The main event of The International 2017 kicked off on the 7th of August with many interesting matches and surprising eliminations.
For those of you who are confused about the main event format here’s how it works. There is the lower bracket and the upper bracket. The top 4 teams (from each group) during the Group Stage are placed in the upper bracket, and the remaining teams are placed in the lower bracket. The upper bracket is considered a “safe zone” or a “second chance zone,” in which if a team wins, they’ll move on to the next round and if they lose, they will drop to the lower bracket and live to fight another day. Whereas the lower bracket is the “elimination zone,” in which if you lose, GOODBYE.
Here’s how the brackets looked heading into the Main Event.
Believe it or not, Team Liquid vs Team IG was the only match that went right down to the wire. In the end, team IG defeated one of the fan favourite teams from Europe 2-1, pushing them to the lower bracket. Not to worry, though, as Team Liquid managed to overcome fellow Europeans, Team Secret, and booked a place in the next round.
Besides matches involving Team Liquid, everything else was fairly one sided. Three out of four China teams brushed aside their opponents with ease and booked a place in the next round of the upper bracket. However, the Russian team Virtus Pro managed to overcome one of the Chinese teams — LGD Gaming. LGD Gaming is yet to play their lower bracket match.
In the lower bracket, Cloud 9 got eliminated by Team Empire. This once again highlights how fast things change in the Dota 2 scene as Cloud 9 went all the way to the finals of The International 4.
Also, Execration (XctN) from the Philippines got eliminated by Team Secret. Which means only one Pinoy team remains.
Here’s what the brackets look like now:
Stay tuned for more updates.
