OKBET DOTA 2 | PREVIEWING THE (TI11) INTERNATIONAL 11 MAIN EVENT BRACKET
The International 11 (TI11) advances to the Main Event, or playoffs. Last week, sixteen teams battled it out for a small number of Playoff spots, and the top seeds choose who they would face in the upper bracket.
This indicates that the favorites, who are confident in their ability to win, have intentionally selected some intriguing matchups. For more, see our Ti11 daily forecasts.
Thunder Awaken is selected by evil geniuses as their opponent
Speaking of easy pickings, EG is certain they can defeat TA in their opening Playoffs encounter. While EG has excelled in their group, defeating even PSG.LGD, a Chinese powerhouse. They don’t appear to have Team Aster, another Chinese foe, on their list of must-do tasks for TI11.
Even more puzzling is the fact that Team Aster finished in fourth place, poorer than TA’s third-place showing. TA further demonstrated their ability to compete with most opponents by tying all of the Group B series, including those against Beastcoast, Team Spirit, Secret, Aster, and Tundra Esports.
Maybe TA’s standard cheese selections, such Nyx Assassin, Marci, or Dawnbreaker, led EG to believe that they were predictable enough to defeat. Nyx is an extremely alluring hero to choose or ban because she is one of the TI11 groups’ most powerful roaming heroes. Not to mention Farith “Matthew” Puente’s mastery of the troublesome assassin.
The Ti11 chances are undoubtedly against TA in this match, but keep in mind how arrogant EG, particularly Abed “Abed” Yusop, can be. TA might be able to profit by stopping Abed’s motions.
TUNDRA ESPORTS CHOOSES OG, A LOCAL WUNDERKIND
Taking on OG and their fanbase is a risky decision for most teams, not Tundra Esports. PSG is their alternative. LGD, therefore they made the correct option to face OG instead.
While OG is not a typical team, they are clearly more vulnerable to Tundra’s abilities. Them sides are likely frequent bootcamp attendees, making this match more comfortable for both.
Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf is one OG player that has received a lot of notice. However, with the proper defenses and bans in place, Twitch chat will most likely continue blasting ATM as the player feeds. Given the power boost it provides when left unimpeded in lane, Slardar should be a must-ban for Tundra.
This will be a tight series on both sides, so it would not be unexpected if either team took the loss.
PSG.LGD VS TEAM SECRET
Secret was given the opportunity to play against TI11’s favorite, LGD, thanks to Tundra’s decision. While LGD got off to a shaky start on Day 1 of TI11, they have already regained their momentum, as one would expect from a team of this caliber. That spells difficulty for Secret and, most likely, a relegation to the lowest group.
What’s more exciting is that the loser of Secret versus LGD will face Team Spirit in the bottom bracket. For this difficult match-up to take place, Team Spirit must first defeat BOOM Esports, which is not a difficult assignment for Spirit. BOOM almost missed out on the TI11 Playoffs yesterday, defeating both Soniqs and BetBoom in a three-way tiebreaker.
While BOOM shown a fantastic turnaround in performance when pushed to the brink of elimination, defeating Team Spirit remains an impossible task. Spirit, on the other hand, is far from perfect, at least not in TI11 groups. We observed how Team Spirit was outperformed by their group opponents, particularly in terms of execution. With every fan’s fantasy prediction on the line, let’s hope Spirit doesn’t blow it in the opening round of the Main Event.
AT TI11, THE SOUTH AMERICAN TEAM GALORE
It’s encouraging to see the South American Dota 2 scene flourish to the level it did at TI11. Regardless, even with three SA teams getting it to the TI11 Playoffs, one SA team will be eliminated in round 1 of the lower bracket.
Hokori vs. Beastcoast is a replay of the DPC South American regional league that will be difficult to watch. The victor of this R1 Lower Bracket round will undoubtedly play either EG or TA, with the latter likely to join the lower bracket. As a result, another SA team will complete their TI11 tour.
In the broader scheme of things, any SA team reaching the third round of the lower bracket is enough to qualify for the highest accomplishment any SA team has received in the TI Championship. The loser of this round will take seventh place in TI11. The previous SA team to attain this milestone was Infamous at TI9, whose lineup is now known as beastcoast.
It’s not as exciting as winning TI11 or finishing in the top three, but it’s nonetheless a celebration of the SA region’s success in Dota 2.
When it comes to the TI11 Playoffs, these are simply the tip of the iceberg; there are additional matchups that we did not cover. Don’t worry, we’ll include TI11 Day 1 Playoffs Predictions in another article, so keep an eye out. You can go to OKbet Sportsbook or directly go to OKbet.com.
