Art by Chroneco
Greetings and Salutations Dota fans,
Welcome to ResetERA's DOTA2 TI9 OT OP. In this thread we talk about the madness that is The International - a crazy af 10 day tournament where we watch 12 hours a day watching the top 90 players in the world square off for over $33M in prize money making it the largest esports event for almost 9 years running.
If you don't know anything about DOTA2, don't worry feel free to ask any questions you have about the game or anything else in general.
This year TI is in Shanghai which is in CST (China Standard time) or UTC/GMT +8 hours
Start times are 9:00-11:00 AM CST ---> end times range from 6:00-11:00 PM CST
(Sweden) 3:00-5:00 AM CEST --> 12:00-5:00 PM CEST
(UK) 2:00-4:00 AM BST --> 11:00 PM-4:00 PM BST
NA times will be previous day
(New York) 9:00-11:00 PM EDT --> 6:00-11:00 AM EDT
(Los Angeles) 6:00-8:00 PM PDT --> 3:00-8:00 AM PDT
As the times are not optimal for the NA region Moonduck Studios has prepared their own recap/rewatch show with live audience during NA hours for the Main Event. I hesitate to recommend it because they are using a gambling sponsor, but if you can't watch live it is an option https://www.rivalry.com/esports/what-you-need-to-know-about-jungle-jam
Links to official schedule - http://www.dota2.com/international/schedule/?l=english
1st $~15M 45.5%
2nd $~4.2M 13%
3rd $~3M 9%
4th $~2M 6%
5th-6th $~1M 3.5%
7th-8th $~800k 2.5%
9th-12th $~650k 2%
13th-16th $~490k 1.5%
17th-18th $~80k 0.25%
(Typically players are taxed 30-50% and often have to split the money at least 6-8 ways to account for manager, coach, and organization.)
2nd $~4.2M 13%
3rd $~3M 9%
4th $~2M 6%
5th-6th $~1M 3.5%
7th-8th $~800k 2.5%
9th-12th $~650k 2%
13th-16th $~490k 1.5%
17th-18th $~80k 0.25%
(Typically players are taxed 30-50% and often have to split the money at least 6-8 ways to account for manager, coach, and organization.)
Greetings and Salutations Dota fans,
Welcome to ResetERA's DOTA2 TI9 OT OP. In this thread we talk about the madness that is The International - a crazy af 10 day tournament where we watch 12 hours a day watching the top 90 players in the world square off for over $33M in prize money making it the largest esports event for almost 9 years running.
If you don't know anything about DOTA2, don't worry feel free to ask any questions you have about the game or anything else in general.
This year TI is in Shanghai which is in CST (China Standard time) or UTC/GMT +8 hours
Start times are 9:00-11:00 AM CST ---> end times range from 6:00-11:00 PM CST
(Sweden) 3:00-5:00 AM CEST --> 12:00-5:00 PM CEST
(UK) 2:00-4:00 AM BST --> 11:00 PM-4:00 PM BST
NA times will be previous day
(New York) 9:00-11:00 PM EDT --> 6:00-11:00 AM EDT
(Los Angeles) 6:00-8:00 PM PDT --> 3:00-8:00 AM PDT
As the times are not optimal for the NA region Moonduck Studios has prepared their own recap/rewatch show with live audience during NA hours for the Main Event. I hesitate to recommend it because they are using a gambling sponsor, but if you can't watch live it is an option https://www.rivalry.com/esports/what-you-need-to-know-about-jungle-jam
Links to official schedule - http://www.dota2.com/international/schedule/?l=english
*matches just keep flowing and don't really fit a strict schedule, some games may take 20m some may take 120m, but each game is given a rough estimate of 45 minutes and technical delays and lag issues are very common. If Twitch is lagging try Steam.tv
20 Round Robin Bo2 matches, 4 at a time
Team Secret vs Alliance
Team Liquid vs Newbee
PSG.LGD vs Chaos Esports Club
TNC Predator vs KEEN GAMING
Vici Gaming vs Royal Never Give Up
Virtus.pro vs Ninjas in Pyjamas
Evil Geniuses vs Fnatic
OG vs Natus Vincere
Team Liquid vs Chaos Esports Club
TNC Predator vs Mineski
