collegesucks   United States. Jul 08 2014 01:59. Posts 5780
The biggest event in the history of eSports begins today. With a prize pool of $10.5 million and a first place prize of $4.8 million, each member of the winning team will claim the top spots for the most money made in not just DotA but ALL of eSports!
This is the most stacked DotA tournament I've ever seen. If the last year's finals were any indication, with titans like iG, DK, NewBee, Alliance, Na`Vi, and EG all vying for the top spot, this year's tourney is sure to present some great, action-packed games and some intense BO3, BO5 series.
Even if you don't know much about DotA, this event will surely be an entertaining event to witness at the exclusive newbie stream here!
See for yourself at the main English twitch.tv stream here. Coverage begins 10 hours from now at 9am PDT with 4 teams who earned a seat to the play-in series competing for the last available slot for the 16-team playoff series. More details about the tournament structure can be found here and at our own Team Liquid DotA site here.
1. Vici Gaming 7-1
2. Team DK 6-3
3. Invictus Gaming 6-3
4. Evil Geniuses 6-3
5. Natus Vincere EU 5-3
6. Titan 5-4
7. Cloud9 5-4
8. Team Liquid 5-4
9. Newbee 5-5
10. The Alliance 4-5
11. Fnatic 4-5
12. Natus Vincere US 4-5
13. Team Empire 3-6
14. LGD Gaming 3-6
15. mousesports 2-7
16. Arrow Gaming 2-8
Vici Gaming pulling out way ahead, but they have yet to play against the top tier teams (other than Newbee, who they beat). Clearly, momentum is on their side but tomorrow, they face DK, EG, Alliance, Liquid, and C9, all teams with potential to defeat them.
The struggles of Alliance and Newbee are particularly noteworthy. One is a returning champion and the other is a remake of an old Chinese powerhouse, but both teams are hanging on for dear life at spots 9 and 10, which is the cutoff for this phase of the International. Tomorrow is a critical day for them as well---they need to secure much needed victories to gain momentum going into the final day of the round robins.
Personal picks for games to watch for each series tomorrow:
19. DK vs Vici (though Fnatic vs iG, if not a stomp by iG, should be a REALLY good game)
20. Arrow vs Fnatic (Arrow, Empire, and mouz have little hope of advancing, but Arrow can potentially take a game off of Fnatic and cement Fnatic's place in the bottom half of the standings. I was thinking of watching DK vs Titan, but the game feels like it's going to dramatically favor DK)
21. EG vs Vici (Will Vici's momentum hold out or will EG, a top tier team, finally put a stop to their fantastic 7-1 run? Also, iG vs Liquid should be fairly interesting as Liquid has been performing out of their mind vs the top tier teams)
22. Na`Vi vs Liquid (Liquid fanboyism coming through here, though it's really important for Alliance to take a game away from Vici to keep their hopes alive)
23. Na`Vi vs DK (While Na`Vi has been appearing weaker lately, this is still a good, old-fashioned East meets West confrontation, though if Alliance wins vs Vici in the previous game, I might opt to watch Alliance vs C9 instead)
24. Liquid vs Vici (Hands down the most interesting game out of the 4 in this hour)
25. Newbee vs DK (This should showcase the best of Chinese dota and give Newbee a chance to redeem themselves for their lackluster run so far by beating DK, a feat they've accomplished several times before. C9 vs iG should also be a great match to watch, if Newbee somehow fucks up vs Na`Vi.NA and Arrow Gaming, I'm dumping them for the C9 game 100%)
26. EG vs Na`Vi.NA (The best of North America clashes here. While Na`Vi.NA's record isn't that great, they did take a game off of iG, so they are clearly still a potential threat take a game off of even the best of the best. Liquid vs Alliance would be my second choice)
27. Vici vs C9 (I feel like I haven't given C9 enough love. They run some unconventional lineups/strategies and the individual players have so much color and skill that they almost always deserve a mention. Honestly though, this series is really tough to decide without watching the games leading up to it. I could definitely watch iG vs Na`Vi or Liquid vs Titan instead. Hell, if Liquid starts winning their first two games, I might just end up watching every single game by Liquid this day)
1. Vici Gaming 12-3 advances to main event
2. Evil Geniuses 11-4 advances to main event
3. Team DK 10-5 advances to phase three
4. Invictus Gaming 9-6 advances to phase three
5. Cloud 9 8-7 advances to phase three
5. Team Liquid 8-7 advances to phase three
5. Natus Vincere 8-7 advances to phase three
5. Titan 8-7 advances to phase three
9. Newbee 7-8 3 way tiebreaker, advances to phase three
9. LGD Gaming 7-8 3 way tiebreaker, advances to phase three 9. Mousesports 7-83 way tiebreaker, eliminated 12. Fnatic 6-9 12. Alliance 6-9 12. Team Empire 6-9 15. Na'Vi North America 5-10 16. Arrow Gaming 2-13
collegesucks   United States. Jul 08 2014 08:53. Posts 5780
On July 08 2014 05:01 Highcard wrote:
where did the prize pool money come from
Valve put up like 1.5 mil and then the rest are player contributions. People bought a $10 compendium for the tournament that could be leveled up for items and other in-game bonuses and $2.50 of that were added to the prize pool. Some people also paid extra to level up the compendium quicker and 25% of all those purchases were added to the pool as well.
if poker is dangerous to them i would rank sports betting as a Kodiak grizzly bear who smells blood after you just threw a javelin into his cub - RaiNKhAN
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napoleono   Romania. Jul 08 2014 14:34. Posts 771
What happened to alliance?
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RaiNKhAN   United States. Jul 08 2014 15:22. Posts 4080
tidehunter sick hero
The biggest Rockets, Sixers, and Grizzlies fan you will ever meet!
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collegesucks   United States. Jul 08 2014 15:30. Posts 5780
On July 08 2014 13:34 napoleono wrote:
What happened to alliance?
From what I've seen, the Chinese teams have been drafting better lanes and ganking setups, with overall better skirmish executions.
But Alliance still boasts the ability to pull out perfect teamfights after being 20k gold/exp behind that leads to an all in base push and an unparalleled rat dota strategy so you can never count them out of the running.
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collegesucks   United States. Jul 08 2014 15:31. Posts 5780
On July 08 2014 14:22 RaiNKhAN wrote:
tidehunter sick hero
Yep, some teams are first banning tide vs certain teams
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collegesucks   United States. Jul 08 2014 15:41. Posts 5780
Holy shit MVP for ti4 one time!!
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RaiNKhAN   United States. Jul 08 2014 15:41. Posts 4080
a wild riki has appeared
The biggest Rockets, Sixers, and Grizzlies fan you will ever meet!
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CrownRoyal   United States. Jul 08 2014 15:41. Posts 11385