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Wings Gaming Wins The International
Wings claimed the TI6 title with a commanding victory over tournament underdogs Digital Chaos.
Confetti falls as Wings celebrate their TI6 win
© Valve Software
After a week of bracket-destroying upsets and reversals, China's Wings Gaming Dota 2 team raised the Aegis of Champions on Saturday night at the Key Arena in Seattle. Their victory at The International 6 leaves the team $9.1 million richer following a 3-1 victory in a grand final that nobody could have predicted. Not even the players themselves.
A wild tournament appears
Whether you've been watching for the past six years, jumped aboard during the breakthrough TI3 or if this is your very first Dota 2 championship, it's hard to imagine a viewer who wasn't thrilled by The International 2016. The games have been stellar. The stories — featuring misfit underdogs, fallen champions and one mom in a custom jersey — have been even better. Even if you're only interested in playing Dota rather than watching it, you've got two new heroes to look forward to after this tournament.
Few could have predicted just how volatile the TI6 finals became. Across both brackets, and onto the $9 million grand finals, the perennially record-breaking eSports event was packed with surprises.
Only one of the teams to make it to the final day, Evil Geniuses, was a clear favorite coming into the tournament. The other powerhouses, like Secret and OG, were picked-off early, throwing the doors to the Aegis wide open. For the third straight year, EG made it to the upper bracket finals.
Once again, they were knocked into the lower bracket by an up-and-coming Chinese team as Wings Gaming swept the reigning champs into the lower bracket. It was further evidence that Wings were the real deal: As they entered the grand final, Wings had only lost a single game on the main stage — a misstep attributable to a slightly goofy character draft.
Though perhaps the other team had something to do with it, since Evil Geniuses were then on their way to face the only team to have handed Wings a game loss: the aptly-named hodgepodge team Digital Chaos.
Moo's parents showed up as Mama and Papa Moo
© [unknown]
Beware of underdog
The mostly European roster's survival up to that point was a surprise — if not a shock. In contrast to Wings and Evil Geniuses the team's current roster was formed only this spring, and just days before that season's "roster lock." The reason being that most of what was once Digital Chaos split up to join fan-favorite Team Secret, and even Evil Geniuses.
In fact, two of the latest Digital Chaos players — w33 and Misery — were removed from Team Secret to make room for Secret's latest hires. With few options left to anyone involved, the pair joined the sole remaining member of Digital Chaos, along with fellow pickups Saksa and Moo, to form this new band of so-called "rejects."
The team's early performances didn't do much to challenge that identity until The International itself, where the team performed well enough in groups to get a spot in the upper bracket. Unfortunately, in Digital Chaos's very first set against Wings the misfits lost their hard-won advantage and were busted straight into the lower bracket — where they would remain one best-of-three loss from elevation.
Fast-forward to the final day of The International. Against all predictions DC did more than just survive against favored Chinese teams LGD Gaming and EHOME, and fellow dark horse teams TNC Gaming and Fnatic. They nearly mirrored their upper bracket rivals (and rising tournament favorites), Wings, by dropping only one game to TNC on the fourth day.
From there the surprises just kept coming. DC lost its 2-0 streak in the lower bracket finals against EG, but not the finals themselves. In an incredibly close third game — ending with a base race — Digital Chaos earned their place in the grand finals.
The finals stage at TI6
© Valve Software
Taking flight
Like their last series, this would be the second match of the day. Only this time the two teams would close it out as well — not just the day, but the biggest Dota 2 championship yet. That's important to drive home, since it was never the plan.
Digital Chaos, a team whose captain "optimistically" predicted his squad would break Top 8, and a Chinese team with no history at The International, came to compete for the biggest first-place prize in eSports.
You'd hardly be able to tell from the way the players carried themselves. Inside their soundproof booth, the members of Digital Chaos smiled their way through the drafting process. They did the same throughout the tournament, when the stakes were much lower (one of them even laughed out loud after picking Jakiro against EG, a hero that had seen zero play at TI6 until that moment).
Wings, meanwhile, had their own fun. In the first match of the grand finals, the team selected Pudge — a character rarely seen in professional play, and one of the heroes commentators blamed for Wings’ defeat by Digital Chaos days prior. The commentators may have had a point, however, considering DC once again hammered Wings for their playful draft.
Games two and three were less impressive for DC, but reinforced just how Wings managed to glide its way to the finals. The squad showed incredible flexibility, as players Faith_Bian and IceIce ducked and weaved between their opponents’ maneuvers. In particular the third round was a 45-minute shellacking that seemed like it might shatter Digital Chaos’s confidence.
In game four, DC sought to remind Wings that the team wasn’t in the grand finals by accident, and took an early, decisive lead.
Fortunately for Wings, this allowed them plenty of time to study their foes: their weaknesses, strengths and the crutches they fell back on. What seemed like certain victory for Digital Chaos evolved into a bloodbath in favor of Wings Gaming. Viewers were denied a full best-of-five, but were rewarded with a shocking conclusion to a shocking tournament as Wings hoisted the Aegis amid a sea of waving Chinese flags.
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