Dota 2's The International 11 in Singapore: Everything you need to know
The International 11 (TI11) is this year's iteration of Dota 2's annual multimillion-dollar world championship tournament.
The event will be hosted in Singapore this October and will feature 30 of the best teams in the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) fighting to claim the lion's share of the prize pool and raise the coveted Aegis of Champions.
Read on for everything you need to know about TI11.
Schedule and format
TI11 features a revamped format and a longer schedule.
Unlike past editions of TI, which lasted around 10 days, TI11 will take place across 23 days from 8 to 30 October with longer breaks in between the different stages of the tournament.
TI11 is split into four distinct stages: the Regional Qualifiers, Last Chance Qualifiers (LCQ), Group Stage, and the Main Event.
Regional Qualifiers (3 to 17 September)
The TI11 Regional Qualifiers will be held from 3 to 17 September across the DPC's six regions: Western Europe, China, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, North America, and South America.
The teams in each qualifier are comprised of the teams that participated in the Summer Tour of the 2021-2022 DPC season that did not finish in the Top 12 of the DPC leaderboard at the end of the season.
The qualifiers will follow a double-elimination format featuring best-of-three matches except for the grand finals, which will be a best-of-five series.
Three teams from each regional qualifier will fly to Singapore. The winner of each qualifier will start TI11 in the Group Stage while the second and third-placed teams will start in the LCQ.
For more details on TI11's regional qualifiers, check here.
Last Chance Qualifiers (8 to 12 October)
The TI11 LCQ will take place from 8 to 12 October and will feature the 12 runners-up from the regional qualifiers fighting for the last two spots in the Group Stage. Dota 2 developer Valve Software have yet to announce the format for the LCQ.
Group Stage (15 to 18 October)
The TI11 Group Stage will feature the 20 qualified teams divided in two groups of ten teams each.
The Top 8 teams of each group will advance to the Main Event while the bottom two will be eliminated.
Valve have yet to reveal the full details for the Group Stage.
Main Event (20 to 30 October)
The TI11 Main Event will feature the 16 teams that qualified for the Group Stage battling it out in front of a live audience. The final stage of the tournament has been divided into two phases, which will be held in different venues.
TI11's preliminary Playoff phase will take place from 20 to 23 October at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre. Once the competition has been narrowed down at Suntec, there will be a five-day break before the Final Playoff phase, which will be held from 29 to 30 October in the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Prize pool
The prize pool for TI11 has yet to be finalized. If it will follow previous editions, it will start with a base prize pool of US$1.6 million provided by Valve. The prize pool will then be increased through crowdfunding from the Dota 2 community.
Crowdfunding will be implemented through the TI11 Battle Pass, with Valve diverting a portion of each sale to TI11's prize pool.
Since its inception, TI has been setting and breaking the record for the biggest prize pool for a single esports tournament.
The tournament's first iteration in 2011 featured a US$1.6 million prize pool while last year's tournament, TI10, had a whopping US$40 million pot. TI10 champions Team Spirit claimed the grand prize of over US$18.2 million.
Teams
The 30 teams going to Singapore for TI11 are split between the directly-invited teams and qualifier teams.
The Top 12 teams on the DPC point leaderboard at the end of the 2021-2022 DPC season earned direct invites to TI11 and will start in the Group Stage. These teams garnered points by placing highly in the DPC's various regional leagues, Regional Finals, and Majors.
Meanwhile, the 18 qualifier teams were determined through the regional qualifiers.
The winners of the six regional qualifiers for Western Europe, China, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, North America, and South America will start in the Group Stage. The second and third-placed teams from each qualifier will start in the LCQ, where they will fight for the last two spots in the Group Stage.
Here's the full list of teams participating in TI11:
Direct Invite teams
PSG.LGD (China)
OG (Western Europe)
Team Spirit (Eastern Europe)
Beastcoast (South America)
Team Aster (China)
Thunder Awaken (South America)
BOOM Esports (Southeast Asia)
TSM (North America)
Tundra Esports (Western Europe)
Gaimin Gladiators (Western Europe)
Evil Geniuses (North America)
Fnatic (Southeast Asia)
Regional Qualifier teams
Western Europe: Entity
China: Royal Never Give Up
Eastern Europe: BetBoom Team
Southeast Asia: Talon Esports
North America: Soniqs Esports
South America: Hokori
Last Chance Qualifier teams
Western Europe: Team Secret, Team Liquid
China: Xtreme Gaming, Vici Gaming
Eastern Europe: Outsiders, Natus Vincere
Southeast Asia: Polaris Esports, T1
North America: Nouns Esports, Wildcard Gaming
South America: Infamous, Tempest
How to watch
TI11 will be broadcasted live on the official Dota 2 Twitch and YouTube channels.
Fans can also watch the tournament live in Singapore, with ticket sales opening on 13 August and selling out almost immediately.
If you're a fan of Dota 2 both as a game and as an esports title, check out our Dota 2 page. From news to results, to the latest game meta or builds, as well as player interviews, there's something for everyone.
For more esports news updates, visit https://yhoo.it/YahooEsportsSEA and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page and Twitter, as well as our Gaming channel on YouTube.
