Dota 2 The International 2021 – Event Guide, History and Betting Tips

The International 2021 Preview

The International 2021 or TI10 is the final event of the Dota Pro Circuit 2020-2021 season. This year’s iteration of the event will be the first TI in over 2 years after the global pandemic caused the original TI10 to be cancelled last year. The new regional Dota Pro Circuit Format is be used to determine the twelve invites to The International. Additionally, six teams instead of eight will qualify for the event through regional qualifiers.

Ti10 is currently scheduled for Oct 7, 2021 through Oct 17, 2021 at Arena Națională in Bucharest, Romania.

The International 2021

© Valve Corporation

TI10 Participants

The completion of the Dota Pro Circuit 2021 season gives us the twelve Dota 2 International 2021 teams that earned a spot at the final event:

  1. Evil Geniuses
  2. Invictus Gaming
  3. Virtus.pro
  4. Team Secret
  5. PSG.LGD
  6. Quincy Crew
  7. Vici Gaming
  8. T1
  9. Aster
  10. Alliance
  11. beastcoast
  12. Thunder Predator

The conclusion of the WePlay Animajor gave us the remaining teams that earned an invite through DPC Points. An additional 6 teams qualified for the event through the Regional qualifiers.

  1. SG e-sports (South America)
  2. Undying (North America)
  3. Elephant (China)
  4. Team Spirit (Eastern Europe)
  5. OG (Western Europe)
  6. Fnatic (Southeast Asia)

You can read about the Regional Qualifiers in the togglebox below.

TI10 Regional Qualifiers

The Dota 2 International 2021 qualifiers are set between June 23rd and July 10th across all six qualifying regions (North America, South America, Europe, CIS, Southeast Asia, China). A single open qualifiers per region will be held featuring all qualifying DPC teams. Unlike previous years, only teams that participated in the Upper DPC divisions will be eligible to participate in the qualifier.

  • North America – June 30 – July 3

    Qualifier teams: Undying, 4 Zoomers, Simply TOOBASED, Sadboys, Black N Yellow, D2 Hustlers, Arkosh Gaming, The Cut, Team DogChamp, felt, Electronic Boys, 5ManMidas

  • South America – June 23-26

    Qualifier teams: No-Ping Esports, Hokori, Team Uknown, BinoMistas, Crewmates, Inverse, OMEGA, Infamous, Furia, SG e-sports, EgoBoys, Gorillaz-Pride, LATAM Defenders, Incubus

  • Western Europe – July 7-10

    Qualifier teams: Team Liquid, Team Nigma, Tundra Esports, OG, Vikin.gg, Brame, LevelUp, Hellbear Smashers, Ghost Frogs, Team Bald Reborn, Into the Breach, No Bounty Hunter, Chiken Fighters, Hippomaniacs

  • Eastern Europe (CIS) – June 23-26

    Qualifier teams: Team Spirit, Natus Vincere, Gambit, Winstrike, Team Empire, No Techies, B8, Nemiga Gaming, Fantastic Five, PuckChamp, Prosti Esli, Trident, EXTREMUM, Team Unique

  • China – July 7-10

    Qualifier teams: EHOME, Elephant, Royal Never Give up, Aster.Aries, Sparking Arrow Gaming, Team MagMa, CDEC, Xtreme Gaming, LBZS, Phoenix Gaming

  • South East Asia – June 30 – July 3

    Qualifier teams: OB Esports x Neon, Fnatic, TNC Predator, Execration, Omega Esports, Motivate.Trust, Team SMG, Lilgun, South Built Esports, Galaxy Racer, 496 Gaming, Army Geniuses, Team Mystery, Cignal Ultra

The International 10 Prize Pool

The TI10 prize pool is mostly crowdfunded by purchasing exclusive features and legendary rewards available through the Battle Pass. With each Battle Pass sale, 25% of the sale price is added to The International 2021 prize pool. The prize pool of TI8 was $25.5M, while TI9 bosted a whopping $34,330,068 in prize funds.

The current Dota 2 International 2021 prize pool is $40,018,195. (June 7th 2021).

Important Dates:

Group Stage – October 7th – October 10th, 2021
Main Event – October 12th – October 17th, 2021

For those who would like to try a hand at Dota 2 betting we will compile a comprehensive TI10 betting guide which includes top predictions and free betting tips. If instead you are interested in Fantasy Esports you should check our Dota 2 Fantasy roster picks.

Dota 2 Betting during The International

As you can imagine, The International is thoroughly covered by dedicated esports betting sites. A wide variety of Dota 2 odds is usually offered for this event, so if you have good knowledge of Dota 2 and its professional scene, The International 2021 will be a great opportunity to put this knowledge to use.

We propose you read our complete guide on how to bet on the International.

Check out Betting Odds for the TI10

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Place your Dota bets and WIN!

History

TI History & The International Dota 2

The International (or TI) is a Dota 2 world championship organized each year in Seattle by the company that owns the game, namely Valve Corporation. The event takes place at the end of summer (in August), lasts around 10 days, and brings together the best Dota 2 teams in the world.

