A balanced group division

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One more day is left before the commencement of this year’s grand Dota 2 showdown and the Dota 2 community can no longer contain the excitement especially after the groupings for this year’s The International contenders have been revealed.

Vancouver, Canada is undisputedly the city with the highest MMR right now as 90 of the world’s best Dota 2 players flock for the eighth iteration of The International, the annual Dota 2 world championship. And with the revelation of groups, there’s really nothing that can stop the biggest Dota 2 tournament from happening.

This year’s group division has been lauded by the fans for portraying balance. Both groups have the equal number of Dota Pro Circuit direct invitees and teams hailing from the regional qualifier.

Prominent Dota 2 personality, Alan “Nahaz” Bester also commended the regional separation with all six Chinese teams being evenly split, and CIS representatives in Virtus.pro and Winstrike being in different groups.

The International 2018 Group Stage Format:

• Round-robin
• All matches are played in a best-of-two series
• Top four teams with the most points after the group stage will be seeded to the upper bracket of the main event
• The team with the least points scored will be eliminated
• Remaining teams will be seeded to the lower bracket of the main event.

The group stages of The International 2018 will officially start on August 16, 2018 at 12:00 SGT.