“Welcome to The International!”
The iconic voice of Gabe Newell echos the main stage event as we welcomes us to *shudders*
That’s right, Its been one year already! And while we Malaysians were going through a big change ourselves *COUGH COUGH* election, Valve has been pretty busy prepping the new venue for the International as well! As the KeyArena closed down for renovations, the new arena for this year was at Rogers Arena. But this time, instead of being in The States, it was be held in CANADA!
Has it really been a year already? Feels as though it was yesterday, no?
We’ve seen so many changes this year, from patches to disputes between players as the teams struggled to adapt.
What’s different this year, you might ask.
For starters, the theme for this year is Subterranean, which is really different compared to last year’s under water theme. Secondly, RedEye is back as the host for TI8! Many people speculated that RedEye wouldn’t come back after as a host as he was not invited to TI7 and instead, the hosting gig went to Day[9] for TI7, which drew speculation and drama within the community, but it looks like Valve manage to convince RedEye to come back for TI8!
Source: Google
Sorry, Day[9]! We still love you.
When a new TI roles around you can expect interesting things to happen *drama laaaa*
And this time is no different, controversy happened when the Russian talent invite list was revealed, a prominent Russian caster named Dmitry “Inmate” Filinov who is known for his analyst work during TI6 and TI7 wasted no time to talk about the invitation openly on his stream, and later clarified that he wasn’t invited and he wouldn’t have accepted with the current offer anyways.
To clarify, the talent list also includes studio staff to help with the technical side of things.
With patches that changed the gameplay drastically, teams have brought their A game and put on a spectacle show for all of us during the main stage event!
Aside from the intense games that happened, I think our favorite part has to be the prize pool right? And oh boy Valve has done it again! With a portion of sales from the compendiums funding the sale of it’s Prize Pool as is done every year, TI8 has managed to gather the most so far!
For the first time in history, the winners of TI8 will become Multi millionaires overnight! At least 2 million USD per player! And we all thought last year was crazy with at least 1 million going to each player of the winning team. Yet here we are!
Mom, dad.. I thought you said playing video games had no future?
Remember to study hard as even to qualify for the International is hard enough!
And that’s why these players who make it to TI deserve a pat on the back, not everyone has the skill, dedication and reflex to make it that far.
What were your thoughts about TI8? Let us know!
Header Image Source: Google
