The International - what have we learnt?

That was the play from Era right? I still remember that game from the groupstages, never seen that before.

I've learnt that every team picks Rat Heroes but that's why Techies exists and he's there to stop that.

Yea, Era was on his A-game that day. Great plays left and right.

The fact that he just came back from a huge break and he still managed to get such plays is outstanding too.

I might have bet the keys, but an ARCANA too? Especially the one which changes the hero the most?(Terror has different glow and face. whoop-de-doo.)

Dzika was burned this day :D

I learned that you can't always get what you want, but when you try, sometimes you get what you need.

Day 2 of the preliminary stage (last week) My PC got attacked by a really nasty virus. I had to send it away to get fixed so missed most of the first stage.

The day I'm due to pick up my fixed PC Friday the day the main event starts. I get taken into hospital with a burst appendix. So I miss the entire main event. I discharge myself today, they wanted to keep me an extra day. Get home just in time for the final.

That was my International

Damn man **** happens.
This year TI was by far the best ever, but the ending was really ****. games were extremely short and very onsided.

It was almost exactly the same as last year, except in a different meta.

Last year almost every contending team ran deathball except Alliance, who won because their splitpushing was exceptionally well suited against deathball.

This year most teams picked 3-4 core lineups except Vici+Newbee, who were both finalists because their 10 minute deathball was very strong against the farm+level dependence of multicore teams. C9 was somewhat of an exception, but they threw with the level 1 rosh attempt against Vici and were generally inconsistent.

A bit frustrating seeing great teams lose because they can't (or choose not to) adjust their style. Eventually they will learn (I hope).

I learned that xiao8 might just be the best drafter in the entire world. His nickname is "The Director" for a reason, he directs the flow of the game from the beggining to the end. Newbee deserved to win, and more than anything, xiao8 deserved to win it, after being trashed in TI3 by Na'Vi's Pudge + Chen trash.

Xiao8 was in LGD.cn last year, not tongfu.

But you are absolutely right, they pretty much won the tournament on outdrafting. Becouse compared to VG, EG, and DK they hardly had moments where you were like, wow, that was really amazing. But after almost all drafts you had the feeling that the other team was screwed.