Highlights of The International

Phew! With The International over, the Dota 2 away team is now recuperating back in Seattle, re-watching footage from the tournament and debating which bits should make the highlight reel.
Three clips jump out as particularly amazing escapes:

- MiTH-TrlLK’s Morphling escape from the entire TyLoo gank squad 

- MYM.Razer.DeMoN’s Beastmaster escape from EHOME 

- MYM.Razer.DeMoN’s other escape as Dark Seer from Scythe

Although Tobi no doubt deserves a highlight reel of his own, these following clips are Tobi at his most entertaining:

- DOOM IS BACK, RUUUUN 

- I DO NOT UNDERSTAND MY WORLD RIGHT NOW 

- ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! 

- BLACK HOOOLE BLACK HOOOOOOOLE (v1) 

- BLACK HOOOLE BLACK HOOOOOOOLE (v2) 

- BLACK HOOOLE BLACK HOOOOOOOLE (v3) 

- BLACK HOOOLE BLACK HOOOOOOOLE (v4)

We’re not the only ones arguing about the highlights – GosuGamers also put up their own list of the Best Games of The International, so make sure you check that out too. Remember, if you missed seeing any of the matches, the VODs for all of them are still available over here, with commentary in English, German, Russian, and Chinese.
We’re also incredibly humbled to hear that we’ve won the IGN People’s Choice Award. Thanks to everyone who voted for us!

Finally, if you missed your chance to sign up for the beta, fear not: Click here to get your name on the list. The excitement we carried home from Gamescom has got us all fired up to get the beta rolling as soon as possible.

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A Champion has been Crowned

After five days of fierce competition team Na’Vi has won the million dollar grand prize, beating out EHOME in a best of five elimination series. Na’Vi started the final series out one game ahead due to its privileged position in the winner’s bracket, but EHOME quickly evened up the score by winning the first game. Na’Vi surged back to win the next two games in a row, securing their place in Dota 2 history and becoming the first Champions of the Dota 2 International Tournament. EHOME doesn’t leave empty handed though, they take home $250,000 for their second place finish.
In all, $1,600,000 in prize money was won by eight teams over five days. Congratulations to all the winners.

We’d like to thank XSplit, Limelite Networks, own3D.tv, and Level 3 Communications for their support during the tournament.

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What Does A Champion Truly Need?

The big news for Saturday is from the winners bracket; Na`Vi has advanced to the finals by beating Scythe.SG in two straight games. This victory also spots Na`Vi a win in the final series so they are already up against their undecided foe one game to nil.
In the losers bracket MYM was eliminated by EHOME. MYM is sent home with $80,000 and EHOME advances to Sunday’s playoff against Scythe.SG – the same team that sent them down to the loser bracket with a resounding defeat on Friday.
Sunday will start with the best of three elimination series. The loser walks away with $150,000 and the winner will face Na`Vi in the championship match. In the final match the loser there earns a healthy $250,000 but it all pales in comparison to the ultimate champion and their $1,000,000 payday.
Can Scythe.SG turn it around after Saturday’s crushing defeat by Na`Vi and rise up against the two opponents that have beaten them at every meeting?
Can EHOME rise up out of the losers bracket and get revenge against Scythe.SG and then go on to defeat Na`Vi?
Or will the powerhouse of the tournament Na`Vi keep rolling over every opponent in its path?
The questions start getting answered Sunday morning in Germany at 10am CET. The final match to decide it all begins at 1pm local time in Germany or 7pm in China and Singapore, 2 pm in the Ukraine, or even 4am at Valve’s Head Quarters in Seattle. Watch them all live at Dota2.com.

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March to the Finals

This weekend is it. Yesterday we saw the most exciting game of the tournament in the elimination game between MUFC and OK.Nirvana.int. If you missed it, it’s a must see. Five more teams have been knocked out with four more facing elimination today, all leading to the Finals match this Sunday. How intense have these matches been? Well, we brought down the power on the tournament floor. Due to the power outage, the M5 vs. OK.Nirvana.int elimination match has been rescheduled for Saturday morning.
DPM has posted more photos from the event. Check them out here. If you haven’t already, take a moment to go vote for Dota 2 for IGN’s People’s Choice Award.

