The International 2012: Aftermath

Winner's Bracket Finals: The undefeated vs The undisputed.
September 7, 2012



The International 2012 is finished and even now, days after the finals we are still feeling the excitement! As we predicted before the last day. We witnessed some amazing games, amazing casts and unreal plays by all 3 last teams.

The truth is that for me personally and for most of us they real finals was the NaVi vs LGD math up. Why? Well because it had all you might want for a DOTA2 game, hell it had all you might have wanted even from a Hollywood movie! For starters, it had crazy hype; it was the 18-0 Chinese powerhouse LGD against the most widely known DOTA2 team, winners of the first International and legendary for their team plays: NaVi! Even if you are new to the world of DOTA2 when you hear this hype, you had to watch these games! Moreover, as every movie director would have it, NaVi lose the first game after 36 minutes and end up winning the other two! Suprisingly and against the odds, NaVi go outside the box on the drafting in all three games: they let LGD have Naga Siren - the most feared up to then hereo of the International - in every single game and in the second game they pick Juggernaut as their final pick, surprising even more the Chinese. The tiebreaker last game NaVi go with Faceless Void as a hard carry and Dendi on Rubick. If that still doesn't sound enough for "the best games you have ever seen", add to it the crowd screaming their lungs out to see a team win the unbeatable LGD, Tobi casting the game like it was his last, and of course the individual skill of 10 of probably the best players in the world.

The all-calculating Chinese powerhouse vs the aggressive Ukrainian title defenders. Yao vs Dendi. Sylar vs XBOCT. But most importantly it was the game of the undefeated versus the undisputed. If you haven't seen the games, do it here through the DOTA2 client or here for youtube.

Afterwards, we saw LGD play iG at the loser's bracket finals, where LGD after losing for the first time, seemed a bit out of place and after 3 long lasting games of Chinese DOTA2, iG won their place at the Grand Final.

Well, as in most cases the grand finals are not the best games to look for amazing plays, well this one was not an exception. I can give many reasons why I believe the finals weren't as exciting as the winner's bracket finals, but I will not do so. I will only say congratulations to iG for winning the International 2012! They did a great job, and they played some fantastic and calculated games.



All in all, a big thanks to Valve for this event. As always, it was amazing. Live and coverage it all went smooth and, as we are used to from Valve, many surprises and goodies for everyone! Thank you!