The race for the Aegis at Dota 2’s TI10 has seen some of the best Dota 2 played all year. Everyone has their favorites, but competition doesn’t lie as teams depart TI10 to determine which team is the best at Dota 2 for the opportunity to win the lion’s share of over a $40 million prize pool, currently, the largest prize pool offered in esports history. 

Over a year’s worth of competition in isolated online events has culminated in a heated series of contests as regional favorites, rookie squads, and veteran hopefuls have battled it out throughout an intense double elimination bracket in TI10’s main event. The group stages saw South American teams Thunder Predator and SG esports eliminated, leaving the remaining sixteen teams to fight it out in the main event. Now, the TI10 top 8 teams remain, with all teams in the upper bracket of TI10 gearing up to make it to the upper bracket final of the event. 

Let’s take a look at the remaining teams, who have fought through grueling matches to make it this far.

The following teams now reside in the top 8 slots for TI10, ensuring at least a cool million dollars should they exit the tournament. 

• Invictus Gaming
• Team Secret
• PSG.LGD
• Virtus Pro
• Team Spirit
• OG
• T1
• Vici Gaming

The teams occupying the upper bracket of TI10 will seem like no surprise to the educated spectator, but perhaps what’s most surprising is that OG, the back-to-back TI champions, are making their run in the lower bracket due to an early loss against Team Secret. They many have pegged as a likely European favorite to win TI10, second only to OG. Now, Team Secret may be the European favorite in the top 8 teams competing at TI10.

In OG’s upper bracket match against Team Secret, Team Secret’s Nisha was perhaps the secret to Team Secret’s success, managing a Kill/Death/Assist score of 20/3/22 on Ember Spirit in the first game and 13/0/18 on Tinker in the second game. Game 1 between the teams was perhaps more even, as OG’s SumaiL was able to keep up with Secret’s heroes in farm and impact. However, it felt as though the core Io played by OG’s Ceb never took off in the way OG wanted, and OG would have no buffer for Secret’s teamfight combo of the Earthshaker, Morphling with Aghanim’s Scepter, and Monkey King with Eye of Skadi.

Secret’s Yapzor was able to control heroes in his own right with solid initiation and teamfight as the Monkey King’s Boundless Strike provided an excellent follow-up stun. His ultimate would punish OG initiation or provide additional damage during team fights.

Game 2 of Secret vs. OG would see Secret’s Nisha run away with the game on Tinker, exerting global map pressure along with his teammates YapzoR and zai. The game would be a shorter affair, ending at around 28 minutes with Secret maintaining and growing a lead they gained around minute 10 after a devastating teamfight near Roshan. 

The lower bracket of TI10 has seen the elimination of two Chinese teams, Team Aster and Elephant. As the team fielded former PSG, many expected Elephant’s squad of Chinese veterans and legends to go far.LGD player Somnus (formerly Maybe) and Vici Gaming players Eurus (formerly Paparazzi) and Yang. The team rounded up their squad with 2nd generation veterans Super and fy. The entire Elephant roster contained talent that had experience at The International and could be considered relatively prepared for competition against non-Chinese teams. However, Elephant would falter in the group stage, narrowly avoiding elimination before Evil Geniuses’ dropping in a best-of-one affair. 

Perhaps the most surprising team to have made it this far in the lower bracket may be Team Spirit, who many pegged as simply being too young and inexperienced to have made it this far at TI10. Many would not have guessed that Team Spirit would be one of the top 8 teams competing at TI10, but the superb offlane play of Spirit’s Collapse, combined with the ingenuity of mid laner TORONTOTOKYO that has set the tone for many of Team’s Spirit’s games. Now, Team Spirit will face up against OG, the fan-favorites that have shown to make miracles happen in their career and are accustomed to making marathon runs in the lower bracket of previous TI events.

Several teams in the lower bracket of TI10 represent the last chance for their regions to win The International. T1’s defeat of Alliance secures a top 8 finish for the SEA region. In contrast, Evil Geniuses’ defeat at the hands of Vici Gaming signals a sunset for North American Dota 2 and another year where the Aegis of Champions eludes Arteezy’s grasp, who has spent a majority of his career chasing a win at TI. In the last game of the series, Vici Gaming would undermine Arteezy’s Troll Warlord pick, keeping him at arm’s distance with their itemization and preventing Arteezy from contributing significantly to team fights. Vici Gaming kept EG supports from rescuing their star carry player thanks to an inspired Lycan pick for old eLeVeN, who makes up for his previously poor showings at TI10 with the win against EG.

As the top 8 teams prepare for the next stage of Dota 2’s TI10, clear lines are drawn between China and the rest of the world. OG will continue to fight to the grand final from the lower bracket while the youngest teams at TI10 will compete against the fan favorites for China and Europe. This International will surely be one to remember.