The International 2019 (TI9) was the ninth iteration of The International, an annual Dota 2world championshipesports tournament. Hosted by Valve, the game's developer, the tournament followed a year-long series of awarding qualifying points, known as the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), with the top 12 ranking teams being directly invited to the tournament, which took place in August 2019 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai. In addition, six more teams earned invites through regional qualifiers played in July 2019. The grand finals took place between Team Liquid and OG, who had respectively won the International's 2017 and 2018 events. There, OG defeated Team Liquid 3–1 in the best-of-five series to become the first-ever repeat champion of an International.
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 at over US$34 million. In addition, various related activities were also held during the event, such as an all-star game and cosplay and submitted short film contests. The event had over a million concurrent viewers during the grand finals on the livestreaming platform Twitch.
Background
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 team has a unique set of talents and powers, 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 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 May 2019, allowing the prize pool to be crowdfunded by players of the game.[3] 25% of revenue made by it was sent directly towards the tournament's prize pool.[4] In July 2019, the prize pool had reached over US$30 million.[5] At the time of event, Dota 2 featured 117 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 six and selected five heroes. Once a hero is picked, it cannot 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]
The International 2019 featured a series of pre-qualifying tournaments running from October 2018 until June 2019, known as the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), with the top 12 ranking teams receiving direct invitations.[6] In addition, six single-elimination qualifying playoff brackets were held in July 2019, with the winners from the regions of China, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Europe, North America, South America, and Southeast Asia earning invites to the main event, bringing the total number of participating teams up to 18.[7][6]
To seed the elimination bracket for the main event, round robin group stages featuring two groups of nine teams were played from August 15–18, 2019.[6] 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.[7] The main event was held at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai from August 20–25, making it the first International to take place in China.[8] An all-star game, featuring the top 10 players based on their fantasy points during the group stage, was also played during the event.[9]
The International 2019 set a crowdfunded esport prize pool record by eclipsing the previous years' record, finalizing at US$34,330,068. The tournament was the most watched Dota 2 event ever on the livestreaming platform Twitch, with a peak of over 1.1 million viewers during the grand finals.[14] Other related events took place during the tournament, such as a cosplay and submitted short film contest with their own independent prize pools,[15][16] as well as two new hero announcements for the game itself.[17] An episode of True Sight, Valve's documentary film series on the professional Dota 2 scene, was filmed during the event. It followed OG and Team Liquid during the grand finals, documenting a number of behind the scenes moments for both teams before and after matches. It was released online for free on January 28, 2020, and also premiered to a live audience at the Kino Babylon in Berlin.[18]
Footnotes
Notes
↑ Qualified as Forward Gaming, but they ceased operations due to financial reasons a month prior to the tournament.[10] The roster was then signed as free agents by the Chinese organization Newbee.[11]
Paul "Redeye" Chaloner is a British former esports broadcaster.
Dota 2 is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve. The game is a sequel to Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a community-created mod for Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Dota 2 is played in matches between two teams of five players, with each team occupying and defending their own separate base on the map. Each of the ten players independently controls a powerful character known as a "hero" that all have unique abilities and differing styles of play. During a match players collect experience points and items for their heroes to defeat the opposing team's heroes in player versus player combat. A team wins by being the first to destroy the other team's "Ancient", a large structure located within their base.
Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of players compete against each other on a predefined battlefield. Each player controls a single character with a set of distinctive abilities that improve over the course of a game and which contribute to the team's overall strategy. The typical objective is for each team to destroy their opponents' main structure, located at the opposite corner of the battlefield. In some MOBA games, the objective can be defeating every player on the enemy team. Players are assisted by computer-controlled units that periodically spawn in groups and march forward along set paths toward their enemy's base, which is heavily guarded by defensive structures. This type of multiplayer online video games originated as a subgenre of real-time strategy, though MOBA players usually do not construct buildings or units. Moreover, there are examples of MOBA games that are not considered real-time strategy games, such as Smite (2014), and Paragon. The genre is seen as a fusion of real-time strategy, role-playing and action games.