PSG.LGD vs KEEN GAMING
Team Secret vs Newbee
Virtus.pro vs Royal Never Give Up
Evil Geniuses vs Natus Vincere
OG vs Infamous Gaming
Vici Gaming vs Fnatic
Team Secret vs Team Liquid
PSG.LGD vs TNC Predator
Alliance vs Chaos Esports Club
KEEN GAMING vs Mineski
20 Round Robin matches, 4 at a time
Virtus.pro vs Vici Gaming
Evil Geniuses vs OG
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs Fnatic
Natus Vincere vs Infamous Gaming
TNC Predator vs Alliance
PSG.LGD vs Newbee
Team Secret vs KEEN GAMING
Team Liquid vs Mineski
Evil Geniuses vs Royal Never Give Up
Virtus.pro vs Natus Vincere
OG vs Ninjas in Pyjamas
Vici Gaming vs Infamous Gaming
Team Liquid vs PSG.LGD
Alliance vs KEEN GAMING
Chaos Esports Club vs Mineski
TNC Predator vs Newbee
Vici Gaming vs Evil Geniuses
OG vs Royal Never Give Up
Fnatic vs Infamous Gaming
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs Natus Vincere
20 Round Robin matches, 4 at a time
Team Secret vs TNC Predator
Alliance vs Newbee
Chaos Esports Club vs KEEN GAMING
PSG.LGD vs Mineski
Virtus.pro vs OG
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs Royal Never Give Up
Fnatic vs Natus Vincere
Evil Geniuses vs Infamous Gaming
TNC Predator vs Chaos Esports Club
Team Liquid vs Alliance
Newbee vs KEEN GAMING
Team Secret vs Mineski
OG vs Fnatic
Royal Never Give Up vs Natus Vincere
Vici Gaming vs Ninjas in Pyjamas
Virtus.pro vs Infamous Gaming
Team Secret vs PSG.LGD
Team Liquid vs KEEN GAMING
Newbee vs Chaos Esports Club
Alliance vs Mineski
12 Round Robin matches, 4 at a time, and any Tiebreakers*
Virtus.pro vs Evil Geniuses
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs Infamous Gaming
Royal Never Give Up vs Fnatic
Vici Gaming vs Natus Vincere
Team Liquid vs TNC Predator
Team Secret vs Chaos Esports Club
PSG.LGD vs Alliance
Newbee vs Mineski
Vici Gaming vs OG
Virtus.pro vs Fnatic
Evil Geniuses vs Ninjas in Pyjamas
Royal Never Give Up vs Infamous Gaming
*Tiebreakers: If there is a tie along the Upper and Lower Bracket or Lower Bracket and elimination divider, an additional set of games will be played.
For other ties (in order of importance):
1. Head to head result between the tied teams
2. Results against lower seeded teams (from directly below till last place)
3. If a tie can be broken along the way, the process is restarted (back to head-to-head result)
4. Coin toss
Mon August 19 Media Day - No games
*****
Upper Bracket 1 (Bo3)
1. lgd vs vp
2. tnc vs vg
Loser Bracket 1 (Bo1, Elimination)
3. a vd rng
4. liquid vs fnatic
5. inf vs keen
6. mineski vs navi
Upper Bracket 2 (Bo3)
1. OG vs Newbee
2. EG vs Secret
Lower Bracket 2 (Bo3, Elimination)
3. VP vs RNG
4. TNC vs Liquid
Lower Bracket 2 (Bo3, Elimination)
1. Newbee vs INF
2. Secret vs Mineski
Upper Bracket 3 (Bo3)
3. LGD vs VG
4. EG vs OG
Lower Bracket 3 (Bo3, Elimination)
1. RNG vs Liquid
2. Infamous vs Secret
Lower Bracket 4 (Bo3, Elimination)
3. EG vs Winner 1
♤completed
Lower Bracket 4 (Bo3, Elimination)
1. VG vs Secret
Upper Bracket Final (Bo3)
2. OG vs LGD
Lower Bracket 5 (Bo3, Elimination)
3. Winner 1 vs Liquid
Lower Bracket Final (Bo3, Elimination)
1. Loser UBF vs Winner LB5
Grand Final (Bo5, Elimination)
2. Winner UBF vs Winner LBF
The Main Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/dota2ti
Steam.tv (Valve's own streaming service): https://steam.tv/dota2/
NoobfromUA VOD highlights - https://www.youtube.com/user/noobfromua/videos?view=0&sort=dd&flow=grid
Main Twitch Page: https://www.twitch.tv/team/dotati
Stream 2 (Group Stage only)https://www.twitch.tv/dota2ti_2
Stream 3 (Group Stage only)https://www.twitch.tv/dota2ti_3
Stream 4 (Group Stage only)https://www.twitch.tv/dota2ti_4
Newcomer stream (Main Event only): https://www.twitch.tv/dota2ti_newcomer
