Valve announced that this year’s edition of Dota’s The International will be held in Singapore, the first ever to be held in a South East Asian nation. They’ve also confirmed some changes in Dota 2 The International schedule, with the games restricted to weekends. We’ll know more about teams in the Dota 2 TI brackets after the conclusion of the group stage. for the main event once the qualifiers and groups conclude.
The schedule differs a bit from last year’s edition in a bit to “make the event and its broadcast exciting and accessible as possible”. Matches are scheduled for weekends for better viewer optimization, with breaks over the weekdays.
When will Dota 2 TI brackets teams be confirmed?
The Dota 2 TI brackets and schedule isn’t finalized yet. This will happen once the Last Chance Qualifiers conclude. Sixteen teams will compete between October 8-12, and only two will make it to the group stage. Once these teams are confirmed, we’ll finally have a fixed Dota 2 The International schedule.
The group stage will kick off in a week on October 15 and carry on for three days, and the main event will be carried out in three phases between October 20 and October 30.
You can expect four consecutive weekends of contests between twenty of the top Dota 2 TI teams from around the world, and Valve calls it the “largest Dota event to date.” Four of the 20 teams in the group stage will be eliminated, and sixteen will make up the Dota 2 TI bracket of the main event.
Group stage teams to be confirmed soon
Of these 20 teams, 12 have been confirmed through the Dota Pro Circuit – PSG.LGD, OG, Team Spirit, beastcoast, Team Aster, Thunder Awaken, BOOM Esports, TSM, Tundra Esports, Gaimin Gladiators, Evil Geniuses, and Fnatic.
Six spots have been granted to teams from the Regional Qualifiers. These include Soniqs from North America, Hokori from South America, Entity from Western Europe, BetBoom Team from Eastern Europe, Royal Never Give Up from China and Talon Esports from Southeast Asia.
The three days of the group stage will be held as a single-round robin conducted across two groups of ten teams each. Eight of these will go through to the Main Event.
Structure of Dota 2 The International brackets
The Dota 2 TI bracket is pretty much the same as last year’s. The Main Event will be structured as a double-elimination bracket, the teams in each decided by their standings in the group stage.
The top four from each round robin group will seed through to the upper half of the Dota 2 TI bracket, while the next four will make the lower. The bottom two will be eliminated.
This reduces the number of competing teams of the Dota 2 The International bracket from 20 to 16. The SunTec Arena in Singapore will play host to the Main Event, held across three days between October 20 and October 23.
Road to playoffs for teams in the Dota 2 The International bracket
Teams that slot into the upper bracket have a huge advantage – two main rounds will narrow the competing teams from eight to two. These two will compete in the upper Dota 2 TI bracket final, and the winner slots directly into the Grand Final.
The path to the playoffs is more long-winded for the lower-bracket teams. Two lower bracket rounds will eliminate six teams out of eight, but even after winning two rounds of matches, teams have quite a way to go. The teams that were knocked out of Round 2 of the upper Dota 2 TI bracket Round 2 will have another chance to compete, so this adds another round of matches.
In addition, the loser of the upper bracket final gets a direct ticket to the lower bracket final. So, in essence, only one team from the lower bracket will have a shot at the final.
The finals weekend – the upper and lower Dota 2 TI bracket finals and the Grand Final – are scheduled for October 29 and 30 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. The playing field at the last stage of the event will comprise just three teams.
Prize pool for Dota 2 The International 2022
The Dota 2 TI prize pool for 2022 is on track to become the biggest yet, surpassing the $11 million pool of 2021. Valve sets $1.6M as the base prize pool. Additionally, rewards are contributed through crowdfunding, generated from the proceeds of Dota 2 Battle Pass (Compendium). The total has already crossed $13 million USD, well above the $11 million mark of T10. In 2021, the Dota 2 TI winners, Team Spirit, took home over $18 million.
Although there were some concerns regarding PSG.LGD’s performance after Tour 3, the team quickly proved to everyone that they were back on track. Following the unsurprising results in China, Ame and the rest dominated in several events and proved that they would be the leading contender for Dota 2 The International 2022.
The Dota 2 T11 betting odds support PSG.LGD as among the top contenders to win the tournament and are ranked at the top of the Dota 2 TI power rankings by various engines. They recently won the Riyadh Masters 2022 and even reached the final of the PGL Arlington Major before losing to Team Spirit. Despite some concerns regarding PSG.LGD’s performance after Tour 3, the Dota TI betting market, is still skewed in their favor.