EPTI decided to write another blog cause cause you know what idk man rofl but this blog will not be about who gets the invites or a power rank but this blog will be talking about :
1.) THE INTERNATIONAL HYPE and why should we care about the international ?
2.) The desperate, the rejected and underdogs
3.) The Championship contenders
4.) West vs East this incoming TI5
Lastly i suggest that you listen to + Show Spoiler [this music] +
THE INTERNATIONAL
The 16 finest team around the world will clash claim to claim the aegis
(read it with a hype voice)
The 16 finest team around the world will clash claim to claim the aegis
(read it with a hype voice)
Well it's just the biggest and the most hyped yearly event for dota 2. Short explanation of this event is that it's the Official World Championship.
And this are the moments of the previous internationals that gave me chill and got me HYPED.
TI2
here comes LIGHT OF HEAVEN WITH THE H(*#&doiu(*#$uGESTTTTT BLAAAACKHOOOOOOLE
NAVI! NAVI! NAVI! NAVI! NAVI!
TI3
LIKE DUH this is so self-explanatory
SYLAR TO FALL LIQUID ARE DOING IT
giff team nazgul pls. (yes you are an awful person if you don't include this on your favorite moments of TI3 and you post on TL XD)
TI4
MEEEPOOOO pick when the tournament life is on the line
can you push before you run out of gas vs will the greed pay fast enough to dismantle the deathball ?
I think this is the match that defines what TI4 was about. It's arguably not more "epic" than the other games especially those in the group stages or other series but this is the series that stands out the most for me.
I believe this is the most high level game out of all of them(despite rtz fucking up) and the most hyped series of TI4 when playoffs started(even with the hype-killing schedule) and the one that put me at the edge of my seat. Honestly I still wished that eg vs nb was the grand finals not vg vs nb(wp vg though the team they deserved the 2nd place run).
hmm i think i'm forgetting something .. ahhhhh
TI1
I apologize i don't have one i've only seen the grand finals of TI1 out of all the series of TI1
I apologize i don't have one i've only seen the grand finals of TI1 out of all the series of TI1
The desperate, The rejected and The Underdogs
From all the years i have never seen so many disbands and reform that has ever happened in the history of dota(WOOAWWW). We all love the players drama's but nowadays being a dota fan is rough when players you transfer all the time.
This section will be about about the teams rising teams just below the top dogs of their respective scene(west/east).
The Desperate and The Rejected
I've put them both in one category. And that doesn't mean the team is in this category means they are necessarily bad it's just they fit both categories lol.
As TI5 approaches the teams of West has been shamelessly shuffling players left, right and center just to find the perfect fit of a team that will do well for TI5. You have teams with popular players like Meepawn who couldn't find the synergy they want or unsatisfied by it and btw just disbanded after a short while. There are teams like Team Tinker with players getting kicked and leaving(to find another team) and now trying to become a NA enough aiming to qualify for the weaker competition of the NA qualifiers(assuming they don't get invited which is likely but who knows we have black on their team xD).
NA dota currently has the reigning best team in the world. However that means shit when we are talking about the NA scene in general cause damn the scene as a while is one hot mess there are so many iterations of the teams that if you are not EG then you are changing members within tournament MULTIPLE TIMES that they manage to produce teams with the sickest names like Champions of Summer Rift who has two different rosters in two tournaments(rtz stack on MLG and the current roster ) atm and we have teams like
How far has time gone when the once great rivalry of the former giants of the western scene Na'vi and Alliance who desperately tries to regain that one thing in the past that made them stand.out from all the other teams of the scene. While Na'vi seems to be in a better shape now and may actually be threat as they are continually improving since DAC especially with the addition of VPP's DK.Phobos as a replacement to funn1k.
Alliance on the other continues to try to find that old synergy with a full swedish lineup (maybe not anymore with the addtion of 7cking mad to the team) while continually disappointing fans.
Will the el classico be a thing again that all the diehard na'vi/alliance fans deserve? Unlikely but only time will tell.
You think the Western Scene is bad compared Eastern Scene ? actually you could be right unlike the Western scene who for some reason managed to make every single one of their teams change so many players that there are some players like 7ckingMad and the legendary Jimmy "Demon" Ho who literally played with almost all of the teams.
I won't be discussing china since outside the newbee, lgd, vg and ig most of the teams still does not have a roster.
Lastly the SEA aside from other teams like Mineski, CSW, 5eva there is Ehome.Malaysia which basically is Orange 3.0(who has the EG formula 1 Young Prodigy +4 known talents ) who hopefully will put up a fight during TI5 (although i'm not too optimistic about them since we've seen this roster before).
The Underdogs
Now lets talk about the teams just next to the best of the best and those who has been performing outstandingly.
Ninjas in Pyjamas
a.k.a alliance 2.0 , Kings of CIS(oh you'll only know this if you watch NIP games :D )
While alliance continues to be in shambles luckily there is another swedish lineup Ninjas in Pyjamas who fulfills the swedish dream while they are not as impressive as the old alliance in their prime where the scene was like Alliance vs World unlike the real alliance they are showing promising results.
Empire the current Kings of CIS(aside NIP rofl) who keep playing extremely solidly and survived the grand theft CIS by na'vi xD. We just need to pray that they don't crumble like they always do when TI is close.
HellRaisers the CIS team with a knack for aggressive deathballing. While i think empire is better than them doesn't mean they can't put up a fight against them.
