Today was the fourth day of the epic Dota 2 tournament - The International. With only the best teams remaining in the competition, most of the games were really enjoyable to watch - especially the Russian M5 with their incredibly aggressive strategies. With the exception of a small break, probably caused by technical difficulties, the day went well and the stream worked fine, with hardly any pause and some montages of the best plays of the tournament between the games.
It was the end of the competition for OK.Nirvana.int, who won the prize of $25,000. iG and M5, being eliminated during the Losers Bracket Round 4, took $35,000 home while MYM, defeated by EHOME, got $80,000 for 4th place. The matches played today can be found below with some highlights.
MYM vs. iG
It’s time for one of the main teams to go down. It will have to be either MYM, the #1 EU team, or iG, one of the Chinese giants, to go down and be eliminated from the tournament. Even though MYM hadn’t been really impressive before this point, they still hoped to defeat the powerful Chinese team. They picked an interesting line-up with really good gank potential, especially by night and Antimage as a hard carry. Concerned by the aforementioned carry, iG tried their best to shut him down and tried to gank him at the 8th minute. Unfortunately the gank failed as MYM managed to counter it and get three kills. From there on, the game was all for MYM, with Misery on Antimage farming 700 gpm in less than 40 minutes and pushing the base after annihilating the enemy team at the 37th minute.
M5 vs. OK.Nirvana.int
At the other end of the losers bracket, the Russian M5 met the international division of OK.Nirvana. The loser of this match would be eliminated from the tournament but would take $25,000 home. The game began with the meeting of the two teams in the Radiant's jungle, which ended up giving two kills to OK.Nirvana.int, quickly followed by a third mid, giving Online Kingdom a really good beginning. With Enigma and Weaver in their line-up, Online Kingdom would also get a very good late game, while M5 relied on the trio Windrunner/Mirana/Necrolyte to outcarry Weaver. From the 12 minute mark, M5 seemed to get back into the game, with their many stuns and great team-fight potential. Around the 19th minute, a great Enigma and Earthshaker combo eliminated two of the M5 players, but the reply was fast and Chen managed to kill Weaver. From that point, M5 dominated the game and took two lanes in two minutes. Online Kingdom fought till the end, even with two lanes lost, but couldn’t come back. M5 advanced through the brackets, having to fight EHOME next, while Online Kingdom got eliminated, but still getting a $25,000 prize.
M5 vs. EHOME
We are now in Round 4 of the losers brackets - the loser of this game takes $35,000 home. The Russian team showed how impressive they could be when they faced OK.Nirvana.int, but they now had to face one of the Chinese giants. Knowing how good the Chinese are when they can farm, M5 picked a very good early-mid game team, while EHOME chose to get Weaver as their hard-carry. EHOME sent their Weaver bot, which resulted in him not getting a good farm on lane. Meanwhile, M5 played very aggressively, and with the help of a few sloppy plays by the Chinese, M5 took a pretty good early lead, having killed the Tinker – who was mid – twice and Weaver as well by the 10 minute mark. Even though M5 went on with their aggressive playstyle, EHOME managed to play safely enough to let Weaver farm, and even though M5 seemed to keep their lead for a while, Weaver became too strong to be outcarried, leading to the Russians’ elimination while EHOME went forth to face MYM in the Losers Bracket Final.
Scythe.SG vs. Na'Vi
Winners Bracket Final Game 1
The first game was very one-sided, with Na’Vi picking up a really good early-mid game line-up and managing to gank and push multiple lanes at once. From the beginning to the end, with mega creeps at the 22nd minute, the game was all in Na’vi’s hands. In the end, they managed to pretty much stomp their opponents.
Winners Bracket Final Game 2
For the second game, Na’vi picked Vyper - a hero they have been using a lot during the tournament - instead of Nightstalker. Aside from that swap, they went for the exact same line-up while the Singaporean team tried to adapt and went for a team with a better mid-game. It seemed to be a good choice since Scythe.SG took the kill advantage early on. As the game went on, even though the kill counter remained close, Na’vi was unable to push any tower before the 40 minute mark. The game still went back and forth for a while but in the end, Na’vi managed to annihilate the Scythe team and thus won their ticket for the Grand Final, and the $1,000,000.
MYM vs. EHOME
Losers Bracket Round 5 Game 1
The first match between MYM and EHOME saw an early dominance from the Danes, who had a very powerful early-mid game line-up, while lacking hard-carry potential. The Chinese went, as usual, for a safer strategy, relying on Doombringer and Furion to win the late-game fights. MYM proceeded to dominate the early game, but EHOME once again showed their skill at turtling and waiting for their hour, eventually taking a very intense first game.
Losers Bracket Round 5 Game 2
After a break due to technical difficulties, the series resumed with game 2. Each team picked a safe line-up. While the first game had seen an early dominance by MYM, this one seemed to be in favor of EHOME, with Weaver getting a good farm and a few kills. From there on, the game was all EHOME’s to win, and they increased their gold advantage with every team-fight. Weaver took the mid rax after a fight around the 35th minute mark. Eventually, the Chinese team took advantage of a successful gank on Antimage to push the base and take the game. MYM thus takes the 4th place and gets $80,000, while EHOME will face Scythe in the losers bracket final on Sunday morning.
MYM vs. 
iG
M5 vs. 
OK.Nirvana.int
Scythe.SG vs. 
Na'Vi