The International 2012: LGD and iG shine on day one, but there are few surprises to be had

This was a Friday of few surprises as The International 2012’s 16 professional Dota 2 teams were reduced to 12 over a series of eight matches that, for the most part, featured the favourite teams progressing untarnished to Saturday’s semi-finals. As the 2,481 seat auditorium at the Benaroya Hall slowly filled out over the course of a 12-hour day the mood remained positive and upbeat, though playing on home soil was not enough to save both of the American teams from upset.

The first match, as current tournament favourites LGD took on Orange, felt like a strong declaration of intent: The International 2012 means business. Nobody ever really expected LGD to lose, but the Chinese team comfortably extended their unbroken streak from the group stages into the main event as they smashed Orange with a comfortable 2-0 victory. The man of the hour in these games was undoubtedly LGD’s Lio “Sylar” Jiajun, a carry player so terrifying in this $1,000,000 competition that Orange’s only real tactic for their second game was in shutting him down. It didn’t work.

But LGD also found themselves in what was easily their worst situation yet in across 16 games of undeniably impressive play. Orange’s tactic of disabling Sylar almost worked, and the team was required to take a defensive approach and plot a comeback. But what a comeback: LGD disabled Orange’s best performer, Chai Yee Fung, known as Mushi, with liberal usage of the Black King Bar, an expensive item that gives a player temporary resistance to magical damage.

A struggle soon emerged, however, in the form of coL vs. Zenith, a three-game back-and-forth that started with the former team able to dominate after picking Naga Siren, one of Dota 2’s most banned and controversial heroes. Chants of “USA!” rang through the audience as Tyler “TC” Cook clinched the opening game by taking down Zenith’s middle and bottom barracks within minutes of one another. Their Singapore-based opposition would not make that mistake again and quickly dismantled the young American team in the second game, a comprehensive victory which seemed to take the wind out of the sails of both the audience and their opponents.

Emotions ran high in the third and final game, as both teams fought to stay out of the Losers’ Bracket, and a previously boisterous crowd sat mute as the deciding game saw Zenith continue their dominance over the American team on their own soil, mostly in the form of the unstoppable Invoker played by iceiceice, full name Daryl Koh Pei Xiang.

Unlike with rival MOBA League of Legends – which is coincidentally also housing a large tournament this weekend – Valve’s expensive stage seats its players in large glass booths that are not completely soundproof; its players have to contend with the noise of the audience as they attempt to play one of the most complex video games in the world. As Zenith hammered the final nail into coL’s coffin, Benedict Lim Han Yong, aka Hyhy, tried to get the Seattle arena to chant for Singapore. They didn’t.

The morale of the home crowd was tested again when the second American team in the tournament, Evil Geniuses, had to square off with Chinese team Invictus Gaming, who many expect to play against LGD in the Championship Final this Sunday. iG quickly lived up to their reputation in the first game, dominating EG in under half an hour with a two-step push from Ferrari’s Templar Assassin and Zhou’s Morphling. EG retaliated with an impressive and unstoppable display of aggression to snatch the second game in just 23 minutes, but after conceding defeat in a drawn-out concluding bout the tournament saw its second American team of the day relegated to the Losers’ Bracket. EG’s loss was largely predicted, but the team put up a far stronger fight than most pundits were expecting.

The fourth and final Winners’ Bracket game of the day was yet another back-and-forth best-of-three, as the Chinese DK fought against a predictably solid Na’Vi, the Ukrainian team that can boast its status as the most popular Dota 2 team in the world. Na’Vi managed to assert their superiority through a brief 27-minute deciding match that initially looked like it could swing in DK’s favour after they found themselves able to pick Naga Siren at the start of the match. Such a result was definitely what the audience wanted: the American crowd’s largest cheers of the day were reserved solely for this Ukranian team.

It was four matches of neck-and-neck reversals and world-class play, but the quartet of victories was always expected. But Dota 2, at its best, is thrilling and unpredictable. Whether the teams can keep their composure and determination as the pressure of the $1,000,000 grand prize starts to mount will be seen over the next two days.

At the end of the first day Orange, coL, EG and DK have found themselves relegated to the Losers’ Bracket, and will have to fight hard to survive tomorrow’s harsh best-of-one encounters tomorrow to remain in the event. CLG, EHOME, TongFu and Darer will serve as their respective rivals, after managing to live through Round 1 of the Losers’ Bracket.

mTw, mousesports, M5 and Absolute Legends have been eliminated from the competition after failing to come out on top in the Losers’ Bracket.