Rave the pride of the pinoys and also Koreans xD they have showed promising results during DAC by eliminating 3 chinese teams and HR along the way. And they had a really close series against BigGod.
The Championship Contender
Ladies and Gentlemen now i present the teams that are likely gonna take aegis.(as of the moment)
The Big 3 of West
Once upon a time at one point(few years iirc) the japanese manga industry had 3 manga's that was ahead of everybody else and it was naruto, bleach and onepiece. We also have that version of the west currently.
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/images/thumb/archive/4/4e/20150310164255%21Team_Secret_Logo.jpeg/294px-Team_Secret_Logo.jpeg){kind=logo}
Naruto
The team with abundant number of good cores. 4 of them. Well for the huge hype of this team they delivered ! The teams first tournament run they went 17-0 and that's when they ran 2 playstyle. And until now while they already suffered loses like a normal team should their playstyle hasn't been figured out by anyone even if they PICK THE SAME HEROES EVERY DAMN GAME that's pretty impressive considering everybody could just study you with the massive amount of games you have that does the same damn thing.
So why naruto ? well they have a loadmouth protagnonist *cough*rtz* who keeps chasing after another person who has historically rejected him *ehem*EE*. And it's the second best out of the 3 manga like they are the second best team of the west if we only consider results :3
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/images/thumb/8/89/C9.png/294px-C9.png)
Bleach
Ok why bleach ? Since this manga has always been behind One Piece and Naruto most of the time . It's the same case as C9 being behind Secret/EG like always.
With Aui_2000 and PLD out. The result of the new roster has been surprisingly not changed actually. It looks like the new C9 didn't improve nor did they become more inferior. Even with different support duo they still do C9 stuff, they are still capable of owning Secret and EG from time to time while still could not seal a series victory against them when the games matter like always.
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/images/thumb/1/1a/EG.png/294px-EG.png)
One Piece
Why one piece well at the end of the day(which is the current time) they ended up with the best deal after the great reshuffle. Evidence ? They won DAC.
They are the best as of now so i'll call them one piece cause one piece is the best out of the 3 imo.
The 4 Dragons of China
So after DAC China went through their own Great Reshuffle and Oh my God.
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/images/thumb/f/f9/LGD.png/294px-LGD.png)
LGD
Xiao8 is back and he is ready to give back a shot the team where he was known for. Theoretically this is without a doubt the strongest chinese team in paper and with the best Chinese Captain ever they should be in a pretty good spot for TI5.
And they even have the formula of winning huge tournaments
1 young prodigy + 4 veterans. Just like how rtz/suma1l won shit.
With Maybe on a team that could support him. Lets see how far can this team perform. Maybe xiao8 would be the first 2 time TI champion :3
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/images/thumb/e/eb/VICI_Gaming.png/294px-VICI_Gaming.png)
VG
While black wasn't that "bad" he surely had communication problems with the team. This team was really dominant at this and with the blacks replacement being the best aggressive carry in the world(yeah not xboct). They like LGD has a chance to finish top 3 with ease. If they perform stable enough they can probably be the strongest aggressive team ever existed(probably better than newbee ti4) that should make every CIS team that existed look not CIS when compared to them.
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/images/thumb/6/60/Ig_logo.png/294px-Ig_logo.png){kind=logo}
IG
If you look at the lineup in paper DREAMS DO COME TRUE :D
The best carry of china(arguable) + the best mid of china + the proven support duo of IG + uhm Luo. They look damn strong but with LGD and VG existing i believe they are behind both of them
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/images/6/67/Newbee_logo.png){kind=logo}
Newbee
"All good things must come to an end" - Some guy. Like ee and aui . Hao and Mu parted away.
Our defending TI4 champions who just had the most disappointing performance a TI champion could ever make during DAC now has Hao out(whether he got kicked or he left on his own) Hao will we ever know ? Haowever the team should be better now assuming they switch careers again. For now on paper they are the weakest out of the 4 but should still be good enough to be a threat since they still have the support duo.
West vs East
One of the things that make The International great is that it's usually the biggest global tournament yearly. And one of the things that fuels the fire of hype of every competitive big tournament is a good dose of homecourt team bias(aka nationalism/continental bias/cultural love bias). Think about olympics in that matter.
Dota 2 is no exception of it. Why is the international hyped ? well it's the time year of where best of the best gather and the time of the year where the EAST MEETS WEST.
At first before DAC happened i thought that the great western reshuffle managed to make the western scene significantly weaker than China. However after China as a whole poor performance on DAC. With i doubted that the East will be able compete with the West.
Until this happened
DAC was the time where China has shamed themselves in dota and they gonna try their hardest to make sure nothing like that happens ever happens again. They reformed themselves with the most stacked rosters possible.
This August on the international stage will the inevitable Chinese invasion succeed like how they claimed the victory of TI4 or will the West claim the territory of TI5 as well as they did in DAC ?
History gonna repeat itself this TI5. Which history will it be?
Sorry if i failed to discuss every team. I'm just discussing the ones that cross my mind and the most notable ones for me.
If you have read this far Thanks.
I know nobody asked but for those who care(or don't care but curious) the next time i'm writing a blog will be another Power Rank and will write it after the last tournament before the international 5 happens. (yeah fuck you it won't suck and it'll be the greatest power rank ever written in the history of ........ xD)
Lastly for future purposes(for the i told you so moments) i have a poll
