Day One of The International Leaves Some Favourites Floundering
After the play in series concluded earlier in the week The International 4 kicked off properly with the first day of the group stages. This stage sees all 16 teams play each other once. The 10 teams with the highest amount of wins advance to the next round whilst the last six head home early.
After 12 hours of nonstop Dota Cloud9 currently sit atop of the group with a record of 4-1, however they have played one more game than some of the teams. Behind them is a five way tie for 2nd place with IG, ViCi, NaVi, NaVi.US and Team Liquid all sitting on 3-1. NewBee, EG and Fnatic all had decidedly average days with all three having a 3-2 record whilst Titan round off the top 10 with two wins and two losses.
The bottom six makes for some interesting reading as DK sit 11th, Empire are in 12th and Alliance (last year’s winners) are struggling in 14th place. All three of these teams were expected to place quite highly at the event and in my mind DK, based upon recent form, should be finishing top 4 easily. These teams need a significant turnaround in the coming days to even advance to the next round, let alone grab some of the $10,000,000 prize pool.
SEA qualifier Arrow appears to be this year’s MUFC as they currently sit at 0-5. LGD fared slightly better with 4-1 which puts them just above Arrow into joint 14th place with Alliance. Mousesports managed to match Empires 3-1 to put them in joint 12th.
On the actual Dota side of things there were some very entertaining matches in the first day. Perhaps the most notable was NaVi.US against fellow American rivals Team Liquid. NaVi.US easily won within 16 minutes and didn’t concede a single kill, showing why they easily won the American Qualifiers. Other entertaining games included NewBee vs IG in a battle of the big Chinese powerhouses along with Fnatic vs NewBee and IG vs DK which both saw some unconventional strategies and picks.
Yesterday I took a look at some of the heroes I expect to see a lot during the event and I’m pleased to say that my IO prediction has been spot on. Wisp has been picked or banned in almost every game I have seen! I also said that there was guaranteed to be a new hero that rises to the top of the Meta and based upon the first day of play that hero appears to be Skywrath Mage.
Below are the group standings after day one.
1. Could 9: 4-1
2. iG: 3-1
2. ViCi: 3-1
2. NaVi: 3-1
2. NaVi.US: 3-1
2. Liquid: 3-1
7. NewBee: 3-2
7. Evil Geniuses: 3-2
7. Fnatic: 3-2
10 Titan: .2-2
11. Team DK: 2-3
12. Empire: 1-3
12. Mousesports: 1-3
14. Alliance: 1-4
14. LDG: 1-4
16. Arrow: 0-5
