The TI12 groups have been announced

The groups for Dota 2's marquee tournament have been released less than two days before the beginning of the event.

We are inching close to the start of The International 2023 (TI12) with less than 48 hours to go for phase one of the tournament group stage to begin. The talent list was announced yesterday, and now, we finally have the four groups for the first phase of the tournament.

TI12 Group A

•  9Pandas

• Entity

• Evil Geniuses

• Team SMG

• Team Spirit

TI12 Group B

• Azure Ray

• BetBoom Team

• Shopify Rebellion

• Team Liquid

• Thunder Awaken

TI12 Group C

• beastcoast

• Gaimin Gladiators

• LGD Gaming

• nouns

• Virtus.pro

TI12 Group D

• Keyd Stars

• PSG Quest

• Talon Esports

• TSM

• Tundra Esports

The way it works is that every team will play every other team in their group on the 12th and 13th of October. The last team from each group will be eliminated. On the 14th and 15th, there will be cross group play to determine who makes the upper bracket for the playoffs and who goes to the lower bracket.

From the first looks of it, Group A and Group C seem like the relatively less competitive ones. Team Spirit are the favorites in Group A, and even though 9Pandas, Entity and Evil Geniuses have shown form at different times in the season, Team Spirit are a level above them right now. It is even easier in Group C for Gaimin Gladiators, as long as they find the form that won them three DPC Majors this season.

Group B and Group D are the interesting ones – Group of Bloodshed and Group of Death, if you will. BetBoom Team, Team Liquid and Shopify Rebellion are all contenders for the top spot in Group B, while Group D can be topped by either Quest Esports, Talon Esports or Tundra Esports.

The weird thing about this format is that a team could literally dominate their group, and still end up in the lower bracket by losing one best-of-three in phase two of the group stage. It will all be clear in less than a week, as by the end of Sunday the 15th of October, we shall have a good idea of what the playoff bracket looks like.