The International 12: Overview, Groups and Predictions

After waiting for so many months, it’s almost time to watch The International 12, one of the biggest Dota 2 events in history. The tournament will consist of the world’s best Dota 2 teams, so we can watch the top-tier players.

Looking at The International 12 schedule, you’ll see the tournament begins on 12 October and ends on 29 October. Similar to the original TI, it’ll be held in Seattle, USA.

Even though there’s still time until the tournament begins, we want to share everything we know about it. This TI 12 Dota 2 review will cover the most important information about the event.

The International 12: general info

Before you start looking at The International 12 prize pool, you must know a few other things about the tournament. Unlike any other TI, this one will be divided into two phases. There’ll be a group stage and playoffs to determine the top 8 teams — this will be “The Road to The International” phase. The playoffs containing the best 8 Dota 2 teams is what’s considered to be The International itself.

Speaking of the Group Stage, the latter will occur between 12 October and 15 October. Four groups with five teams each will play in a single round-robin format with Bo2 matches. After the clashes are over, the best 2 squads will play against the 3rd/4th place teams from the opposing group. The teams that finish last in each group will be eliminated from the event.

Similar to the TI 12 qualifiers, there will be a phase two, where the remaining teams play in Bo3 matches. There will be eight in total, and they’ll determine the squads who will advance to the main event.

The main event starts on October 20 and runs until October 29. During that time, we’ll see sixteen teams in a double-elimination bracket. Every series will be a Bo3, except for the Best of Five Grand Final.

Teams attending TI12

Following The International 12 direct invites and TI 12 qualifiers, there will be a total of 20 teams. Each of them will be showing everything they’re capable of and lift one of the most prestigious esports awards.

12 of the participants at TI12 received a direct invitation thanks to the DPC points they accumulated throughout the DPC Tours. The remaining 8 squads had to go through hell to get here. After the TI 12 date was announced, we had the chance to see the qualifiers in each region and learned the names of all participants:2 of the participants at TI12 received a direct invitation thanks to the DPC points they accumulated throughout the DPC Tours. The remaining 8 squads had to go through hell to get here. After the TI 12 date was announced, we had the chance to see the qualifiers in each region and learned the names of all participants:

Evil Geniuses
Gaimin Gladiators
Team Liquid
9Pandas
Tundra Esports
Talon Esports
LGD Gaming
Shopify Rebellion
TSM
BetBoom Team
Team Spirit
Beastcoast
Thunder Awaken
Entity
Keyd Stars
Nouns
Virtus.Pro
Quest Esports
Team SMG
Azure Ray

How to watch The International 12?

To watch The International 12, you need to follow the official streaming channels. Since this will be the world’s biggest Dota 2 tournament and it will feature teams from all over the globe, there will be live streams in several languages. Unless Valve decides to change something, we’re expecting to see streams in English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and more.

People who want the ultimate experience should look for The International 12 tickets. The sale began on August 19, so there may not be many slots left. It’s also worth knowing that a three-day pass ticket for the event will cost around USD $699, including the fees for each pass.

There could be TI 12 tickets sold from third-party sources, but be careful because there’s bound to be a lot of scammers trying to get your money.

The International 12: DPC region and country representation

Сrowd at The International 11.

After the TI 12 location was announced, the best teams in the world stepped up their game to qualify for the tournament. After all the matches are over, we now have a clear picture of the players that will be a part of the tournament.

If we check the stats, we will see that there will be 19 Russian Dota 2 stars, including Ivan "Pure~" Moskalenko, Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev, Alexey "Solo" Berezin, Danil "gpk~" Skutin, and more. TI 12 prize pool also attracted 15 players from Peru, 9 from China, 6 from Brazil, 5 from the USA, 4 Malaysians, and more. Interestingly, the United Kingdom will have its first player at The International in the face of Matthew "Ari" Walker from TSM.

In terms of the DPC representation, everyone can agree that Western Europe is in a league of its own. A lot of people assume the TI 12 winner will be from the region, so it’s no surprise that WEU has the most representatives at this tournament. Here’s the distribution:

Western Europe - 5
Eastern Europe - 4
South America - 4
North America - 3
China - 2
Southeast Asia -2

We’ve yet to learn more details about The International 12 Battle Pass and the prize pool, which has always been one of the tournament's highlights. BLIX knows the importance of TI 12 Battle Pass to fans, as well as all the other event details, so we'll make sure to keep you up to date when there’s something new. Feel free to follow us on social media for more details about Dota 2 and all other top esports titles.