The International (TI) is an annual esports world championship for the five-on-five video game Dota 2. Produced by the game's developer Valve, the International is the final event of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) and consists of 20 teams: 12 based on final results from the DPC; six from North America, South America, Southeast Asia, China, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe regional leagues; and two from last-chance qualifiers. The International was first held in Germany at the 2011 Gamescom to promote the game's release. It was then held in Seattle, where Valve is headquartered, until it began to be hosted internationally again starting with The International 2018 in Vancouver.
The International 2014 (TI4) was the fourth edition of The International, an annual esports Dota 2 championship tournament, which took place at the KeyArena in Seattle. Hosted by Valve, the tournament began on July 8 with the Playoffs phase and closed on July 21 with the Grand Final. The 2014 edition of The International featured nineteen Dota 2 professional gaming teams that competed for a Grand Prize of over US$5.0 million. Overall, US$10.93 million were awarded at the event, making it the largest esports event by prize money until it was topped by the next International.
Vici Gaming (VG) were a Chinese professional esports organization based in Shanghai. It had teams competing in Dota 2, League of Legends, StarCraft II, WarCraft III, FIFA, Hearthstone, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Honor of Kings. Vici Gaming's Dota 2 team had been a top contender in numerous tournaments, most notably as runners-up of The International 2014.
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.
The International 2015 (TI5) was the fifth edition of The International, an annual Dota 2 esports championship tournament, which took place at the KeyArena in Seattle. Hosted by Valve, the game's developer, the tournament began in May with the qualifier phase and ended after the main event in August.
The Frankfurt Major, also known as the Fall Major, was a Dota 2 tournament which took place from November 13–21, 2015. The tournament took place at the Festhalle Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany. It was the first of three Valve sponsored major Dota tournaments for the 2015–16 season, which were announced by the company on April 25, 2015. 16 teams competed in the tournament, which used the same format as The International 2015. The Electronic Sports League (ESL) hosted and organized the tournament.
Kurtis Ling, better known as Aui_2000 or simply Aui, 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 teams in Counter-Strike 2 and Rocket League.
The International 2016 (TI6) was the sixth iteration of The International, an annual Dota 2 esports championship tournament. Hosted by Valve Corporation, the game's developer, the tournament began in June 2016 with the qualifier phase and ended after the main event at the KeyArena in Seattle in August. The tournament awarded the biggest prize pool in esports history at over $20 million, surpassing the record set at the previous International, with the champion team, Wings Gaming, winning over $9 million.
The Kiev Major was a professional Dota 2 esport tournament that was held in April 2017 at the National Palace of Arts in Kyiv, Ukraine. The tournament featured eight directly invited teams, as well as eight qualified teams from six different worldwide regions.
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 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) was the professional league used in Dota 2, a competitive five-on-five video game. Active between 2017 and 2023, the DPC was organized by the game's developer, Valve and consisted of seasonal "Major" tournaments and Regional Leagues from North America, South America, Southeast Asia, China, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe. Points were earned by the top six teams playing in the upper division of a Regional League as well as those finishing in the top eight of a Major. The top 12 teams with the most points at the season's conclusion earned invites to The International, the premier tournament for Dota 2. The DPC was introduced in 2017 as a replacement for the Dota Major Championship series (2015–2016), which was criticized due to Valve's non-transparent process for sending out International invites. The DPC ended following the 2023 season.
ESL One Hamburg 2017 was a Dota 2 esports championship tournament hosted by ESL. It took place in Hamburg, Germany in October 2017. This is the first ESL One event held in Hamburg, after three previous ESL One events in Germany were held in Frankfurt. In accordance with the new Dota 2 competitive season format set by Valve, the game's developer, the tournament will be the first Dota 2 Major tournament of the 2017 Dota Pro Circuit season.
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.
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.
The International 2022 was the 11th iteration of The International, an annual Dota 2 world championship esports tournament hosted by Valve, the game's developer. The tournament followed the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), an annual series of tournaments awarding points to teams, with the top 12 earning invitations and a further eight earning them by a series of qualifying playoffs.
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