The International 4 Main Event Preview and Predictions

The final few days of The International 4 are about to kick off. Over the next four days the eight remaining teams will fight it out for almost $5,000,000 and all of it will be broadcast on ESPN 3. 10 series of games will be played, the first 9 will be best of threes whilst the grand final will be a best of five. Each of the teams still in the event have a great chance to win, so lets take a look at them and their chances of winning.

ViCi

Despite being seen as one of the weaker Chinese teams coming into The International ViCi gaming managed to come top of the group stage, with a 12-3 record. 12-3 might not quite be on the same level as Alliance last year, but only dropping three games is mightily impressive and something many teams could only dream of. They generally tend to draft quite safely but they execute their plans perfectly, winning a lane-ing phase against ViCi is no easy task what so ever. Keep an eye on rOtK for some brilliant plays and plenty of early aggression from FY and Fenrir. ViCi certainly have a great chance, sure they probably still aren’t the favorites to win it, but if they carry on the way they did in the group its hard to look past them.

EG

EG will perhaps only be rivaled by NaVi in terms of support from those within the Key Arena. Not only are they by far the best American team they are effectively the only American team left in the competition (Cloud 9 don’t really count as American). The home crowd will surely give them some form of mental advantage, combine that with the incredible drafts from PPD and amazing plays from the whole of the team and you are looking at perhaps the strongest overall team in the tournament.

DK

Often viewed as the strongest of the Chinese teams DK certainly didn’t underperform during the group stage. A 10-5 record saw them take third place in the group stage and a convincing win over Cloud 9 in the bubble brackets showed why they are worthy of their upper bracket place. Any team with a caliber of player such as DK’s should instantly be considered a top contender but add in their insane drafting strategy and they instantly become many peoples number one pick. Expect to see some of the more unique strategies from DK and expect them to do very well with them!

NewBee

The so called Chinese Super Team failed to impress during the group stage, having to come trough a tie break series to even make it to the bubble brackets. However an utterly dominant display within said bubble bracket proved they should once again be considered as a serious threat. NewBee tend to pick fairly traditional drafts but play with high aggression, which can either work in their favor or cost them dearly. As the bubble bracket proved, if they get on a good run of form they could easily reach the final but it’s the inconsistency and risky play style that could cost them.

IG

After winning the last major tournament before TI4 IG obviously came in as a top contender and in good form. A slightly better than average group stage saw them end up 4^th but a poor performance against NewBee in the bubbles saw them relegated to the lower bracket. Any team with ChuaN and Ferrari_430 needs to be seriously respected but their defeat to NewBee makes the job an awful lot harder and surely it will have had a demoralizing effect on them. Certainly don’t count them out but it will take a lot of hard work to take home the grand prize.

NaVi

Ahh NaVi, firm fan favorites across the globe and the only team to have reached the final of every International so far. Surely they must have a great chance of winning. Well based upon their performance so far you do have to question their ability to reach the final. A mediocre group stage combined with a terrible performance against NewBee in the bubbles sees them in the lower bracket with a large mountain to climb, but coming through the lower bracket has been NaVi’s strength this year. Rumblings of a new pocket strat reminiscent of last years fountain hooks also gives them almost a free win if required so whilst they may not have been at their best you simply cannot count NaVi out of the tournament.

Cloud 9

A fantastic day one performance in the group stage made the whole Dota community collectively say, “How the hell did they do that”. Sure we all know C9 are a great team and we half expected to creep into the top 8 but after day one they sent a message that they were here to place high. The rest of the early event was more of a typical C9 performance, with a very mixed set of games. Often they looked great and just as often they looked off the pace. I think the inconsistencies will cost C9, I don’t expect them to make the top 4 and I would be surprised if they did better than 7^th/8^th.

LGD

LGD and NewBee making it though the 10^th place tiebreaker meant that all 5 Chinese teams made it through to the main event. However LGD are generally classed as the weakest of the five. They were forced to come through the qualifiers (which they did with relative ease) but then they only just scraped into the bubble bracket. A convincing win against Liquid in said bubble bracket proved that on their day LGD can play some amazing Dota, but the quality of the opposition in the main event is so much higher. Much like C9 they do have an outside chance but I don’t really see them doing any better than 7^th/8^th.

Unfortunately my picks for top 3 now cannot happen due to the way the brackets have worked out. Before the event started I would have placed EG, DK and IG as top 3, however there is no way this can happen as whoever loses in the EG vs DK series will play the winner of IG and LGD. Elsewhere NewBee are in with a great chance to place high and you can never ever count out NaVi at The International.

Who do you think will take home the Aegis of Champions and almost $5,000,000? Let us know in the comments below.