The International 2018

As with traditional sporting events, the tournament featured pre- and post-game discussion by a panel of analysts (top), with in-match casting being done by play-by-play and color commentators (bottom).

A change from previous Internationals, The International 2018 featured a series of tournaments running from October 2017 until June 2018, known as the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), that awarded qualifying points with the top eight ranking teams receiving direct invitations.[7][8][9][10] For the first time since The International 2013, the main event was not held at the KeyArena in Seattle, due to it undergoing renovation construction at the time, and was instead held at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada from August 20–25, 2018.[11][12] The event was also broadcast on a number of livestreams, such as on Twitch and Steam.tv, with the latter being introduced specifically for the tournament.[4][13] As with most major Dota 2 tournaments, the event had English, Chinese, and Russian-language broadcasting crews, with all of them having a large group of dedicated analysts and game casters.[4][14]

The eight DPC teams to earn invites were Virtus.pro, PSG.LGD, Team Liquid, Team Secret, Mineski, Vici Gaming, Newbee, and VGJ.Thunder.[15] In addition, twelve open qualifier single-elimination playoff brackets, two from each region, were held from June 14–18, 2018, with any eligible team able to participate in them, including non-professional ones.[16] Winners of them advanced to the main qualifiers, which were held from June 18–25 and consisted of six regional brackets where an additional ten teams, Team Serenity, Invictus Gaming, Winstrike Team, OG, VGJ.Storm, Evil Geniuses, OpTic Gaming, paiN Gaming, Fnatic, and TNC Predator, earned invites by winning their respective regions.[17][18][19]

To seed the elimination bracket for the main event, two separate round robin group stages featuring all 18 teams were played from August 15–18. Each of the teams played each other within their group in a two-game series. The top four placing teams of each group advanced to the upper bracket, while the fifth through eight advanced to the lower bracket. The lowest placed team from both groups were eliminated from the competition.[20] The main event featured two brackets, an upper and lower, in a double-elimination tournament format. Winning teams of the upper bracket, played in a best-of-three match format, advanced to the next round, while the losing team would then be placed in respective rounds of the lower bracket. The winner of the upper bracket moved to the grand finals. Teams who were seeded into the lower bracket from the group stage played best-of-one games, with the loser being immediately eliminated. All later round matches in the lower bracket were played to best-of-three, with the winner of the lower bracket advancing to the grand finals, played as a best-of-five series, to face the winner of the upper bracket.[21]

OG inside the playing booth during the hero drafting phase before one of their games

The best-of-five grand finals took place between OG and PSG.LGD, with OG winning the series 3–2. While PSG.LGD earned an direct invite to the tournament by finishing third in the 2017–2018 Dota Pro Circuit standings, OG earned theirs by playing through and winning the European open qualifiers, which they were required to do per tournament rules following a roster shuffle after three members, Tal "Fly" Aizik, Gustav "s4" Magnusson, and Roman "Resolut1on" Fominok left the team in May 2018.[24][25] Needing three new members just two weeks before the qualifiers began, OG quickly signed Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen, a newcomer to the scene who had never performed at a major LAN event prior to the event, Anathan "ana" Pham, a former member of the team who had taken a year-long break following their previous elimination at The International 2017, and Sébastien "Ceb" Debs, who had previously served as the team's coach.[25][26]

Following their win at the European qualifiers, OG were then placed into group A, finishing fourth with a record of 9-7, which seeded them into the upper bracket. There, OG won every series to advance to the grand finals.[27][28][29] Facing the lower bracket winner PSG.LGD in it, whom OG had just defeated in the upper bracket finals, OG won the game one, but lost the next two games.[28] Needing another win to avoid losing the series, OG forced a late-game comeback in game four, and subsequently won game five, making them International champions and winning them over US$11 million in prize money.[24][28][29] Their victory was considered a Cinderella and underdog success story, as they had come from the open qualifiers and had beaten some of the more favored and accomplished teams along the way.[26][28][29] Their win also broke the historical trend of Chinese teams winning the International in even years.[25] OG would also later win The International 2019 the following year, becoming the first repeat champion of an International.[30]

Note: Prizes are in USD[31]