EPTAt some point, I started calling it Valve Elimination in my headcanon. That may be inaproppriate; maybe Valve shares my disdain for it but organizers insist on it. I don't know everything; I only know what I know. What I know is that Dota's pseudo-double elimination annoys me, including its inconsistent series length. Some best of one followed by some best of three followed by a final best of five is just..... ugh. Sure, it's all Dota, but it's not quite the same Dota. I expect that there are other, maybe even better examples, but the one most relevant to me is competitive Pokémon, which I've started playing in the last few years. Players from many Asian countries qualify for the Pokemon World Championship through best of one competitions, while the rest of the world qualifies through best of three competition and the World Championship itself is best of three. That hasn't prevented Asian players from winning, but it still seems ridiculous to me.
I had the idea of writing something about this several years ago, but wasn't sure what I could say about it other than "well, this seems stupid." I don't remember if it was the first time I considered the idea, if it's just my most vivid related memory, or something else entirely, but the question mark sticks out even now, three years later. Credit where credit is due, Emo's a chad, but, sigh... that was an EG 2-0 victory.....
Ahem, now that my COPIUM tank is empty, I'll move on (for now). I looked at Liquipedia for the results of major events that used Valve Elimination since 2011, but before getting to that I'll mention the variation in playoff bracket seeding between events.
As I said before, double elimination after groups seems to be the community's favorite format and is expected from every significant event. I prefer single elimination after a full round robin, but the difference doesn't seem too big. The relevant thing here is the treatment of group stage placement as a pseudo-first round of the double elimination playoff, resulting in half of the teams starting the playoff with a loss. Wanting the group stage to matter is perfectly understandable and I don't disagree, but full round robin into a single elimination playoff seems superior in terms of competitive integrity and just feels cleaner to me. Another thing one might consider is how the final being best of five is a sort of second chance for the first finalist. I agree that it's better than a single best of three, but that seems like it's just halfway between single and double elimination.
Anyway, let's get to the results, of which I collected 36. I could've included many more events, of course, but the Internationals, Majors, and Riyadhs seemed like a reasonable place to draw the line. They're shown below with the winner, runner-up, and whether the runner-up qualified for the final from the upper or lower bracket:
- International 2011: Na'Vi 3-1 EHOME (lower).
- International 2012: iG 3-1 Na'Vi (upper).
- International 2013: Alliance 3-2 Na'Vi (lower).
- International 2014: Newbee 3-1 Vici (lower).
- International 2015: EG 3-1 CDEC (upper).
- Frankfurt Major: OG 3-1 Secret (upper).
- Shanghai Major: Secret 3-1 Liquid (lower).
- Manila Major: OG 3-1 Liquid (lower).
- International 2016: Wings 3-1 DC (lower).
- International 2017: Liquid 3-0 Newbee (upper).
- DreamLeague Season 8: Secret 3-0 Liquid (lower).
- Dota 2 Asia Championships: Mineski 3-2 LGD (lower).
- EPICENTER XL: LGD 3-1 Liquid (lower).
- MDL Changsha Major: LGD 3-0 VGJ.Storm (upper).
- China Dota2 Supermajor: Liquid 3-2 VP (lower).
- International 2018: OG 3-2 LGD (lower).
- Kuala Lumpur Major: VP 3-2 Secret (upper).
- Chongqing Major: Secret 3-1 VP (upper).
- DreamLeague Season 11: Vici 3-2 VP (lower).
- MDL Disneyland Paris Major: Secret 3-1 Liquid (lower).
- EPICENTER Major: Vici 3-2 Liquid (lower).
- International 2019: OG 3-1 Liquid (lower).
- MDL Chengdu Major: TNC 3-1 Vici (upper).
- DreamLeague Season 13: Secret 3-2 EG (lower).
- ONE Esports Singapore Major: iG 3-2 EG (upper).
- WePlay AniMajor: LGD 3-0 EG (lower).
- International 2021: Spirit 3-2 LGD (upper).
- ESL One Stockholm Major: OG 3-1 TSM (upper).
- PGL Arlington Major: Spirit 3-1 LGD (upper).
- International 2022: Tundra 3-0 Secret (lower).
- Lima Major: GG 3-0 Liquid (lower).
- ESL One Berlin Major: GG 3-1 Liquid (lower).
- Bali Major: GG 3-1 Liquid (lower).
- Riyadh Masters 2023: Spirit 3-1 Liquid (lower).
- International 2023: Spirit 3-0 GG (lower).
- Riyadh Masters 2024: GG 3-0 Liquid (lower).
If Na'Vi, CDEC, Secret, Newbee, VGJ.Storm, VP, Vici, EG, LGD, and TSM were to say that they have unfinished business, then I'd be inclined to agree.
But what do you think?
Am I just a salty Arteezy fan?
Probably.
Cheers to some good Dota this weekend.
