The Final Three At The International 13

We are approaching the final day of The International 13, and a new winner will be crowned tomorrow. Team Liquid made it to the Grand Final of the tournament after taking down Gaimin Gladiators, and Tundra Esports is third-wheeling the conversation in the Lower Bracket Final.

Team Falcons 2-0 Cloud9

The day was opened with a match between former teammates ATF and Fishman. Unfortunately, the series wasn’t too exciting as it was a relatively easy 2-0 for Team Falcons who were seeking redemption. 

For the first game, the MENA squad picked a very early-game centric draft and ended in 33 minutes without too much resistance from the side of Cloud9. In the next map, Malr1ne’s Timbersaw went out of control, going 17/2/9 to close the series 2-0. 

Tundra Esports 2-0 Xtreme Gaming

The next series of the day featured Tundra Esports taking on Xtreme Gaming. The latter was the last hope for Asian Dota, but they exited the tournament in 5-6th place. 

The first map was a total stomp in favor of Tundra Esports with a surprising Lone Druid pick for Pure. Xtreme Gaming’s draft was too slow to handle the early-game pressure, and Saksa’s 8/1/8 Shadow Demon helped Tundra close out the game in 30 minutes with a kill score of 20-3. 

Tundra Esports busted out a Mid Rubick pick for Topson, which seemed to work well in the early game. However, after a series of misplays, the Western European squad threw their lead back to even. Still, they won the crucial Roshan fight that turned the game in their favor to close the series 2-0. Pure’s Lone Druid carried the game going 13/1/14. 

Team Liquid 2-0 Gaimin Gladiators

The highly anticipated match between Team Liquid and Gaimin Gladiators didn’t serve too well in terms of excitement, however, the result went the other way with the former taking the series.

The Gladiators went for their classic early-game draft with Chen and Underlord, going for their usual strategy. Instead, Team Liquid went for late-game security with their draft. Team Liquid managed to repel the early pressure from the Gladiators and stall the game, putting the game in their control. Eventually, Liquid’s scaling draft could easily win the game. 

Team Liquid carried their momentum into the second game off the back of Nisha’s Puck. The game blew wide open after Team Liquid won a massive team fight in the Mid River to take complete control over the map and win the game in only 31 minutes.

This result meant that Team Liquid would be the first team to reach the Grand Final of The International 2024, while the Gaimin Gladiators were sent down to the lower bracket. 

Team Falcons 0-2 Tundra Esports

To end the day, we had a series between Team Falcons and Tundra Esports for the final spot in the top three. Despite playing with a stand-in, Tundra Esports still managed to pull off the upset against the best team of 2024. 

It seemed like Team Falcons didn’t watch the series between Tundra Esports and Xtreme Gaming, letting Pure’s Lone Druid slip through, meaning he would play the hero for the third time in a row on the same day. Meanwhile, Sneyking was on Position 4 Bristleback. 

Though Malr1ne’s Monkey King was having a great game, ATF and skiter could not find their footing in the game, getting negative KDAs. Eventually, Tundra Esports won the map with Pure going 11/3/16 and Whitemoin going 7/1/19 on Enchantress.

In the second game, Tundra Esports went for a very greedy draft, picking Alchemist, Sniper, and Doom as their three cores. Team Falcons tried their best to take an early lead and punish the greed, but Tundra Esports survived the mid-game and their draft started to pick up the pace. 

Topson’s Sniper became the bane of Team Falcons, going 13/5/12 with 54,000 hero damage in 40 minutes of play, and Pure’s Alchemist was also unkillable going 7/0/14. Tundra could close the series 2-0 and eliminate Team Falcons.

Now, only three teams remain, and all of them happen to come from the Western European region. Team Liquid will wait for the rematch between Gaimin Gladiators and Tundra Esports to play in the Best of 5 Grand Final. The only remaining repeat champions are Saksa, Topson and 33.