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The International 2021

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The International 2021
Tournament information
SportDota 2
LocationBucharest, Romania
DatesOctober 7–17, 2021
AdministratorValve
Tournament
format(s)
Venue(s)Arena Națională
Participants18 teams
PurseUS$40,018,195
Final positions
ChampionsTeam Spirit
1st runner-upPSG.LGD
2nd runner-upTeam Secret

The International 2021, also known as The International 10 (TI10), was the tenth iteration of The International, an annual Dota 2 world championship esports tournament. Hosted by Valve, the game's developer, the tournament followed a year-long series of tournaments awarding qualifying points, known as the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), with the top 12 ranking teams being directly invited to the tournament. In addition, six more teams earned invites through regional qualifiers held earlier in 2021. The tournament took place in Bucharest, Romania, with the main event held behind closed doors at the Arena Națională due to restrictions on gatherings in the city.

As with every International from 2013 onwards, the prize pool was crowdfunded by the Dota 2 community via its battle pass feature with the total reaching US$40 million, making it the largest esports prize pool in history. The event was also the first International held since 2019, as the 2020 iteration was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Grand Finals were held between PSG.LGD and Team Spirit, with the latter winning 3–2 in a best-of-five series.

Background

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Dota 2 is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed by Valve. In it, two teams of five players compete by selecting characters known as "heroes", each with a variety of innate skills and abilities, and cooperate together to be the first to destroy the base of the other team, which ends the match. The game is played from a top-down perspective, and the player sees a segment of the game's map near their character as well as a mini-map that shows their allies, with any enemies revealed outside the fog of war. The game's map has three roughly symmetric "lanes" between each base, with a number of defensive towers protecting each side. Periodically, the team's base spawns a group of weak CPU-controlled creatures, called "creeps", that march down each of the three lanes towards the opponents' base, fighting any enemy hero, creep, or structure they encounter. If a hero character is killed, that character respawns back at their base after a delay period, which gets progressively longer the farther into the match.[1][2]

As with previous years of the tournament, a corresponding battle pass for Dota 2 was released in June 2021, allowing the prize pool to be crowdfunded by players of the game,[3][4] who purchase the pass both to support the tournament and to access the rewards within it.[5] A quarter of all revenue made by it was added directly towards the prize pool, which finalized at US$40,018,195.[6] At the time of event, Dota 2 featured 121 playable characters, called "heroes". Prior to each game in the tournament, a draft is held between the opposing team captains to select which heroes their teams use, going back and forth until each side has banned seven and selected five heroes. Once a hero is picked it can no longer be selected by any other player that match, so teams used the draft to strategically plan ahead and deny the opponents' heroes that may be good counters or would be able to take advantage of weaknesses to their current lineup.[1]

Format

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The main event was hosted at the Arena Națională in Bucharest

The event follows the postponement of The International 2020, which was originally set to be held at the Avicii Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, that year before being pushed back indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Valve attempted to restart the event there in 2021 before the Swedish Sports Confederation voted to not recognize esports under its body, a move that would deny visas for most attempting to enter the country due to their COVID-19 restrictions at the time.[7] Valve made repeated requests for the Swedish government to intervene before deciding to move the event to Romania.[7] The event was originally scheduled to include a live audience who were required to wear face masks and show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to attend.[7] However, Valve announced a week prior to the event that only teams, production staff, and other essential personnel would be allowed to attend due to rising COVID cases in the region and newly implemented restrictions set by the Bucharest government, with them refunding all ticket sales.[8]

The International 2021 featured a series of pre-qualifying tournaments running throughout the first half of 2021, known as the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), with the top 12 ranking teams receiving direct invitations.[9] Six more teams received invites following the conclusion of double-elimination tournaments held in June and July 2021 for the China, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, North America, South America, and Southeast Asia regions, bringing the total number of participating teams up to 18.[9] To seed the elimination bracket for the main event, round robin group stages featuring two groups of nine teams were played from October 7–10, 2021.[10] In it, each of the teams played each other within their group in a two-game series. The top four placing teams of each group advanced to the upper bracket of the main event, while fifth through eighth advanced to the lower bracket. The lowest placed team from both groups were eliminated from the competition. The main event is being held at the Arena Națională in Bucharest from October 12–17.[10]

Teams

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Direct invitation (DPC)
Regional qualifier winners
  • China: Elephant
  • Eastern Europe: Team Spirit
  • Western Europe: OG
  • North America: Team Undying
  • South America: SG esports
  • Southeast Asia: Fnatic

