The International is the main Dota 2 tournament that takes place every year. It is a significant event in the cybersport world, and it always attracts a great number of spectators from all over the world. This year The International will be held for the twelfth time. The tournament will bring together 20 of the best teams from six regions, who trained hard and earned the right to attend the main tournament of the year. The participants will compete for the title of champion, a massive prize pool and the main trophy - the Aegis. Besides, given the fact that Valve made serious changes to The International's format, the championship will be even more spectacular. Read all the details about The International 12 in the material of Telecomasia.net.
Bet on Esports with 1xBetThe International 12 format
The organizers of The International have drastically changed the format of the tournament and renounced the traditional two groups of nine teams during the group stage. Now there will be four groups with five teams in each. Thanks to this, all matches in this stage of the championship will have way more weight.
The teams will play each other in a round robin system inside the groups. All the matches are bo2. The weakest teams from each group will leave The International 12.
After that, the second stage of the championship will begin, where sixteen teams will play a series of knockout matches. After that, the four strongest teams will qualify for the upper bracket of the playoffs. Another four teams will be the losers bracket. Eight other teams will leave the championship. The main stage will be held under the double elimination rules. All the matches are bo3 and the grand finals are bo5.
The International 12 start date
Valve not only changed the format of The International, but also the usual schedule of the tournament. Now every championship match will be held from Friday through Sunday. This will help more people to watch the best Dota 2 teams in the world play live.
The International 12 will begin on October 12 and will run for two and a half weeks, but, as mentioned previously, the matches will only take place on the days from Friday through Sunday. There won't be any games during the rest of the week. The group stage of the championship will take place from October 12 to 15, the playoffs will take place from October 20 to 22, and the final confrontations will take place from October 27 to 29.
Where will The International 12 be held?
Almost every year The International is held in a new location. Thus, the last tournament of this series was held in Singapore, and before that - in Bucharest (Romania). In 2023 The International will be held in Seattle (Washington, USA). That is where Valve's headquarters are based. That is, the main tournament of the year on Dota 2 will be held in the homeland of the game developers.
The group stage of The International will be played from the hotel where the players will be staying. The playoff matches will be held at the Seattle Convention Center's Summit Exhibition Complex, and the final days of the tournament will be held at the Climate Pledge Arena.
Bet on Esports with 1xBetThe International 12 schedule
The International 12 will be held in the USA, which is very inconvenient for spectators from opposite parts of the world. The game days will start in the morning hours of the local time, when it's late evening in Europe and Africa. So some viewers will have to watch the matches at night. The tournament organizers haven't published the schedule of the group stage. As soon as it appears online, we will add it to this section.
The International 12 prize pool
The prize pool for The International is based on two factors. Valve is allocating $1.6 million dollars for this purpose. The company also releases a «battle pass» with various cosmetic items. 25% of all sales also go to the prize pool. For example, the prize pool of The International 11 amounted to $18.9 million. And a year before that - $40 million dollars. However, this time the developers decided to take a different path and canceled the «battle pass»:
Work is well underway on a TI-themed update to ship in September. The update will still contribute directly to the prize pool, with a focus on the event, the players, and the games, but new cosmetic items won't play a notable part. This is a significant change from the last few years, so to make it clear that we're shifting focus towards the event and away from the giant reward line of cosmetics, we're intentionally not calling this update a Battle Pass.
Until this update is released, it's impossible to guess what the prize pool for The International 12 will be. However, according to the recent trend of decreasing the numbers, it is unlikely to be more than $15 million.
Bet on Esports with 1xBetParticipants of The International 12
The International 12 will feature the top 20 teams from six regions. Five teams will represend Europe, four from the CIS, four from South America, three from North America, two from China and two from Southeast Asia. The full list of The International 12 participants is as follows:
- Team Liquid;
- Gaimin Gladiators;
- Tundra Esports;
- 9 Pandas;
- Evil Geniuses;
- PSG.LGD;
- Shopify Rebellion;
- Talon Esports;
- beastcoast;
- Team Spirit;
- TSM;
- BetBoom Team;
- nouns;
- Keyd Stars;
- Thunder Awaken;
- Virtus.pro;
- Azure Ray;
- Entity;
- Quest Esports;
- Team SMG.
The International 12 favorites
The main favorite for The International 12 is Gaimin Gladiators. The team changed one player at the beginning of the year and immediately became incredibly strong. They won The Lima Major 2023, DreamLeague Season 19, ESL One Berlin Major 2023, The Bali Major 2023 and DreamLeague Season 20 - a fantastic result. No other team had ever won at all the majors of a season before, and the Gladiators did it.
Toward the end of the year, the team relaxed a bit and only finished fourth at the Riyadh Masters 2023, which is also pretty impressive. So if Gaimin Gladiators approach The International 12 in their best form, it will be very hard to stop them. This is the main favorite of the tournament - they had a great season and now must perform their best at the main Dota 2 tournament of the year.
The second favorite of The International 12 is Team Liquid. The team has also shown great results since the beginning of the year, but has not won a single tournament. This is because all the victories went to Gaimin Gladiators. However, Liquid made it to the grand finals at The Lima Major 2023, DreamLeague Season 19, ESL One Berlin Major 2023, The Bali Major 2023 and Riyadh Masters 2023, but lost to their rivals every time.
Despite this, Team Liquid is still an incredibly strong team that has every chance to win The International 12. No one doubts that the team will make it far in the tournament, but they will have to do their utmost and rise above their heads to win, because so far this lineup of Liquid has not won any major championships.
The CIS team have been playing very well this year, so four teams from the region were selected for The International 12. Three of them are real contenders to win the main tournament of the year. Team Spirit didn't perform very well at the beginning of the season and took bottom spots at the international championships. But then "the Dragons" pulled themselves together and unexpectedly became the champions of the Riyadh Masters 2023. So Team Spirit should never be underestimated. This team has repeatedly proven that it can win even in the most difficult games.
Bet on Esports with 1xBetThe second candidate for victory from the CIS is BetBoom Team. The team got together only at the beginning of the year and tried to adjust their game throughout the season, demonstrating rather disappointing results. However, when the guys found their synergy, they started to play much better. Thus, the team took second place at DreamLeague Season 20 and 5-6th place at Riyadh Masters 2023. Many professional players recognize the strength of BetBoom Team and are cautious of this team, as they can beat anyone - in theory.
9 Pandas are also playing well. This team also got assembled only at the beginning of the year, but has already achieved good results. Take for example 3rd place at ESL One Berlin Major 2023, 6th place at The Bali Major 2023 and 5th-6th place at Riyadh Masters 2023. The Pandas can hardly be called the favorites of The International 12. Rather, they are among the "dark horses" who can surprise if luck favors them. In any case, 9 Pandas is a contender to win the main Dota 2 tournament of the year.