The International says that you’re not allowed to swap heroes. This meant that we saw Arteezy play support and Fly play carry. It all worked out in the end, but it must have been a scary match for EG.
iG’s reaction pretty much expressed what viewers felt
And poor Day[9] didn’t know what to think
Recommended game of the day
OG surprised many with a strong performance on the opening day. Their series versus Liquid was highly entertaining, with game 1 being the crowning jewel of day 1. The entire game was a big roller coaster, both in terms of networth and emotions. Until the last few minutes, there was no way of telling who was going to walk off with the win.
Meta report
Most picked:
— (19 games)
— (17 games)
— (16 games)
A few surprises in the most-picked category. Crystal Maiden being highly sought after doesn’t come as a big surprise, as she was seen as one of the better lane supports coming into the tournament. What is surprising is to see Wraith King on top. As it turns out, the hero is incredibly flexible in the current meta, as we saw him played in basically every position but mid during day 1. His ability to use skeletons for both team fighting and pushing seems to be what pushed him over the edge.
The fact that we also find Vengeful Spirit on the list means that both TrentPax and Lyrical have earned themselves some bragging points. When we reached out to them to see what their predictions were for TI8, both called out Venge as a potential dark horse for most-picked hero. Her ability to secure kills with Magic Missile and remove armour with Wave of Terror has enabled her to be prioritized over other heroes we saw in the meta before TI, such as Warlock and Witch Doctor.
Most banned:
— (29 bans, banned in 74,36% the games)
— (28 bans - 71,79%)
— (26 bans - 66,67%)
The fact that Enchantress is the most banned hero of the tournament — so far — comes as no big surprise. Especially not if you peek at our next category. That she has been banned in close to 75% of all games so far actually feels like a bit on the low side. Her self-sustain, insane damage, and the fact that you can’t hit her just makes the offlaner too strong to pass over.
The same is true for Necrophos. While he doesn’t have the same amount of self-heal built in, the day showed off some crazy situation. Situations where any other hero would’ve been dead — and then some — while Necro simply pops his Ghost Shroud ability followed by a simple Magic Stick usage et voilà: he’s full health. What was surprising was to see Silencer on the list. When he does get through the ban-phase, his winrate isn’t overly impressive at 50%, so it must be that teams want to avoid his Global Silence to guarantee themselves good team fights.
Highest win% (min. 5 games):
— (6W - 1L) 85,71% winrate
— (6W - 1L) 85,71%
— (5W - 1L) 83,33%
As we previously mentioned: Enchantress is the most banned hero for a reason. Her strength in every stage of the game can shut down even the best of safelaners, and if she decides to roam there’s little that can be done once she has found her target. Enchantress has arrived to stay at TI8 and don’t expect to see her winrate fall off, unless a team somehow magically finds a way to delete her before fights begin.
Tied with Enchantress we find Nyx Assassin, a possible counter to the fawn. The strength of the hero is simply his invisibility. While easily countered by dust or sentries, the fact that he can scout the map almost without risk gives teams a huge vision advantage. That can then be used as a tool to always engage the enemy in favorable positions or simply avoid them overall.
