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The International: The epic matches you must watch
TI4 isn't until July, but these amazing Dota2 battles from the vaults will tide you over until then.
The International 4 Dota 2 Championships are mere months away and the invited teams have been announced. The tournament burst into life as an event at the 2011 GamesCom trade show with an eye-watering $1 million grand prize.
For the past couple of years however it's occupied Seattle's Benaroya Hall and, boosted by fan contributions via a dedicated digital compendium, 2013’s edition boasted a $1.4 million grand prize and total pool of $2.87 million. Now it's moved to KeyArena at Seattle Centre and we're impatiently awaiting the regional qualifiers to see who's going to be joining the likes of EG, Cloud9, Na'Vi and Team DK in the battle for supremacy. While we wait, we've picked out some must-see matches from past Internationals to whet your appetite. If you want to watch spoiler-free, just hit play without reading the description!
TI1: EHOME vs Na'Vi
Having made their way to the grand finals of the first International without dropping a match, Na'Vi entered the best-of-five with the advantage. The Chinese team weren't about to go down without a fight though. The tussle for dominance from both sides produced some fascinating Dota including simultaneous smoke ganks, which saw the teams head to opposite sides of the map, and some fantastic Test of Faith teleports from Puppey's Chen. Na'vi choose to focus on pushing the mid lane, ignoring the towers in other lanes which help EHOME maintain vision and map control but struggle to break base. Ultimately though, Na'Vi can't hold it together and are outfarmed and outdone by the Chinese players.
TI2: iG vs LGD
iG get off to a good start in terms of farming in this loser bracket finals match, but Sylar's Morphling gets out of the gate quickly for LGD and iG's Lone Druid (played by Zhou) is kept in check on the offlane. This is a match packed with great individual plays as well as great teamwork and around 17m 30s into the match watch out for a gorgeous force staff, shunting Chuan out of the way of a sunstrike and split earth death sandwich. But if you're looking for a man of the match, look no further than Jiang ‘YYF’ Cen who steals the show with a brilliant performance as Brewmaster.
TI3: Na'Vi vs Alliance
The most recent International final and one of the most tense. Game five of the best of five looked to be going the way of Na'Vi: some great play by XBOCT as Alchemist manages to turn an Alliance gank attempt into a first blood for Na'Vi. But after a prolonged Roshan squabble The Alliance snatch an Aegis out from under Na'Vi's nose and begin to shove their way back into the frame. Ultimately S4's sublime dreamcoils clinched the victory for the Swedish team however. One just outside the Dire base prevented three of Na'Vi teleporting back to base and ensured that Alliance losing one lane of barracks was answered by Na'Vi losing two. At the close of the game a hex followed by a dreamcoil kept Dendi and Puppey away long enough for Alliance to claim the huge prize.
Also don't miss:
We love the three matches above but each tournament is packed with fantastic moments so here are a few more:
TI2: iG vs Na'Vi
Known simply as 'The Play', Na'Vi manage to turn iG's teamfight plans on their head. Not only do Na'Vi escape unscathed but the fight ends with a full teamwipe for iG.
TI3: TongFu vs Na'Vi
Dendi and Puppey combined Chen's Test of Faith with Pudge's hook to drag enemy heroes back to Na'Vi's fountain. It was showy, it was incredibly hit and miss and it also sparked pages and pages of online debate over the legitimacy of the win.
And just because it was brilliant fun, here's the Dota All-Stars match from TI3. Trash talk, a pause for Dendi to dance in front of Puppey's booth after killing him as Pudge and some pub-match style banter. Enjoy!
