TI 2024 Finals Weekend predictions: Who will claim the Aegis of Champions?

The final battle for this year's Aegis of Champions is almost upon us, here's how GosuGamers predicts TI 2024's Finals Weekend will play out.

The battle for this year's Aegis of Champions is nearing its climax as The International 2024 (TI 2024) is set to take place from September 13 to 15 in the Royal Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark. Only eight teams remain in contention for this year's Dota 2 world championship title, but who will be the last one standing with the Aegis of Champions in hand?

While the championship is still very much up for grabs, the biggest contenders have already separated themselves from the rest of the field. A handful of players have also proven their hunger for the Aegis with some standout performances. And, of course, the metagame has developed enough that we already have an idea of which heroes will likely be present in the final battle for the Aegis.

So, from the final placements of each team to the most valuable player for the eventual champions and even the group of heroes that will emerge victorious in the final game of the tournament, here are GosuGamers' predictions for how TI 2024's Finals Weekend will play out:

TI 2024 Top 8 placement prediction

Four teams, all from the game's most dominant region in Western Europe, remain in the upper bracket for the Finals Weekend: Team Liquid, Cloud9, Tundra Esports, and Gaimin Gladiators. Meanwhile, under threat of elimination in the lower bracket will be the tournament's fifth Western European team in Team Falcons as well as Eastern Europe's BetBoom Team, China's Xtreme Gaming, and Southeast Asia's Aurora.

In the upper bracket semifinals, Liquid will be facing Cloud9 while Tundra will be taking on Gaimin Gladiators. While Cloud9 have only lost one game so far, we think Liquid is still the better team on paper for this matchup. Despite a shaky start in the Group Stage, Tundra have also been on a heater and we expect them to defeat a Gaimin Gladiators squad that has looked more vulnerable in comparison.

Should Liquid and Tundra end up in the upper bracket finals as we predicted, we expect a close battle between two of the most solid teams in the Playoffs. With that said, we think Liquid will emerge victorious in this showdown and become the first team in the grand finals.

While Falcons are in the lower bracket, we still see them as the biggest favourites to win the Aegis of Champions this year. They were the biggest favourites entering the tournament after all, though they stumbled against Tundra to find themselves under threat of elimination. Even so, we believe Falcons still have what it takes to go on an incredible lower bracket run en route to the championship.

We expect the third round of the lower bracket to see Falcons cruise through BetBoom and Xtreme make short work of Aurora. Based on our prediction that Cloud9 and Gaimin Gladiators will drop down to the lower bracket quarterfinals, we expect that will set up a thrilling showdown between Falcons and Gaimin Gladiators in the lower bracket semifinals.

With all due respect to Gaimin Gladiators, we think Falcons will take the victory after a hard-fought battle to become the third team making it to the final day of TI 2024.

That then gives us a rematch between Falcons and Tundra in the lower bracket finals. We don't think it will be a sweep this time around, instead it will be another exciting slugfest that will see Falcons advance to the grand finals against Liquid.

Liquid will be a very tough opponent for Falcons, but we think the momentum from their warpath through the lower bracket will give them the edge in the final battle of TI 2024. Before the tournament started, many expected that Falcons will claim this year's Aegis of Champions in dominant albeit predictable fashion. But if our predictions turn out to be correct, it will still be the same expected result just with a much more exciting lead-up to it.

Here's how we predict the entire TI 2024 Finals Weekend bracket will play out:

Who will be the TI 2024 MVP?

While there has never been a formal MVP award in the history of TI, we still think it's worth highlighting the standout players that will play a pivotal role in crowning this year's Dota 2 world champions. We have four players in particular on our MVP radar: Team Liquid midlaner Michał “Nisha” Jankowski, Tundra Esports carry player Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko, Team Falcons carry player Oliver “skiter” Lepko, and Xtreme Gaming carry player Wang “Ame” Chunyu.

Team Liquid Nisha

Liquid's Nisha has been in the conversation for the best Dota 2 player in the world for years now, and he's been making a hell of a case for himself in TI 2024 so far.

While Nisha has been excellent all tournament long, his best game so far is undoubtedly game one of Liquid's upper bracket quarterfinal match versus Xtreme, where he scored an incredible Rampage on low health as Puck and finished with a perfect 12-kill, 10-assist performance.

Tundra Esports Pure

Tundra were a bit of a sleeper pick heading into TI 2024, especially after they had to tap Martin “Saksa” Sazdov as a last-minute stand-in after Edgar “9class” Naltakian was forced to miss the tournament due to visa issues.

While Tundra's incredible showing so far is no doubt the result of a team effort, it was clear that Pure was the tip of the spear. Case in point: game two of Tundra versus Falcons in the upper bracket quarterfinals, where he led his team to a phenomenal 67-minute win as Luna and finished with 11 kills and nine assists on three deaths.

