What is happening this week at The International 'Dota 2' Championships
The main event of The International Dota 2 Champions is kicking off Monday as 16 of the best Dota 2 teams in the world duke it out for their piece of the still-growing $20 million prize pool.
The sixth International tournament (TI6) is not only the largest Dota 2 tournament of the year, it has also broken its own record for having the largest prize pool for any esports tournament ever. The International regularly pulls in millions of viewers as the action unfolds on Twitch and the Dota 2 game client throughout the week.
After four teams competed for two wildcard spots and all 16 teams faced off in three days of group stages, the brackets have been set for the start of the main event. The top placing teams took eight spots in the upper bracket, and the other half filled up the lower bracket.
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Here is the bracket for the start of the tournament:
The teams in the upper bracket start off in best-of-three matches and the loser of each match will end up in the lower bracket. They then need to win every match thereafter if they want to make it to the grand finals on Saturday.
Lower bracket teams don't get a second chance if they lose. Four lower bracket teams will be out of TI6 at the end of the first day following their best-of-one matches.
The tournament
The quarterfinals start Monday at 10 a.m. PT from Seattle, where OG, the top-placing team from group A, faces off against group B's fourth-place team, MVP Phoenix. Following that, Wings Gaming will take on Digital Chaos, and then the four lower bracket matches will round off the day.
On Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT, group B's top team EHome will go up against group A's third-place team Alliance. EHome was one of the two wildcard teams that made it into TI6, taking 12 of their 14 games across three days of group stages. The other wildcard team, Escape, only won two games in the group stage and will be starting in the lower bracket.
After EHome and Alliance finish, last year's champions Evil Geniuses will take on Newbee. The two teams took second place and third place in their respective groups.
Broadcasts start at 10 a.m. PT for the rest of the week as the number of teams continues to dwindle. The tournament's semifinals will take place Friday, and the winners of the upper bracket and lower bracket will compete in a best-of-five match Saturday, Aug. 12 for the $8.8 million first place prize.