The format of the tournament is composed of two stages: a Round Robin Group Stage and the Main Event
1. Group Stage August 15-18
- 18 teams in 2 groups of 9 play seventy two Bo2 matches (all played in secured hotel rooms)
- top 4 teams in each group are Upper Bracket for the double elimination Main Event
- next 4 teams in each group are Lower Bracket playing Bo1 Single Elimination
- bottom team in each group is eliminated
2. Main Event August 20-25
- 41-60 games over 5 days (all played in Mercedes Benz Arena)
- four Bo1
- seventeen Bo3
- one Bo5 Grand Final
DOTA2 teams are usually composed of five players in five numbered roles which reflect gold and farm priority:
1. Hard Carry - The traditional hard farmer, usually an Agility hero who needs help surviving early game, then transitions to jungle farmer late game
2. Midlaner - Usually gains the earliest XP advantage as a solo laner in mid and transitions to ganker or early game jungler
3. Offlaner - Often sent to die or lose their lane, typically is the initiator or tower pusher
4. Roamer/Soft support - Usually the support with more gold and can buy items to help secure kills with a stun or slow
5. Hard support - The person who buys wards and support items for the team and will usually not have any gold or items if the team is losing badly. Most of the team Captains are usually drafters and 5 Supports
Most teams play these roles fairly strictly but most of the best teams change roles regularly and have ambiguous drafts that can play certain heroes in unorthodox roles or swap roles depending on how the match is playing out.
All ⭐ Match
This year's All-Star team match will be comprised of the top fantasy point earners from the Group Stage.
Top Contenders
These top teams have been dominating the pro scene all year. Each team is filled with superstar players and are all veterans to previous Internationals.
Liquipedia Preview
Secret were the top team almost the entire season in the 2019 Dota Pro Circuit. They have played well in almost every tournament during the year. Captain/Owner Puppey is looking to be the first two-time TI winner and has created a team with some very craft veterans. Yapzor and Zai are considered the two best support/carry hybrid players. Midone and Nisha are very stable carries with deep hero pools and sometimes interchangeable with Mid and Carry. As always it comes down to draft and nerves come July and August for Secret, a team known for having the best skilled players but imploding on the Main Stage. Nisha has handled success very well so far, but has not played on the TI Main Stage yet.
Shira Prediction: Expected to win.
Liquipedia Preview
Nobody knows which VP will show up to TI. The ones who were untouchable during the games they play seriously or the teams that rage quit early. The second leading team in DPC and prize money are extremely mercurial and can produce stunning victories and epic losses. The team has stayed together for almost one year and like Secret are prone to puzzling drafts and flaming out on the Main Stage.
Shira Prediction: Expected to come in first or last.
Liquipedia Preview
EG has not won a LAN in over a year and Mid Sumail is the only player left from the TI5 winning squad. The team relies very heavily on Carry RTZ and Sumail for the bulk of their gold and using their advantage to win in the late game. Captain/Support fly decides the best possible draft for his two carries and prays that support cr1t cand make enough plays to win them the early game. Offlaner and former Mid S4 has devolved into the sacrificial lamb and often has no farm and multiple feeds to make space for the two other Carries. Coach Bulba is a very divisive figure in the community with some people thinking he is a pure genius and completely insane when they lose.
