Dota 2’s The International 4 is one of the biggest e-sports tournaments ever. With a prize pool of $10,773,083 and $4,955,168 going to the first place team, a lot of money will be won over the course of this weekend.
For those who don’t know what Dota 2 is, here’s a primer.
The International Main Event will take place between July 18th and the 21st. Rounds are decided by best-of-three except for the final round which is played best-of-five. The International is also a double-elimination tournament which means that a team that loses in the upper bracket can still win the whole thing as they’ll move to the lower bracket. If a team loses in the lower bracket in a best-of-three, they’re eliminated from the Main Event.
Eight teams were able to make it out of the seeding stage. Four teams are in the upper bracket: Vici Gaming, Newbee, Evil Geniuses and Team DK. In the lower bracket there’s Cloud 9, Na’Vi, IG and LGD.
Upper bracket matches take place on Friday, while lower bracket matches will take place on Saturday and Sunday before the Grand Finals take place on Monday.
All events start streaming at 9 AM PDT. Streams will be available at Dota2.com.
So, if you are curious about Dota, or are familiar with the game but not the pro scene, here’s a brief rundown on each team who will potentially come out of this weekend with nearly $5 million.