Team Falcons skiter

Since Falcons is our pick to claim the Aegis this year, it goes without saying that one of them has to be on our MVP radar. While every player on the squad has been stellar, skiter has stood out the most as he continues his campaign to become a two-time TI champion.

Skiter isn't really known for being a standout performer, but he rather quietly fulfills his role as the team's carry to a tee. We won't point out a single game performance for him either. Instead, look at every game Falcons have played in TI 2024 so far, win or loss. We guarantee you that skiter has been doing his job: topping the net worth charts, scoring kills in team fights while avoiding unnecessary deaths, and doing whatever is required to help Falcons achieve victory.

Xtreme Gaming Ame

Ame has long been considered as one of Dota 2's ‘uncrowned kings’, phenomenal players whose claim to greatness is unfortunately marred by the lack of a TI championship. Ame has come close many times before, and while we think he'll unfortunately miss out on the Aegis again this year, that doesn't take away from his sustained excellence.

If you still doubt Ame, then we direct you to Xtreme's victory over Team Spirit in the second round of the lower bracket. With his team's backs against the wall in an elimination match against the defending champions and all of China's hopes to see one of their teams in the Top 8 resting on his shoulders, Ame delivered a clean four-kill, six-assist performance on Luna in game two and a perfect seven-kill, nine-assist showing on Medusa in game three.

Who will be the winning heroes of TI 2024?

Every TI, the five heroes that won the final game of the previous edition are honored for their role in the crowning of that year's world champions. Last year, it was Chaos Knight, Dazzle, Spirit Breaker, Tusk, and Grimstroke that helped Spirit claim their second Aegis of Champions.

While we won't guarantee the five heroes we'll be listing down will be the exact same draft used by the eventual champions in their crowning game, we do expect all of them to be featured prominently in the final battle for this year's Aegis of Champions. So, our predicted lineup of the winning heroes of TI 2024 ordered by role include:

TI 2024's metagame so far has seen many of the most successful teams run a strategy centered on dealing tons of damage from long range to overwhelm opponents in teamfights as well as quickly claim key objectives like towers, barracks, and Roshan.

The lynchpin of this strategy has been Mirana, run more often as a position 4 support but also seeing play as the position 1 hard carry. In either case, players have made good use of the Mirana's Solar Flare Facet which makes her ultimate provide a powerful attack speed and damage buff to both herself and her allies. When Mirana is run as the support, the two carry heroes she's often paired with are Luna and Windranger.

While Luna is purely played as a hard carry, Windranger has been flexed to both the position 1 and position 2 mid lane roles. Either way, both heroes have the ability to dish out tons of damage to multiple targets, with Luna using her iconic Lunar Glaives and Eclipse abilities while Windranger utilises her Whirlwind Facet with the very popular Gleipnir item.

We expect those three ranged heroes to be the lynchpin of drafts during the grand finals as the preferred damage dealers. But while ranged heroes have been taking the spotlight, that doesn't mean that melee heroes haven't shined either.

Kunkka has been a very powerful pick for the position 3 offlane role, primarily as a counter against the likes of Luna and Windranger. Kunkka's ability to delay the amount of damage he receives lets him tank a lot of the enemy's damage, and building Blade Mail on top of that lets him turn his opponents' attacks against them. Of course, that's not to mention his incredible crowd control abilities with Torrent, X Marks the Spot, and Ghost Ship.

Finally, we have Tusk as the ever-reliable yet often underrated position 5 support pick. What made Tusk so successful in this role is his Drinking Buddies Facet, which lets him pull himself and a target ally closer to each other while also granting them both bonus movement speed and attack damage. This works wonderfully as a lane dominating mechanic and a way for Tusk to more easily reach key allies with Snowball and save them from sticky situations.

Tusk scales very well into the late game too, as he becomes a teamfight menace when he purchases Aghanim's Scepter and gains his Walrus Kick ability. Whether it's used to throw pesky enemies away from a teamfight or kick a key target into his allies' clutches, a well-played Tusk is fearsome even as a position 5.

TI 2024 is this year's iteration of Dota 2's annual world championship tournament and features 16 of the best teams in the world fighting for their cut of the growing $2.36 million prize pool and the Aegis of Champions.

The event is being hosted from September 4 to 15 in Copenhagen, Denmark and is split into two distinct phases: the Group stage (September 4 to 5) and the Seeding Deciders (September 6 to 7). The first two rounds of the Playoffs (September 8 to 10) are branded as part of The Road to The International, while the remaining portion of the Playoffs for the remaining eight teams (September 13 to 15) are branded as The International itself.

For everything you need to know about TI 2024, check here.