Shira Prediction: EG being cliffed, and third place are the most probable outcomes.
Liquipedia Preview
VG have all the talent in the world and coached by the legendary rotk. They have two of the top Carry MMR players in China with Ori and Paparazzi.
Shira Prediction: Strong chance to place in top 3.
Liquipedia Preview
Another unchanged roster from 2018 where they came in second. LGD has been very strong for the past two seasons. LGD seemed to be on their way to an easy TI8 victory except form some very odd choices and bad luck with Carry ame in games. Midlaner Maybe is considered one of the best players in the world and combined with one of the top Supports fy (aka the Prince of Dota) they are sure to be in the Upper Bracket and contending for the title.
Shira Prediction: Strong chance to place in top 4.
Liquipedia Preview
The TI7 champions made a huge mid-season swap switch Midlaner Matumbaman for w33 getting what many to consider an upgrade at the Midlaner position. w33 has the ability to play a much more diverse set of heroes mid including Skywrath Mage and Meepo, but some sacrifices will have to be made considering Matu would often pick certain heroes to allow Carry Miracle space to farm. w33 is a much more greedier core and it is unknown which Midlane heroes Captain Kuroky will draft for w33 considering they just default drafted him Windranger
Shira Prediction: Strong chance to place in top 5.
Dark Horses
These teams might have a chance to upset some of the top contenders, but have basically been having mediocre finishes all year.
Liquipedia Preview
OG are the TI8 champions, but Carry ana spent most of the year taking a vacation. It is unknown whether his late season addition is enough to get OG back on track like they swept into TI8 last year. The roster is unchanged, but motivation and the will to win also known as the TI curse has plagued every single TI winner and organization. No team or player has ever repeated much less back-to-back appeared in the finals except for Navi who played TI1-TI3 Grand Finals when competition was much looser.
Shira Prediction: Expected to finish in top 6.
Liquipedia Preview
NiP have one of the top drafters in DOTA2 with Captain/Support ppd, but he has not been able to win any Majors or make a serious run at any top events this year. Using the players that Secret dumped from their 2018 roster has given ppd some very skilled and versatile players to work with in Offlaner fata and Carry Ace, but their hero pools and skill ceiling never seem to be good enough. In the past ppd was able to surprise several teams with a Offlaner 33's final draft pick, but teams are very aware of this tactic now.
Shira Prediction: Expected to finish in top 8.
Liquipedia Preview
Alliance and Navi back at TI. Alliance has been hobbled by injuries and for the past two years have been required to use stand-ins. One thing I have noticed is that Alliance has played almost every possible LAN and tournament they are invited to. Owner/Coach loda has finally got his team into TI for the first time since TI6, which marked the retirement of Admiral Bulldog who switched to full-time streamer. Bulldog has since done some casting, but has oddly rejected entry to TI7 and TI8 for visa reasons and has decided not to participate in TI9.
Shira Prediction: Expected to finish in top 12.
Liquipedia Preview
TNC are another one of those extremely mercurial teams. Kuku got banned earlier this year from a Chinese event for racism in a pub game and it is unknown how he will fare with the crowd reaction. He has been threatened over social media and was unsure to be playing until recently. An all Pinoy squad that has benefited greatly from Heen, the TI8 winning coach. SEA teams tend to be very skilled in almost every aspect except drafting, which Heen provides.
Shira Prediction: Expected to finish in top 12.
Liquipedia Preview
Chaos spent the first half of the year in South America and then broke away to Europe and swapped mid players with Liquid. Chaos won the EU qualifier fairly handily. They are stacked with veterans but are mediocre in every sense. Captain/Support Misery has not played in The International since coming second at TI6.
Shira Prediction: Expected to finish in top 12.
Liquipedia Preview
RNG won the Chinese Regional Qualifier, which might have been the most competitive qualifier. There were several teams that could have done well in The International, but lanm was able to qualify for another TI. A TI in China is going to motivate Chinese players to play their best so any Chinese team is truly a dark horse when it comes to the amount of training and dedication they have to put themselves through to have a good showing at TI.
