DOTA 2 REMEMBERING THE INTERNATIONAL 2013

Raagini Ram

Valve’s worldwide Dota 2 championship tournament, the International 2013 Dota 2 Championship was held in Seattle, United states from 7th to 11th August 2013. The third edition of this tournament was won by Alliance. 2013 was a landmark year for Dota 2. The game was fully released after a 2 year beta period with Valve releasing it to the public in waves to avoid server backlogs. The game was released throughout the world. Since its full release Dota 2 has grown to become one of the most loved and popular games.

Format of The International 3

Qualifiers – May 13th – May 30th, 2013

Two Regional Qualifiers – winners join invited teams and runner ups compete in wild card matches.

Wild Card – August 2nd, 2013

Winner advances to group stage.

Group Stage – August 3rd – August 5th, 2013

Two groups of eight teams. The top 4 teams advance to upper bracket while bottom 4 advance to lower bracket.

Main Event – August 7th – August 11th, 2013

Sixteen teams play in a double elimination format over six days.
Eight teams begin in the upper bracket, eight in the lower bracket .
Grand Finals are best of five, all others are best of three.

Team Selection

Due to the full release of the game in 2013, Dota 2 was immensely growing in popularity. This growth was limited not to the game alone but extended to its pro players as well. Teams and gamers were becoming famous. As for the International a total of 16 teams participated.13 of the total 16 were invited, two of the remaining teams receiving their place via two invite-only geographic qualifier tournaments and the final spot went to the winner of the Wild Card match. The list included some well known names The 16 teams that participated in The International 2013 were –

Invictus Gaming
Orange.Neolution
Alliance
Fnatic
Team Liquid
Natus Vincere
Team Zenith
Team Dignitas
Invasion MUFC
DK
LCD Gaming.Int
Mousesports
TongFu
Virtus.Pro
LCD Gaming
A wild Card Winner

Prize Pool The International 3

In 2013 Valve released the Compendium. This was a purchasable item which gave the owner special T13 only cosmetics including HUD skins, Immortal items and a courier too. A purchase of the sale was pumped back into the prize pool. This, therefore, saw a growth in rewards.

This five-day DOTA 2 tournament was held at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. The prize pool was a little different than previous years. The Prize pool totalled to more than US$2.8 million. The compendium owners pushed the prize pool in this ginormous amount. Second place would receive US$632k, third with US$287k and fourth receiving US$201k.

The International 2013 Placements and Rewards

First Place– Alliance – $1,437,190

Second Place– Natus Vincere – $632,364

Third Place– Orange Esports – $287,438

Fourth Place– TongFu – $201,207

Fifth/Sixth Place– Invictus Gaming/Team DK – $114.975

Seventh/Eight Place– Team Liquid/Fnatic – $43,116

Grand Finals!

Alliance met 2011 champions Na’Vi (Natus Vincere) in a five game match to win almost US$ 1.4 million. Third place was secured by Orange Esports followed by TongFu, Invictus Gaming, Team DK, Team Liquid and Fnatic securing fourth to eight spots, respectively.

Na’Vi were strong. After having won in 2011 and placed second in the 2nd edition, they were looking like the event favourites. Alliance however had lost only one match throughout the event and were looking incredibly strong. Strong plays from Henrik ‘AdiralBulldog’ and Ahnberg Gustav ‘s4’ Magnusson ensured victory for the team. A brief summary of the match has been provided on the Dota 2 blog.