Review of The International 2019

The most awaited championship in 2019, The International, has ended up. Eighteen teams took part in the competition and OG celebrated their victory, becoming the champion for the second time. We will sum it up and tell you about the teams who either made a pleasant surprise or disappointed.

Teams that surprised

OG, Team Liquid, Infamous, Newbee

We cannot say that OG just surpassed the expectations, as the guys did not lose any map during the championship and nobody managed to get aegis twice. The team played with unusual heroes and made their meta which made other teams stay in tune with them. Io on the first position and Invoker on the fourth one say a lot.

Meanwhile, the guys from Team Liquid had a replacement not so long time ago and performed at the group stage awfully, so the expectations about them were rather low. Nevertheless, the team had enough forces to put themselves together and show their best game and the experience of performing at LAN championships led them to the grand final, where they could not do anything with Jerax and the team.

Infamous from Peru can be called a discovery of the championship without waxing too poetic. The South American region has always been considered as the weakest and did not show anything at various rating tournaments, but at The International 2019 the team showed themselves worthily and made it to the 7-8 position making a record for the region. It had not been expected at all.

Newbee and Royal Never Give Up have similar situation as at the last months both of the teams had problems with their game and all the rating championships ended up for them achieving ones of the last positions. At TI9, CC&C and the team did not look as they usually do, as they played much better, and the results of the group they made it to the upper part of the bracket. By the way, there they lost only against Team Secret. At the playoff, the guys were not lucky to meet with the crazy OG, and at the lower part of the bracket they were defeated by the unpredictable Infamous, however 9-12 is a good result for Newbee, as before the start of the tournament many people bet on their 17-18 position.

Team that disappointed

Vici Gaming, Virtus.Pro, Natus Vincere, NiP

The biggest disappointment for the local audience was guys from Vici Gaming, taking the 5-6 position. The team showed themselves worthily at the group stage and at the upper bracket of the playoff, however they met with PSG.LGD and after that they lost against Team Secret in its lower part. Taking into account that the team showed themselves great at the season and won two majors, and they made it to TI9 as one of the favourite - 5-6 position is an unsatisfactory result.

At the similar situation the guys from Virtus.Pro were one of the strongest teams during the season. The team were motivated to win the event and even hired the second coach, however at the second tournament we could see unperfect shape of Bears. As a result, the main hope of the CIS roster got placed on the 9-12 position, losing against PSG.LGD and Royal Never Give Up the playoff. The roster have not been able to show themselves as a worthy team (to their mind) for three years, the result of the main championship of the year will lead to changes of the main roster.

Natus Vincere made it to the event as one of the outsiders, but at the group stage they offered battles even to the most famous teams. As a result, SonneikO and the team did not have only one point enough to get to the upper bracket. Basing on good game in their group, the fans expected at least Mineski’s passing, but it did not happen, so we set “Born to Win” as disappointing.

The last roster that performed in the way nobody expected is NiP. The team with PPD as leader did not expect a rather strong team initially, and if we take into account their last results at minors, we could suppose that they could get to at least Ten Best, but it did not happen. The team looked awful at the group stage and left by its results. By the way, NiP did not manage to win any meeting and before the end of the championship, PPD started to look for a new team.

Other participants

The other participants performed approximately in the way as it had been expected - PSG.LGD and Team Secret got to Four Best, Alliance, Fnatic and Keen Gaming did not manage to overcome the first round of loser’s bracket, while Chaos left the championship after the group stage.

Interesting facts:

• OG won two tournaments of series The International 2019, which has been impossible to do for any player before. By the way, the guys made another record winning two championships in a row.
• Team Liquid stood out with unusual pick of heroes. During the whole championship, the team played with 62 characters.
• During the whole championship the teams used 114 heroes out of 117 possible ones, and only Ursa, Clockwerk, and Keeper Of The Light got unused.
• The first position has been taken by teams from the European region for three years in a row.