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Player Excitement Level

You may have seen graphs displaying the players’ excitement levels displayed periodically during The International tournament matches. This biofeedback data is collected using a wristband with custom hardware and works by measuring the electrical conductivity of the skin and sending signals to the player’s PC. The game collects this data continuously and plots the last two minutes of the player’s biofeedback history. Swings in a player’s emotional state, both positively and negatively, are represented by spikes in the graph.

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Four Teams Fall

Today’s quarterfinal and elimination matchups produced some intense back and forth games. Highlights include a frantic come-from-behind win, a stunning upset, a Morphling farmed-up to truly awe-inspiring levels and the most awesome sentry ward we’ve witnessed .
Fans filled the Dota 2 arena to overflowing for the official opening day of Gamescom 2011. Check out the crowds in dpm’s awesome Day Two photos, posted on playdota.com forums.
Bandwidth snags prevented the Russian and German language commentaries from airing live, but matches were broadcast in English and Chinese. Replays for today’s games with full commentary in all languages will be available on the Dota 2 web site here.
Our thanks to SGC, nevo, GGnet and OK.Nirvana.cn for traveling to Cologne and helping us debut Dota 2.

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On To Day Two

After some initial teething problems, we’ve wrapped up the first day of The International. If you missed the Live streams, you can head over to Wednesday’s Schedule to check out the first set of high quality 1080p replays, including the games that weren’t streamed live. For those of you looking for a spoiler-free experience when watching replays, bookmark the schedule page and avoid everything else on the internet until you’ve found out the day’s results. We will continue to encode and upload the remaining games until they are all up, so keep checking that page throughout the day to see the full set of matches. In addition to the results page, we’ll also be posting updates on our Facebook and Twitter accounts, so keep an eye on those.

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Tournament Website is Up

The tournament website is now live at dota2.com. You can use it to see the schedule for upcoming games, view the current live match or to watch replays of previous games. The Broadcasts are available in four languages (Chinese, Russian, German, and English) as well as in an auto-director camera mode.

The tournament uses a group stage for the first day, which feeds into the winner and loser brackets for the following days. The bracket view will be updated to reflect the current status of the tournament, if you want a spoiler-free update, use the schedule view. The first game is estimated to start at 10am CET in Germany.
The prize distribution for the top 8 teams is as follows:
1st place: $1,000,000 USD
2nd place: $250,000 USD
3rd place: $150,000 USD
4th place: $80,000 USD
5th place: $35,000 USD
6th place: $35,000 USD
7th place: $25,000 USD
8th place: $25,000 USD
The roster of teams in the tournament has been updated and is available on the teams page. StarsBoBa is unable to attend due to Visa problems. SGC of the Czech Republic has accepted the invitation to come to tournament.
The good people at Gosu Gamers have put together a thorough overview of the teams and players in the tournament.

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Dota 2 gamescom Trailer

The tournament is just around the corner. All the teams and community commentators are on their way to Germany right now. We will provide the schedule and detailed information about the tournament tomorrow. Enjoy this gamescom Trailer in the meantime.

Visit Steam to download the 1080p HD version of the trailer.

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Announcing “The International”

Dota 2 Championships: First Public Showing at gamescom
Valve today announced The International. This tournament will be the first time Dota 2 is shown in public, and will take place August 17th -21st at gamescom in Cologne, Germany.
The International features the 16 best Dota teams in the world competing in the Dota 2 Championships through a group stage, double elimination playoff format over the course of Cologne’s five-day trade show.
The tournament will be broadcast in four languages (Chinese, German, Russian, and English) free of charge. The winning team will receive $1 million.
“The International is the first public Dota 2 event and will give the tens of millions of gamers playing Dota around the world their first look at the new game,” said Gabe Newell, president and founder of Valve. “I have had the good fortune to watch the competitors as they prepare for the tournament, and the level of play is extraordinary.”
In addition to the cash prizes awarded by Valve, NVidia is providing all the hardware for the event.
Dota 2 will be available for the PC and Mac later this year.

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