Fast and furious seems to be the motto for this year’s edition of The International.
The Dota 2 pinnacle tournament of the year opened with two days of a round-robin group stage that leads into two more days of deciding series for the playoff bracket seeding. Nobody has to fear elimination at the end of the first few days in Copenhagen at TI 2024, however, securing a top seed in the group stage is paramount for a team's chances to land in the upper bracket in the playoffs stage.
Group A featured two of the biggest contenders at the title this year. Gaimin Gladiators, runners-up at the previous TI and Riyadh masters Champions this year, were in good company with Xtreme Gaming, China’s biggest hope at the Aegis this year.
Both teams started their road to playoffs with clean 2:0 victories in the opening series on Day 1, but their direct confrontation was what set them apart. XG ended the day at the top of the group with a 4:0 overall score after taking GG down in a clean and dominating sweep.
Heading into the last day of the group play, it seemed like Xtreme really had things figured out for the new meta, only to get their perfect run stained in game two against 1win, who are competing under 1w tag at The International 2024.
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Xtreme GamingXG came prepared with fast tempo games in mind to make their group run a quick and painless affair. Their last adversaries for the group stage matches were 1win, who up to that point were tied with Heroic for the last place in the group with two game losses and a draw score.
1win’s five TI debutants were no match for XG in game one, as they got run over by the ridiculous mobile and extremely deadly combo of a carry Windranger and mid lane Storm Spirit coming out from the Chinese team.
However, heading into game two, Xtreme decided to play a different type of tempo game and went for an Alchemist carry, which proved to be unable to keep up the pace with a carry Lina and mid lane Leshrac coming from 1win.
TI 2024 Group A final standings
Gaimin have also ended the group run with a draw score against Heroic, which places them second in Group A.
As a result of placing first in their group, XG will be choosing the team they want to play in the decider series from those placed 3rd/4th in Group B. The decider rounds will be played September 6-7 in a best-of-three series format.
While Group A is done and dusted, there are plenty more series to be played on the Day 2 schedule, so stay tuned for more updates from The International 2024.
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