The International 2014

Record-Breaking Prize Pool and Compendium

Valve announced The International 2014 in March 2014, moving it to the larger KeyArena in Seattle. All 10,000 tickets for the venue sold out within an hour. The tournament's financial scale was unprecedented, largely driven by the sale of an interactive digital compendium. A quarter of all compendium revenue was added to the prize pool, and hitting certain milestones unlocked in-game rewards like a new game mode and visual effects.

Just eleven days after the compendium went on sale, the prize pool had ballooned from Valve's initial $1.6 million to over $6 million, with all rewards unlocked. By June, the total pool exceeded $10 million, making it the largest prize in electronic sports history at the time, surpassing the payouts of major traditional sports events like the Super Bowl and the Masters Tournament. This crowdfunding model demonstrated the strong financial support of the Dota 2 community.

Qualification and Participating Teams

Eleven teams received direct invitations to the tournament. All previous winners, including the defending champions Alliance, 2011 winners Natus Vincere, and 2012 winners Invictus Gaming, were invited. Four more spots were decided through regional qualifiers in the Americas, China, Europe, and South-East Asia, with the winners advancing directly. The runners-up from each region entered a separate playoff for the final spot. This system brought the total number of competing professional teams to nineteen.

Notable qualifiers included Natus Vincere America edging out Team Liquid for the Americas spot, Malaysian team Arrow Gaming defeating MVP Phoenix for South-East Asia, LGD Gaming beating CIS Game for China's final place, and German team Mousesports turning around against Virtus Pro to claim the European slot. The tournament faced a brief logistical challenge when two invited Asian teams, CIS Game and Arrow Gaming, initially had visa applications denied. Arrow Gaming later received theirs, and after three denied attempts, CIS Game also secured entry to compete.

The Complex Playoff Structure

The competition began on July 8 with Phase One, where four teams, Virtus.Pro, MVP, Team Liquid, and CIS Game, competed for the last slot in the next round. Phase Two was a massive round-robin group stage from July 9 to 12 involving all 16 qualified teams. The top two teams from this phase moved straight to the upper bracket of the main event. The next eight teams entered Phase Three, while the bottom six were eliminated.

Phase Two required tiebreakers as NewBee, LGD Gaming, and Mousesports ended with the same number of wins. NewBee won both its tiebreaker matches to take 9th place, LGD Gaming beat Mousesports for 10th, and Mousesports was eliminated in 11th. Phase Three, held on July 13 and 14, was the final playoff hurdle. On July 13, Team DK advanced to the Upper Bracket, Cloud9 and LGD Gaming advanced to the Lower Bracket, and Team Liquid was eliminated. The next day, NewBee advanced to the Upper Bracket, Invictus Gaming and Natus Vincere advanced to the Lower Bracket, and Titan was eliminated.

Upper Bracket and Chinese Ascendancy

The main event Upper Bracket began on July 18 with two best-of-three matches. In the first match, NewBee defeated ViCi Gaming 2-1. In the second, North America's Evil Geniuses beat the leading Chinese team Team DK 2-0. NewBee then secured its place in the Grand Final by sweeping Evil Geniuses 2-0 in the Upper Bracket final. This path meant NewBee entered the championship match from the winners' side of the double-elimination bracket.

The results underscored a shift in power. The defending champions, Alliance, were eliminated in Phase Two of the playoffs. The 2011 and 2012 champions, Natus Vincere and Invictus Gaming, were both eliminated during the Lower Bracket's Round One. This cleared the way for new Chinese teams to dominate the latter stages.

The Lower Bracket Gauntlet

The Lower Bracket, played over July 19 and 20, was a four-round gauntlet to determine the remaining Grand Finalist. All matches were best-of-three. Round One featured the four losers from Phase Three matches: Cloud9, Natus Vincere, Invictus Gaming, and LGD Gaming. The winners of Round One then faced the losers from the Upper Bracket's first round, ViCi Gaming and Team DK, in Round Two.

The winners of Round Two faced each other in Round Three. Finally, in Round Four, the winner of Round Three played the loser of the Upper Bracket final, Evil Geniuses. ViCi Gaming successfully progressed through this difficult path, which included a victory over Evil Geniuses, to earn their spot against NewBee. This set up an all-Chinese final, the first in the tournament's history.

The Historic Grand Final

The Grand Final was held on July 21 as a best-of-five series for over $5 million. Unlike many double-elimination tournaments, The International 2014 did not give a one-game advantage to the team from the Upper Bracket. Both NewBee and ViCi Gaming required three game wins to claim the title. The teams were tied 2-2 in head-to-head results at the tournament, with ViCi winning their group-stage match 1-0 and NewBee winning the Upper Bracket match 2-1.

In the final, NewBee proved stronger, defeating ViCi Gaming 3-1 to become the second Chinese team, after Invictus Gaming in 2012, to win The International. Their victory marked the first time the Grand Final was contested between two teams from Asia and confirmed China's status as a leading region in Dota 2.

Massive Broadcast and Unique Viewing

The tournament was widely broadcast on the streaming platform Twitch, with a number of different channels showing coverage in different languages, multiple games, and a stream aimed at new players. It also marked a significant step into mainstream television, with ESPN3 carrying the stream and ESPN2 airing a preview of the Grand Final. An ESPN source indicated the broadcaster was pleased with the success and was looking to expand its esports coverage.

Valve announced that over 20 million distinct viewers streamed the tournament. At its peak, concurrent viewers were over 2 million. Interestingly, despite Dota 2 being a PC game, the Xbox platform was reported as the leading viewing platform for The International 2014.

The Arena Experience and Secret Shop

For attendees at KeyArena, the event offered a four-day experience. The Secret Shop, named after an in-game store located in the Dota 2 map, sold exclusive merchandise. It was available on the upper level of the arena, with long waiting lines curving around the hallways. Every visitor who picked up their entry badge also received a goodie bag filled with Dota 2 branded items.

The goodie bag included a water bottle, a Secret Shop booklet, a hero pin, and a booklet with information on the competing teams. This physical merchandise and the in-person atmosphere complemented the massive online viewership, creating a comprehensive event for fans.