The Dota 2 International 2019 is just a day away. After days of waiting, Valve finally revealed the groupings for the upcoming tournament. Today we look at the groupings and see how the teams are going to fare.
The group stage of TI9 divides the 18 teams into two groups of nine. The teams play a round-robin format with all matches being a best-of two. The top four teams advance to the Upper Bracket while the bottom team is eliminated. The remaining four teams meanwhile move to the Lower Bracket.
GROUP A
This group is composed of:
- Alliance
- Chaos Esports Club
- Keen Gaming
- Mineski
- Newbee
- PSG.LGD
- Team Liquid
- Team Secret
- TNC Predator
This group has two former TI champions in Alliance and Team Liquid. However, Alliance is not the team that it was back when it won TI3. Liquid meanwhile fights without Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen. While Newbee won TI4, this is not the same team either. Newbee’s current roster is composed of players from the now defunct Forward Gaming.
Top Four
For the top four, we're expecting to see Team Secret and Liquid take two of the spots. Both teams have been showing rather consistent performance during the DPC Season. We also see PSG.LGD entering the top four given their past performance.
The difficulty is the fourth team. We’re taking a longshot and predicting that it is going to be TNC Predator. The WESG 2018 champion had some initial problems with Carlo “Kuku” Palad being banned during the Chongqing Major. The team has since managed to find its groove and deliver good results.
Bottom Team
This is toss up between Mineski and Newbee. Newbee, or the former Forward Gaming, has been having problem in past tournaments. The position it obtained in Major tournaments during the DPC Season was at 9-12th. The same can be said of Mineski, who has been having issues with their roster.
Dark Horse
The team to look for in this group has to be Chaos for the simple reason that they managed to get MATUMBAMAN. It will be interesting to see how this team fares against Liquid.
GROUP B
Group B is composed of:
- Evil Geniuses
- Fnatic
- Infamous
- Natus Vincere
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- OG
- Royal Never Give Up
- Vici Gaming
- Virtus.pro
Like in the other group, there are two former TI champions here in OG and EG. TI8 champion OG is hoping to get the win and become the first back-to-back champion. We don’t really count Na’Vi, despite being the first TI champion, since this is an entirely new team.
Top Four
This group has some of the strongest teams currently in Dota 2. That said, we see both VP and EG getting two of the four spots. Vici Gaming has been showing consistent performance and we think that they can make it inside the top four as well.
The last spot is just as difficult, but we think this is going to be Fnatic. Fnatic has so far been performing well. One of its problems has been that it manages to get in the Upper Bracket before eventually being eliminated later in the tournament. With the team getting a new coach in Park “March” Tae-won, we think Fnatic is going to give the other teams a run for their money.
Bottom Team
Given the strength of the teams in this group, it is difficult as well to predict who will be eliminated. If we had to choose, it would be between Infamous and Na’Vi. Na’Vi has lot to prove, but considering the other teams in the group, it's sure going to be a hard time. Infamous meanwhile dropped its entire roster after the EPICENTER Major and signed Team Anvorgesa.
Dark Horse
OG is the dark horse for this group. After TI8, Anatham “ana” Pham decided to take a break. Since then, OG had trouble with the tournaments during the regular DPC Season. Initially they went with Per Anders “Pajkatt” Olsson Lille, but he later left the team with OG citing chemistry issues. He was replaced by Igor “iLTW” Filatov. However, OG could not find its “groove.” Eventually iLTW left the team and ana made the decision to return. OG managed to get enough points before the season ended to get a direct invite.
How about you? Who do you think moves to the Upper Bracket?