Shira Prediction: Expected to finish in top 12.
Liquipedia Preview
Keen sort of coasted into TI9. Placing comfortably in some Majors and then disappearing. The team is lead by one of the top position 4 players in the world - Kaka. I would also like to reiterate that Chinese teams having extra motivation may push them to exceed all known expectations and power levels.
Shira Prediction: Expected to finish in top 12.
Just happy to be here
These teams are unlikely to advance past the Lower Bracket Bo1 eliminations only qualifying to TI by the Regional Qualifiers or early success. Any of these teams making it to the second or third day of the Main Event would be considered a massive upset or some kind of miracle.
Liquipedia Preview
Unlike the other teams in the JH2BH, fnatic had some kind of massive problems leading up to the final Major requiring the team to drop their Carry player and promote their Coach to active duty. This kind of late season swap is never a good sign and is almost always a kiss of death. OG won TI8 last year using the same kind of swap, but it was forced upon them not an internal team decision and although Captain/Support Dubu is a very good player, it forces Jabz to switch from Support to Carry in a very limited amount of time. fnatic was one of the top teams during the mid-season but now it feels like they are going nowhere.
Liquipedia Preview
Navi won the CIS regional qualifier. The team most famously known for Dendi is led by some of the best players in CIS. Their Captain/Support is Sonneiko who has been known to blow up, flame, and self-destruct. He is one of the top MMR players on Support, but if his team cannot rally around him and his drafts, I would not expect a good result for the post-Dendi Navi.
Liquipedia Preview
Newbee is traditionally a Chinese squad but with the last minute bankruptcy of Forward Gaming organization the NA team was picked up by a Chinese team to represent NA and China? Nobody knows what will happen if they win, but NA and China will both lay claim to winning the title for their respective regions. A very mediocre team has not given and significant results all year long. It has been rumored they had a massive internal blowup that threatened to breakup the team.
Liquipedia Preview
Mineski qualified via the SEA Regional Qualifier with a very interesting composition. Bulgarian Carry Nikobaby was a last-minute addition and somehow they made it work. Offlaner kpii is a star Australian who has been playing the last few years in China. Recently Mushi announced that he would be coaching the team.
Liquipedia Preview
Infamous is the top team in South America after the Regional Qualifier. The Peruvians beat out the heavily favored Brazilian squads which had been mostly qualifying for the Majors. Although they beat out the other teams in South America the region has not had any success on the world stage.
This year the event has shifted to Shanghai due to Key Arena renovations and a seemingly easier player visa process.
Group stages are played at the hotel players are staying at in specialized and secured rooms.
The Main Event will be played at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai with a fully interactive floor, booths, and light show complete with AR. Seating capacity is ~18,000
Compendium Predictions Help
Web based fantasy - http://www.dota2.com/fantasy
Reddit Survival Guide - https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/wiki/events/ti9
TI9 wiki/liquipedia - https://liquipedia.net/dota2/The_International/2019
Links to official schedule - http://www.dota2.com/international/schedule/?l=english
Official Twitter TI9 - https://twitter.com/dota2ti
Official Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dota_2/
Quasi-Official DOTA2 Community Manager - https://twitter.com/wykrhm
Official Youtube - http://youtube.com/dota2
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dota2/
Official Flickr - http://flickr.com/photos/dota2ti/
ResetERA DOTA2 OT - https://www.resetera.com/threads/dota2-ot-ti9-battlepass-may-7-august-25.593
The Main Stream - https://www.twitch.tv/dota2ti
Steam.tv (Valve's own streaming service) - https://steam.tv/dota2/
NoobfromUA VOD highlights - https://www.youtube.com/user/noobfromua/videos?view=0&sort=dd&flow=grid
Reddit page with no-spoiler VOD list https://www.reddit.com/r/DotaVods/comments/cq89l1/the_international_2019_group_stage/
If you are new to DOTA2 or esports in general the Free to Play documentary about TI1 is a must watch.
I also recommend the True Sight documentary/behind the scenes videos
TI8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv4CqIxqTMA
TI7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWBDZo3axYg
Kiev 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgAAPPf4z00
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