Main Event for TI9 Ready to Go The International 9
After a week of Dota 2 during the group stages at The International 9, the main event is now ready to kick off. The Main Event will feature an upper bracket and a lower bracket which consist of eight teams from each group in the qualifying stages. One of these top 16 teams in the world will take home their share of the TI9 prize pool.
Group A of the group stages saw PSG.LGD put on a sterling performance, winning 13 games across the board and only losing 2. Likewise, in Group B, OG managed 14 wins with just 2 loses in total. The 2nd place team from Group A and Group B, had 11 wins with 5 losses each, and those teams, Team Secret and Vici Gaming respectively, are both strong contenders for a top spot.
The prize pool for this TI dwarfs all other esports events thus far, and is currently the largest esports prize pool in the world, eclipsing both, the Fortnite World Cup ($30 million), and TI8 from last year ($25.5 million). TI9’s prize pool has just gone past the $33 million mark, and will continue to tick over until the competition comes to a close. With such a massive prize pool, the winning team is set to take home just over $15 million.
The Upper bracket for the Main Event consists of a number of TI champions from previous years. OG, Evil Geniuses and Newbee, all previous competition winners, are featured in the Upper bracket. While teams like Alliance, Team Liquid and NaVi, also previous competition winners, are in the Lower bracket. The Upper bracket is sure to be a toughly contested one, as huge teams like PSG.LGD, Vici Gaming and Team Secret are also present.
It’ll be a nice run for the Upper bracket winners should they progress forward after beating their opponents. They start out in the Quarter final of the Upper bracket, move on into the Semi-final, and then into the Final. Once any team has gone through those 3 stages, they’ll sit and wait, get to kick back and watch the rest of the tournament in anticipation as they can observe, inspect and strategize against their opponents after they’ve fought their way through the Lower bracket.
Each team in the Lower bracket starts off with a best-of-one series against their respective opponents. In the second round, they’ll face off against the losers from the Upper bracket. These games though, will be best-of-three to give all teams a bit more of a fighting chance. The scary thing about the BO1 first round in the Lower bracket is that some crazy strategies tend to emerge when players are fighting for their lives in TI. Each team in the Upper bracket will essentially have “an extra life”, as with one loss, will send them down into the Lower bracket. For the teams in the Lower bracket, one loss is all it takes to be eliminated from the competition.
Upper bracket:
PSG.LGD vs Virtus Pro
Vici Gaming vs TNC Predator
OG vs Newbee
Team Secret vs Evil Geniuses
Lower Bracket
Alliance vs Royal Never Give Up
Fnatic vs Team Liquid
Infamous vs Keen Gaming
Mineski vs NaVi
