The International DOTA 2 Championships 2013 Group Stages End, Five Asian Teams in the Upper Bracket

The group stages for The International DOTA 2 Championships 2013 have finally concluded. Also known as The International 2013 or The International 3 (TI3), this tournament is not only the biggest annual DOTA 2 tournament, but also holds the record for having the biggest prize pool for a single event in the history of eSports currently at $2.8M and still growing . Here are the standings for each group:

The International 2013 Group Standings – LGD.cn won their tie-breaker match against Dignitas. TongFu are seeded second after having previously won 2-0 against both Invictus Gaming (iG) and Orange.

What happened to Asian DOTA?

In this year’s International, there are eight Asian teams participating. Last year’s champion iG have secured their spot in the top four. They struggled early on with their matches, but secured their place in the upper bracket by winning 2-0 in their decisive match against Team Liquid. Swedish team Alliance flawlessly takes the top spot in Group B, which reminds us of LGD.cn, last year’s flawlessly undefeated team in the group stage. This year is a bit different for the Chinese powerhouse, as Group A is led by the Ukranian team Natus Vincere (Na’Vi). LGD.cn’s win in their tiebreaker match against Dignitas secured their top four spot nonetheless. Two Asian teams are seeded last in both groups, with MUFC not even winning a single match.

Although the Eastern teams weren’t exactly horrible in general, their performance in this year’s group stages has led people to wonder about Asian DOTA. Were the teams too complacent? Did the Western teams improve their game or did the Eastern teams just decline in skill?

LGD.cn taking Dignitas’ bottom barracks towards the end of the group stage tie breaker match. Screenshot from BeyondTheSummit stream

If we look at the previous International, we can say that the group stages, although significant, only guarantee bracket slots in the playoffs and don’t necessarily offer any answers to those questions. For example, LGD.cn was undefeated in their group last year, but ended up finishing 3rd overall after losing to Na’Vi and iG consecutively. Na’Vi, on the other hand, performed quite badly towards the start of last year’s International, but finished second overall, with iG taking the gold.

Also, although iG and LGD.cn have dropped in their group stage places compared to last year, we must also note that another Chinese powerhouse, Team DK, holds the second spot in their group, as they did in last year’s group stages. They are currently the top Chinese team in the group stage with regards to standings. Chinese team TongFu also hold the second place in their group. Looking at the results again, although the top spots are taken by Western teams, the upper brackets have five Asian teams. So we could say that people may mostly be asking or doubting not because of the number of wins, but because of how these wins happened. Asian teams just didn’t stomp as hard as they did last year, but it’s not entirely because they played badly. Considering that Alliance and Na’Vi won Chinese tournaments namely the G-1 League and the Alienware Cup respectively and that there had been a large number of tournaments in the West in the months leading to TI3, the competition this year isn’t humdrum.

Another significant thing to consider that while the teams take things seriously in the group stages, secret strategies usually come out during the playoffs. Also, we must not forget and underestimate the ability of each team to analyze and adapt as well as the possibility to choke under pressure. In the end, the group stages can give us a glimpse of what has yet to come, but cannot tell us the ending to the story that is the main event.

Heading to the Playoffs

For the double-elimination playoffs in the main event, the top four teams for each group will be in the Upper Bracket while the rest will be in the Lower Bracket. The top teams for each group (Na’Vi and Alliance) will pick their opponent from the teams that finished third or fourth in the opposite group. The team they did not choose will be facing the teams who are seeded second. Brackets may be found on the official page of The International 2013 and more information regarding the format may be found in the Team Liquid DOTA 2 Wiki.

The International 2013’s main event matches will be played on the live stage in Benaroya Hall on Monday, August 7, 12:00 NN PDT (Tuesday, August 8, 3:00 AM SGT). The All-Star match also happens on the same day. For schedules and updates, you may visit the official website for The International DOTA 2 Championships 2013.

(Editing By Charlie Custer)