Here's a brief history of the International: August 17 2011.
Dota 2 makes its debut at Gamescom in Cologne Germany
as 16 of the best teams from around the world slugged it out to be crowned the
first TI champions. 52 matches and 39 hours of gameplay later
Na`Vi became the first team to claim the title defeating EHOME thanks to their
brutally fast aggressive style. The very same style that would later help them
become the only team in history to play in three TI Grand Finals.
The pool of heroes at the first International was relatively small compared to what we
have today as only 46 heroes were available. Out of all these heroes
Vengeful Spirit was the most picked as she was chosen in 33 of 52 games,
with Windrunner close behind at 28. Interestingly, Na`Vi never selected either
of the two most picked heroes throughout their title run. The honors for the most
banned heroes go to Anti-Mage, Nightstalker and Spectre. In the end Na`Vi's
victory and $1,000,000 first place prize was an auspicious start for what is one
of the most prestigious esports tournaments in the world.
(Casting)
August 26th, 2012: The International 2 marks
the first TI held in Valve's home of Seattle, Washington. It was also the first
International to have a qualifier stage with two teams joining the invited 14.
It also marked the introduction of now iconic trophy the Aegis of Champions.
As the International grew so did the format. On top of the qualifiers there was 156
total games and 87 hours of gameplay which is more than three times the
amount of games compared to the first TI. The meta had shifted drastically from
the last International with Leshrac and Venomancer taking over as the most
played heroes with 91 and 84 picks respectively. While Lycan and Naga Siren
were by far the most banned with 134 and 133 bans respectively.
The International 2 is arguably best remembered for its epic clashes between
Invictus Gaming and Na`Vi. First in the winner's bracket semifinals and later
in the Grand Finals. The grudge match started when Na`Vi knocked iG into the
lower bracket thanks in no small part to one of Dota's most famous moments known
only as 'The Play.'
(Casting)
In the end iG would
exact their revenge, fighting their way through the losers bracket to become the
second International champions - denying Na`Vi their chance at consecutive titles.
August 2nd, 2013: The International's growth continued with its third
iteration. For the first time the Dota community was able to contribute to the
prize pool by purchasing the in-game compendium. This not only increased the
prize pool by roughly 80%, adding about 1.2 million dollars
but The International 2013 set the record for the largest prize pool at the time
at over 2.8 million dollars. Oh how far we've come. TI3 was also the
first International to feature a wild card game which increased the number of
qualified teams from two to three. This in addition to the inclusion of best-of-three
series for the top six teams, further increased the total number of
games to 162. In total TI3 had 89 hours of Dota gameplay for fans to enjoy.
Visage and Weaver were priority picks as they were selected in 88 and 75 of the
matches respectively. While Outworld Devourer was the most banned hero with Batrider close behind.
The story of the event centered around Alliance.
A Swedish team that featured a mix of veteran talent and pub stars.
Alliance's Grand Final match against Na`Vi is a Dota 2 classic and the peak of the rivalry
between the two teams. Despite only dropping one game throughout the entire
event, Alliance struggled against Na`Vi as the five-game series went the distance.
The marathon series finally ended thanks to s4's heroics on Puck in a play that is
now known as the 'Million Dollar Dream Coil.'
(Casting)
With that thrilling finish Alliance would lift the Aegis as the third International champions.
July 8th, 2014: With The International's continued growth
a change of venue was an order. Benaroya Hall, which had previously hosted the
Main Event was switched out for the 17,000 seat Key Arena. TI4 also saw a more
than 300% prize pool increase with the community contributing over 9 million
dollars to bump up the pot to almost 11 million dollars. In fact, the prize pool
for the International 2014 is more than the sum of all previous Internationals combined.
Once again, the event received some tweaks. This was the first year
prizes were given out beyond the top eight teams, and the format was changed
to a modified round-robin group stage and the smaller main event bracket in
which every match was a best of three. This increased the action to 172 total
games and 125 hours of gameplay. Also the field was more competitive and open to
rising talent than ever before with the addition of the four region qualifier.
Plus the wild card match, the number of invited teams were reduced to 11, but the
qualifier spots increased to 5. The champions, NewBee, paved their way to
victory with their death ball push strategy that highlighted the event's
most popular pick, Shadow Shaman, while Razor took the honours as the second
most popular selection across the board. NewBee won 11 of the 13 games in which
they picked Shadow Shaman - good enough for an 85% win rate. TI4 marked
the first time that Na`Vi failed to make the Grand Finals as NewBee took down
their fellow countrymen, Vici Gaming, to claim the purse as well as the Aegis.
July 27th, 2015: You guessed it! More games, more money and more action than ever before.
The International 2015 - once again the public came through big, adding more
than 16 million and a half dollars to the prize pool with over 6.6 million
being awarded to the winners, Evil Geniuses. For the first time the last
place teams received a small portion of the pot, but each team's 0.3% cut
is still valued at over $55,000. A return to the best of two group stage format
meant even more games, totalling in at 176 games and 162 hours of gameplay.
This edition of TI added a second wild card spot, which meant that six teams would
qualify for the event while 10 teams were invited - the most open field at the time.
The fiery Lina was the most picked champion of the International 2015 with
92 selections, while Gyrocopter was only a few games behind at 91 picks.
Leshrac claimed the honours of the most banned with 144 bans.
For the first time an American team won the International, as Evil Geniuses hoisted the Aegis after
Universe's famous $6,000,000 Echo Slam put the final nail in their 3-1 victory
over the Chinese CDEC in the Grand Finals.
(Casting)
Interestingly, EG are one of the most
diverse teams to ever win the prize. They had both the oldest player and youngest
player to win the International. With Fear being 27 at the time and his
teammate, SumaiL, who's only 16 years old.
(Kaci Congratulates EG)
August 2nd, 2016: Although the overall format was very similar to TI5, this year's International was the first to
feature more qualified teams than invited teams. With 10 teams coming
through their respective regional qualifier or the wild card, while only
six were invited directly. TI6 was the most diverse dota tournament of all time
when it came to the pick/ban phase with 105 of the 110 total available heroes
being selected across the group stage and main event. Only Bloodseeker, Leshrac
Lina, Treant Protector and Visage were not selected at all. This TI more than
any other was the story of upsets. Notably, tournament favorites
OG took an early exit in the Lower Bracket, Fnatic shocked Team Liquid and
the massive underdogs, Digital Chaos, made a run all the way to the Grand Finals.
However, Wings Gaming would not be denied by any of these teams. The young Chinese
squad was dominant throughout the Main Event, claiming the title and the just
over 9 million dollars that goes with it. Although the final games of TI6 were
just recently finished, it's safe to say that it was one of the best yet. With
thrilling games, amazing storylines and near-flawless production. As the sun sets
on the biggest Dota tournament to date, you must now begin to wonder: what will
next year's TI bring? Who will hoist the Aegis? And who will fight for glory and victory?