Results

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Group stage

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Group A
Pos Team W L
1 Invictus Gaming 14 2 Advanced to the upper bracket
2 Virtus.pro 11 5
3 OG 10 6
4 T1 10 6
5 Team Undying 9 7 Advanced to the lower bracket
6 Evil Geniuses 9 7
7 Team Aster 5 11
8 Alliance 4 12
9 Thunder Predator 0 16 Eliminated
Source: [11]
Group B
Pos Team W L
1 PSG.LGD 15 1 Advanced to the upper bracket
2 Team Secret 10 6
3 Vici Gaming 10 6
4 Team Spirit 10 6
5 Beastcoast 7 9 Advanced to the lower bracket
6 Quincy Crew 6 10
7 Fnatic 6 10
8 Elephant 6 10
9 SG esports 2 14 Eliminated
Source: [11]

Main event

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Bracket

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Upper round 1Upper round 2Upper finalGrand Finals
Invictus Gaming2
Team Spirit1
Invictus Gaming0
Team Secret2
Team Secret2
OG0
Team Secret0
PSG.LGD2
PSG.LGD2
T11
PSG.LGD2
Virtus.pro0
Virtus.pro2
Vici Gaming1
PSG.LGD2
Team Spirit3
Lower round 1Lower round 2Lower round 3Lower round 4Lower round 5Lower final
Team Spirit2
Virtus.pro1
Team Undying0Fnatic0
Team Spirit2Team Spirit2
Fnatic1
OG0Team Secret1
OG2
Team Spirit2Team Spirit2
Quincy Crew1Quincy Crew0
Invictus Gaming0
Team Aster0
T12
Invictus Gaming2
Beastcoast0Alliance0
T11Vici Gaming0
Alliance1
Vici Gaming2
Vici Gaming2
Evil Geniuses1Evil Geniuses1
Elephant0

Winnings

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Note: Prizes are in USD[12]

Place Team Prize money
1st
Team Spirit
 $18,208,300
2nd
PSG.LGD
 $5,202,400
3rd
Team Secret
 $3,601,600
4th
Invictus Gaming
 $2,401,100
5th–6th
Vici Gaming
 $1,400,600
Virtus.pro
7th–8th
OG
 $1,000,500
T1
9th–12th
Alliance
 $800,400
Evil Geniuses
Fnatic
Quincy Crew
13th–16th
Beastcoast
 $600,300
Elephant
Team Aster
Team Undying
17th–18th
SG esports
 $100,000
Thunder Predator

References

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  1. ^ a b Gies, Arthur (August 2, 2017). "The Normal Person's Guide to Watching Competitive Dota 2 (2017 Edition)". Polygon. Archived from the original on August 3, 2017. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
  2. ^ Kim, Ben (July 9, 2013). "A comprehensive comparison of Dota 2 and League of Legends". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on August 1, 2016. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  3. ^ Michael, Cale (June 23, 2021). "Valve releases 2021 Dota 2 Battle Pass, includes Spectre Arcana, Davion Dragon Knight Persona, and Nemestice event". Dot Esports. Archived from the original on October 2, 2021. Retrieved October 2, 2021.
  4. ^ Van Allen, Eric (July 13, 2017). "How Exactly Does Dota 2 Come Up With Over $20 Million In Prizes For Its Biggest Event?". Kotaku. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
  5. ^ Minotti, Mike (October 16, 2014). "The dangers of crowdfunding those gigantic e-sports prize pools". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on October 10, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  6. ^ Shaw, Luke (July 8, 2021). "'Dota 2' tournament to be held in Bucharest with £29million prize pool". NME. Archived from the original on October 2, 2021. Retrieved October 2, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c Haske, Steve (September 17, 2021). "Valve moves Dota 2 International to Romania, adds mask-and-vax rules". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on October 2, 2021. Retrieved October 2, 2021.
  8. ^ Michael, Cale (October 3, 2021). "Valve has canceled in-person audience for The International 10". Dot Esports. Archived from the original on October 3, 2021. Retrieved October 3, 2021.
  9. ^ a b Michael, Cale (July 12, 2021). "Every team qualified for Dota 2's The International 10". Dot Esports. Archived from the original on October 2, 2021. Retrieved October 2, 2021.
  10. ^ a b Bailey, Dustin (July 7, 2021). "Dota 2's The International gets new dates after Sweden says no to esports". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on July 7, 2021. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  11. ^ a b Lozano, Kurt (October 10, 2021). "Dota 2 TI10 Day 4 recap: Wild Group Stage comes to a close". Yahoo News. Archived from the original on October 11, 2021. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  12. ^ "Dota 2 Esports". dota2.com. Archived from the original on October 10, 2021. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
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