The International has a great history behind it, being at its 8th edition this year. The first TI took place in 2011, after a shocking announcement from Valve: 16 of the world’s best teams were going to be invited at a massive Dota 2 event with a prize pool that exceeded everyone’s imagination: 1.6 million dollars.

At the time, League of Legends was becoming more and more popular and had the first-mover advantage. To level the playing field (at least to some degree), Valve needed to do something spectacular. And being a highly successful company with a billionaire founder, what better publicity stunt could they pull off other than a tournament with a massive prize pool? Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) went home with 1 million dollars after that event, tripling Ukraine’s GDP for 2011 (just kidding).

The very first edition of The International was held in Cologne, Germany, but all the others took place in the United States. And, with the exception of the second TI (which had the same prize pool as the first), every edition of The International had a prize pool considerably higher than its predecessor.

  • The International 1: $1.6 million
  • The International 2: $1.6 million
  • The International 3: $2.8 million
  • The International 4: $10.9 million
  • The International 5: $18.4 million
  • The International 6: $20.7 million
  • The International 7: $24.7 million
  • The International 8: $25.8 million
  • The International 9: $34.3 million
  • The International 10: $40.0 million

Winners of The International

A fascinating aspect regarding The International is that it has never been won twice by the same team. We’ve had 7 different winners in 7 editions so far, which is a testament to the game’s complexity. With somewhere around 750 notions and mechanics that need to be grasped in order to understand the game even at its most basic level, Dota 2 is without a doubt one of the most challenging journeys that you can embark on as an esports enthusiast.

In chronological order, these are the teams that managed to win The International”:

  • 2011: Natus Vincere
  • 2012: Invictus Gaming
  • 2013: Alliance
  • 2014: Newbee
  • 2015: Evil Geniuses
  • 2016: Wings Gaming
  • 2017: Team Liquid
  • 2018: Team OG
  • 2019: Team OG
TI Winner

Team OG winning TI9

Tournament invite system

Past editions of The International brought together either 16 or 18 teams. Some of these teams were directly invited based on their performance throughout the season, while the others were required to qualify.

Starting with the 2017-2018 competitive season, things have become a lot more transparent, as a professional circuit (called the Dota Pro Circuit) with tournaments and qualification points was created. At the end of the season, the top 12 (8) teams from the Dota Pro Circuit rankings will receive a direct invite to The International. The other 8 (6) teams will have to qualify.

Tournament format

The International is usually played in 2 stages. The first of these stages is called the Group Stage and it divides participants into 2 groups. Based the Group Stage results, the teams are paired up for the second stage, called the Playoffs. This second stage is played in a GLS format (double elimination bracket). This is particularly advantageous for teams that don’t manage to get the best start but are very good at adapting as they go along, because one loss doesn’t imply immediate elimination.

In 2017 for instance, Team Liquid got sent to the lower bracket rather quickly, after losing their first upper bracket match against Invictus Gaming (score 1 – 2). However, thanks to their capacity to adapt to the tournament’s meta, they ended up winning the whole event with 6 wins in a row.

Star players

Being the most important Dota 2 event of each competitive season, The International is viewed by millions of fans around the world. And since people love winners and players who display tremendous skill on the digital battlefield, it’s easy to understand why some of the people involved in this esport have attained star-like status.

Here are just a few of the names that are easily recognized by Dota 2 fans across the globe:

  • Danil “Dendi” Ishutin
  • Clement “Puppey” Ivanov
  • Sun “Aggresif” Zheng
  • Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg
  • Zhang “xiao8” Ning
  • Peter “ppd” Dager
  • Artour “Arteezy” Babaev
  • Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi
  • Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi
  • Anathan “ana” Pham

Most memorable moments

The 7 editions of The International we’ve had so far created some very memorable moments. Among them, I would list the following:

  • Na’Vi winning the very first TI in 2011
  • BuLba’s Clockwerk helping Team Liquid defeat LGD Gaming at TI 3
  • Na’Vi abusing Pudge’s Fountain Hooks at TI 3
  • Alliance winning the Finals against Na’Vi at TI 3
  • EG winning TI 5 thanks to UNiVeRsE’s “6 million dollars Echo Slam”
  • Digital Chaos making it all the way to the Finals at TI 6
  • Team Liquid winning TI 7
  • Team OG winning TI8 after going through open qualifiers
  • Team OG winning TI9 with the same lineup and creating the first back-to-back Aegies claim in history

Besides these great in-game moments, The International also offered people some excellent cosplays and other cool events. In 2017, several people from OpenAI, one of Elon Musk’s companies, featured their unbeatable (at the time) AI Bot in a 1v1 match against Dendi. The Bot destroyed Dendi in that Shadow Fiend vs. Shadow Fiend series, leaving the audience in a state of shock.

The International 2020/2021

The International 2020 was slated to be held in Stockholm, Sweden. Valve announced they would cancel the event, as soon as the global COVID pandemic flared up across the globe. The decision put a stop the 2020 DPC season and also caused the traditional way of counting TIs and aligning them with the year to cease. TI10 will be held in 2021 instead, and as a result all future events will only hold a number instead of a year next to them.