feaver
The organizers of The International 10 showed the groups, which were formed after the sortition. As promised, the groups were revealed the day before the tournament started.
Traditionally for the last TI, the teams were divided into two groups. The teams will play best of 2 series. Two bottom teams from the two groups will be eliminated from the tournament. The other teams will divide the slots in playoffs in upper or lower bracket.
| Group A | Group B |
|---|---|
| Alliance | Beastoast |
| Team Aster | Elephant |
| Evil Geniuses | Fnatic |
| Invictus Gaming | PSG.LGD |
| OG | Quincy Crew |
| T1 | SG Esports |
| Thunder Predator | Team Secret |
| Team Undying | Team Spirit |
| Virtus Pro | Vici Gaming |
Expectations
Group A review
Group A looks to be as solid as possible. Of course, there are favorites, underdogs and outsiders. We can see at least Evil Geniuses, who finished second twice in the Majors this season.
The Chinese teams traditionally always showed a good performance. Invictus Gaming looked better throughout the season than their rivals from Team Aster when it comes to big LAN tournaments. Aster had no equal in the regional leagues. However, both teams will play TI from their isolated practice rooms due to cases of COVID infection. This means a possible lack of pressure on the teams. Yes, there won’t be a crowd here, but the factor of playing on The International stage is very important anyway. It can shake your confidence in the moments. The teams should feel relaxed and confident with their coaches and managers playing from the practice rooms, so perhaps the isolation can have a positive impact on their results.
The T1 team also had a thorny road. It is worth remembering that the T1 are ranked 6th in the DPC ranking. That’s a pretty high place which wouldn’t be theirs if they weren’t 3rd place at WePlay Animajor. It seems T1 showed that they are a world class team and they can fight on equal terms with such grands as EG and PSG.LGD. A team from Southeast Asia could even be a contender to win TI. This is not exactly a classic underdog. This is a team that will have better than average results, but by catching the courage, T1 can outplay their opponents and make it to the finals.
Alliance is a highly motivated team. They came to Bucharest to prove that they didn’t get to TI for nothing. After all, we remember that the community criticized the DPC system largely because teams like Alliance and Aster got easy slots at TI by winning their online DPC leagues, but they showed zero performance in the Majors. Alliance is a morally strong team. At the same time, they have some very talented players. Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov stands out for its bright play and accuracy, and Linus “Limmp” Blomdin was the most stable and strong mid lane player for years. We know how at the right moments the team captain Artsiom “fng” Barshak can come up with ingenious drafts and build the strategies that can make the opponent uncomfortable. The most important thing for him is not to outdraft himself. This is the likely outcome in a stressful situation.
The reigning two-time champions of The International OG are also in Group A. Some people believed that OG will not qualify for TI at all, but Sebastian “Ceb” Debs and his team are proving the haters wrong. It’s worth mentioning that OG is not an ordinary team. Do not pay attention to their previous results, which they showed during the season. OG is the team of The International. They made that clear to everyone in 2019 by winning TI9.
Of course, the most important factor is that Ceb will play for his team at TI after all. Sebastian underwent an eye surgery and was hospitalized and sent to France for treatment when he was already with the team in Bucharest. He could be replaced by the Team Liquid player the Swedish Michael “miCKe” Vu. This would have significantly lowered OG’s chances for successful performance at TI. We can give the team high credit knowing that Ceb will play for OG and knowing how OG plays at The International. It’s worth remembering that OG rocks their game closer to the playoff stage, but they made it to the upper bracket both of the last two times at TI. This means that OG will fight for the top net at TI10 as well.
The Russian team Virtus Pro is in a similar situation as Alliance and Aster. They’ve been destroying everyone in the DPC regional for two seasons in a row. However, there are two important “buts”. First, there were teams in the region that had time to grow and raise their level of play during the DPC season as Team Spirit. Second, the competition in Eastern Europe was extremely weak, especially against the Chinese upper division. It is not surprising that the powerful-looking VP were the whipping boys in Major tournaments. Many analysts, especially Russian analysts, put them on a high place in the ranking of teams at TI, but objective facts tell us that Virtus Pro may face a lot of problems playing with uncomfortable teams. We can say that VP is overrated team. Their new coach Anatoliy “boolk” Ivanov repeatedly criticized by the community for controversial decisions in the Gambit and the old VP roster. Previous results tell us that VP feel themselves uncomfortable at big LAN events away from the comfort of their home computers.
Thunder Predator and Team Undying are the two teams that will fight not to leave the tournament after the group stage. Teams from Peru usually come to tournaments as underdogs because they have aggressive and unpredictable playstyle. By the way, Thunder Predator had a good performance. They finished 5th-6th at the One Esports Singapore Major. They lost to the champions of this Major, Invictus Gaming with a score of 1:2 and showed them a fierce fight.
Team Undying made it to TI through North America qualifiers. They are the obvious group outsider. After qualifying, the team searched for an organization, but the search was not successful. Despite the fact that the team made it to TI, seemed that no one want to sign a contract with Team Undying, and the team decided to crowdfund their bootcamp. Team Undying’s players are not bad by North American level of Dota, so hardly anyone expects them to play at a high level.
Group B review
Group B also looks balanced. There are some very strong teams.
PSG.LGD are the clear favorites of the group and the tournament. Without any doubt, we can say that LGD should take out their opponents in the group and take first place. The spectators understood from the past tournaments that their level of play now is much higher than that of the many other teams.
Team Secret didn’t have any brilliant performances during the whole season. It seemed that the team was feeling a definite decline. Team Secret mid laner Michał “Nisha” Jankowski was unstable and didn’t seem as a team playmaker. Nevertheless, Secret strengthened their position in the DPC rankings and knew for sure that they would make it to TI. The team’s fans are definitely thinking about good performance at the tournament.
Team Secret can be put on par with the powerful Chinese team Vici Gaming in terms of level of play. Vici Gaming showed a confident and stable game during the season. However, they still lacked something to win the key matches. According to many indicators Vici Gaming should go to the upper bracket.
It is very strange to see the team Elephant in the status of the underdog. Taking an objective assessment of their performance, we will see that Elephant made many mistakes during the season. However, it is worth considering the fact that the Chinese Dota scene is the strongest in the world in terms of the number of good teams and it has incredible competition. Many are already saying that Elephant will be strong and will fight for the top slot. Elephant has a truly stellar roster. This factor could put extra pressure on them. In any case, the team is in underdog status, based on their previous results.
Fnatic and Quincy Crew are two teams from different regions, but they both show good Dota. Of course, this is not the benchmark level of Dota, but these two teams claim to be in the middle of the table. Although Quincy Crew look a little more confident than Fnatic. Their consistency and high level of personal skill over the course of the season allows them to feel superior in this pairing. If these teams have worked on their mistakes, they may very well reason to reach the upper bracket.
The other Russian team in the tournament placed in Group B. Team Spirit is a true underdog, not only in the group, but in the whole tournament. Under good conditions, when Team Spirit’s team chemistry reaches its peak, the team could even reach the high place in playoffs. But first of all the team is highly motivated to reach the upper bracket.
Beastcoast and SG-Esports are the obvious underdogs in the group. Not surprisingly that South American teams have the least chance of a good result. However, Beastcoast has a good prospect of also being the underdog that will knock out the tournament favorites. Beastcoast have been playing for a long time as a team. They have a certain stability to their game. They need to work on the fundamental macro mistakes and decision making inside of the game. The Brazilian team SG-Esports has a different situation. They made it to the tournament through qualifiers and their game looks less stable. They had too little time to significantly improve their game coordination, so for now they remain among the outsiders of the tournament.