I'm an idiot and accidentally left my alarm notifications on silent on my phone, so I missed my alarm and my flight. United Customer Service is pretty good and got me on a new one with no charge, but I have time to kill at the airport so I figured I could go into full blogpost mode now.
The International 2016
TI6 was amazing, and topped last year in my opinion. Not only that, I think the quality of the matches made it the best TI yet. Stars of the show were easily Wings (really fascinating to watch their picks and strategies), EG, DC, and EHOME. My favorite game of the whole tournament was EG vs EHOME game 1 (the one with the comeback from Mega Creeps). Everyone in the arena was on the edge of their seats the entire game. It was easily one of the best games of Dota, if not the single best, I have ever watched. The grand final matches were also great. I wanted DC to win, but Wings is so fun to watch that I'm okay with them winning too. Going into the tournament, I was pulling for Na'Vi (with the expectation that they wouldn't get anywhere, and I was right), then EG and DC in their matches. I wanted EG to beat DC, but DC proved themselves to be incredibly strong. Much more that just a meme about Sunsfan.
It was great meet you guys/see you again. For many of you I basically got to say hi/wave at you and we didn't really get to talk at all due to lack of seats or time, and being too disorganized for a meetup. Off the top of my head I saw Anbokr, Procarbine, TUSR, Russ T, DrKirby, Chris R, DrPizza, lvl 2 pidgey, JambiBum, and I'm sure I probably missed someone. It was great to meet you guys, and hope to see you again next year. There was no Bandits photo this year as we didn't have a meetup, but I still have some photos regardless. This was posted earlier, but I'll post it again:
https://twitter.com/KaciAitchison/status/764621996894199808
I happened to be at the right place at the right time. I'm right behind Kaci to the left of Dendi. I also got selfies at other times with Kaci and Purge.
Speaking of Purge, the Weatherman Purge segments were a really great addition this year, and something I would like to see at more tournaments, such as the majors. He did a great job at pointing things out with drafts, critical teamfights, laning, etc. Since Purge was doing this, that most likely resulted in the noob stream being cut, and at that point I feel like they were running out of people to do a potential noob stream so it was cut. Pyrion was on the panel, Merlini was a co-caster, I'm not sure if there is anyone else really in the vein of Purge out there.
I know a lot of the filler content between games wasn't generally appreciated around here. Maybe it's just me, or being at the event live, or a combination of both, but I enjoyed it, even the "cringey" stuff. I don't mind Slacks, I actually like his stuff, but I can understand why people would find him irritating. I think we can all agree on something though: That the segments like International Archives were fantastic. The
Fountain Hook one was easily my favorite, and gave us perspective on it from some players we had never heard before. Hearing how Loda was salty about it at the time, and the way the TongFu players took it that they just lost and it was simple as that. The Not Playing Dota segments were also well done, and very interesting.
The cosplay contest was cool just becasue of all the creativity that goes into it. TheKittyPlays as Roshan was pretty clever, I remember meeting her last year and she was dressed as QoP. Arc Warden gets at the very least an honorable mention though, because that was a cool idea.
The All Star match was a lot of fun as well. I was able to get both shirts, but I was wearing Team Kaci and Team Kaci won! It's amazing to me how Kaci came in at TI3 as a news reporter doing interviews that didn't know much about the game, to someone that knows so much more about it now and is leading a team in the All Star match. Kaci in the Timbersaw cosplay was great, and all the witty banter between Kaci and Slacks was pretty funny. The showstopper though was of course Underlord. Everyone kind of expected it, although people were thrown off by the match actually starting. Remember in TI4 that Techies took over after Sniper was picked, and this was still during picking phase. The pause and "cheat code" was pulled off pretty well and showing Underlord warp in in AR was great.
On the subject of the AR, I thought that was a great addition to the event. It was nice to look at, with the times being shown on the stage so everyone could see them. I think the best benefit of it though, was giving people that were either new to the game, or don't watch much Dota but tune in for TI, just to get a better idea of what the heroes look like. It was also a good idea to have the brief ability demos of certain heroes when they were picked. Slacks interviewing AR heroes was also pretty funny. My "cringe" tolerance is pretty high.
The opening ceremony was cool last year, with the orchestra, but in my opinion this year's topped that. I'm probably in the minority on this, but I actually like Lindsey Stirling. I hadn't heard of her before TI, and looked her up and she's pretty cool actually. That performance was great, and went particularly well with the event. I'm glad they put the Aegis on it's own stage this time instead of having the "Roshan penis" sticking out of the center stage like last year.
On Friday I noticed on the monitors that usually showed autograph schedules that they said there would be a "special performance" after the last match and to stick around for it. It was also announced on the panel, and there was speculation as to what this was. Deadmau5 again? Lindsey Stirling again? Darude? Resurrecting the Beatles with all of Valve's money? During the last match of the day, drums were being brought out and placed around all four corners of the stage, as if they were war drums. The match ended and they started beating the drums immediately. Everyone was thinking "wtf is going on. The martial art performers came out and then I looked closer at their outfits: they reminded me of monkeys. I was thinking there was no way they were doing this since they had just unveiled Underlord the previous night. Sure enough, there he was. We got the Monkey King trailer. Judging by the trailer, it looks like his skills changed significantly since his Dota 1 secret boss form. That transform into a tree thing wasn't there at all. I'm really excited to see what they bring to this hero since they don't have to design it with WC3 limitations in mind now, and more heroes in the future will be the same way.
Secret Shop, as usual, was great. I was disappointed by the lack of Demiheroes, but I also really like the Nendoroids and Figmas. Here's my haul:
I ended up trading the Vengeful Spirit plushie for Night Stalker later in the week. That Windrunner print you see at the bottom came with the Figma, the Dragon Knight and Mirana had a holographic print in them. The blanket they are all sitting on was actually sold on the lawn. They were only $25 and actually pretty nice, made for sitting on grass or beaches.
The ceremony for the grand final was a really nice touch. I like live orchestras like that, and they played my favorite track from the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZwlt04y8bM
Having the drums during drafting was also great, really giving dramatic effect.
Like I said before, it was great to meet you all/see you again. One of my favorite things about TI, both this year and last year is how it's basically a place that really brings the Dota community together. I'd be lying if I didn't say Dota was a major part of my life. I enjoy the game, I enjoy watching it, I enjoy the community. Before the Grand Final, they did a bit where Kaci and Slacks did a "heart to heart" type of thing, and Slacks said something that really resonated with me on that:
https://www.twitch.tv/dota2ti/v/83400929?t=05h51m22s
"To me, TI means a lot. It's where I started. I think it means a lot to all of us. It's not just about the games. It's a celebration of who we are. The players, the viewers, the guys that watch the workshop artists, everyone. It's not about what we do in the games, it's about coming together and showing we are a family, it's a celebration of us."
Like I said last year, TI is truly incredible in person, and I highly recommend going to one if you can, it's absolutely worth it. I hope to be going again next year, but it's possible real life commitments might get in the way. I think at the very least it's realistic I can do the finals ticket only (assuming they still do that), with the possibility of being able to do the weekday ticket.
Hope everyone else enjoyed TI!
I woke up with this idea in my head so here's an avi for you Tek
Perfect.
