Team Liquid is a multi-regional professional esports organization based in the Netherlands that was founded in 2000. With the release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Team Liquid signed their first professional players.
Evil Geniuses (EG) is an American esports organization based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1999, the organization has fielded players in various fighting games, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Fortnite Battle Royale, Halo,League of Legends, Valorant, StarCraft II, Rocket League, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, and World of Warcraft.
Natus Vincere, commonly referred as abbreviated name NAVI, is a Ukrainian esports organization based in Kyiv. Founded in 2009, the organization has teams and players competing in various games, such as Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, FIFA, Brawl Stars, World of Tanks, Paladins, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Clash of Clans, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Fortnite, and VALORANT.
Team SoloMid, commonly referred to by its abbreviation TSM, is a professional esports organization based in the United States. It was founded in September 2009 by Andy "Reginald" Dinh. TSM currently fields players in Apex Legends, Dota 2, Fortnite, Rocket League, Guilty Gear Strive, Super Smash Bros., Valorant, and Counter-Strike 2. The organization also briefly owned an Overwatch team.
PSG.LGD was a professional Dota 2 team based in China. They were formed as a partnership between PSG Esports and LGD Gaming in April 2018 until the end of the partnership in September 2023. PSG.LGD has finished as the runner-up in The International 2018 and 2021.
Gustav Magnusson, better known as s4, is a Swedish professional Dota 2 player. As a member of Alliance, s4 won The International 2013.
Clement Ivanov, better known as Puppey, is an Estonian professional Dota 2 player for Team Secret. He is the founding member of Team Secret. Together with Natus Vincere, Puppey won The International 2011 in August 2011 for a one million dollar first place prize. They also took runner-up for the next two Internationals.
Syed Sumail Hassan, better known mononymously as Sumail, is a Pakistani and American professional Dota 2 player for Team Secret. He has played in five iterations of The International, winning in 2015 as a member of Evil Geniuses.
Artour Babaev, better known as Arteezy, is a Canadian professional Dota 2 player for Shopify Rebellion. He is also one of the most popular streamers among the community.
Saahil Arora, better known as Universe, is an American former professional Dota 2 player. He was a member of the Evil Geniuses team that won The International 2015.
Peter Dager, better known as ppd, is an American former professional Dota 2 player. He was the former CEO of the esports organization Evil Geniuses, where he also won The International 2015 as a player-captain, later playing for OpTic Gaming and Ninjas in Pyjamas.
Kurtis Ling, better known as Aui_2000, is a Canadian professional Dota 2 player and coach for Tundra Esports. Kurtis was a member of the Evil Geniuses team that won The International 2015 and coach of the Tundra Esports team that won The International 2022.
OG is a professional esports organisation based in Europe. Formed in 2015, they are best known for their Dota 2 team who won The International 2018 and 2019 tournaments. They also have a Counter-Strike 2 and a Rocket League team.
Johan Sundstein, better known as N0tail, is a Danish-Faroese professional Dota 2 player for OG. As a member of OG, he has played in four iterations of The International, winning in 2018 and 2019, and has also won four Major championships.
The International 2017 (TI7) was the seventh iteration of The International, an annual Dota 2 esports world championship tournament. Hosted by Valve, the game's developer, the tournament began with the online qualifier phase in June 2017, and ended after the main event at the KeyArena in Seattle in August. The Grand Finals took place between the European-based Team Liquid and Chinese-based Newbee, with Liquid defeating Newbee 3–0 in a best-of-five series, winning nearly $11 million in prize money.
The International 2018 (TI8) was the eighth iteration of The International, an annual Dota 2 world championship esports tournament. Hosted by Valve, the game's developer, TI8 followed a year-long series of tournaments awarding qualifying points, known as the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), with the top eight ranking teams being directly invited to the tournament. In addition, ten more teams earned invites through qualifiers that were held in June 2018, with the group stage and main event played at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver in August. The best-of-five grand finals took place between OG and PSG.LGD, with OG winning the series 3–2. Their victory was considered a Cinderella and underdog success story, as they had come from the open qualifiers and were not favored to win throughout the competition.
LGD Gaming is a Chinese professional esports organization based in Hangzhou. It is one of the oldest esports organizations in China and currently has players competing in Dota 2, Honor of Kings, League of Legends, Overwatch, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
Kuro Salehi Takhasomi, better known as KuroKy, is a German and Iranian professional Dota 2 player for Nigma Galaxy. He was a member of Team Liquid that won The International 2017.
Anathan Pham, better known as ana, is an Australian professional Dota 2 player. As a member of OG, he has played in three iterations of The International, winning in 2018 and 2019, and has also won two Major championships tournaments.
Team Spirit is an international esports organization based in Belgrade. Founded in 2015, the organization currently has teams competing in Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Hearthstone and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Their Dota 2 squad won two iterations of The International, the former event in which the organisation received the largest single prize money payout in esports history at $18 million. In 2022, as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the organization relocated to Belgrade, Serbia.
