16 teams for $16 million! Preview for the main event of TI11

The main event of The International 2022 is about to begin. Only 16 of the initial 20 teams are left in the race, and the prize pool, although smaller than in previous years, should still be motivating enough to generate some epic matches.

The competitors will be fighting for more than $16 million. The lowest ranked teams will receive around $250.000, while the winner will get $7.5 million.

The main event of TI11 takes place between October 20-23 and October 29-30. The location is Singapore, so get ready to wake up early in the morning if you want to see the action. The first match is scheduled to start at around 4 AM CET.

Format and Participants

As usual, the main event of The International 11 is played in a double-elimination format. The first round of the lower bracket matches will be the most stressful because the match format is best-of-one. The remaining matches are best-of-three, except for the Grand Final, which is best-of-five.

The eight upper bracket teams get the benefit of having two tournament lives. When they lose their first match, they fall to the lower bracket instead of getting eliminated. Just one victory in the upper bracket guarantees a top six result, while two victories guarantee a top three result.

The main event of The International 2022 features these teams:

• Evil Geniuses
• Thunder Awaken
• Team Secret
• LGD
• Tundra Esports
• OG
• Team Liquid
• Team Aster
• Hokori
• Beastcoast
• Team Spirit
• BOOM Esports
• Fnatic
• Gaimin Gladiators
• Royal Never Give Up
• Entity

The top eight of these teams will start in the upper bracket, while the bottom eight will start in the lower bracket.

Based on the seeding, Spirit and RNG will have a very tough path to the Grand Final. Meanwhile, Liquid and OG are perfectly positioned to get at least a top six result. Based on what we’ve seen from Liquid in the group stage, they are likely to finish in the top three at this tournament.

OG have looked relatively weak so far, Tundra don’t seem to have an IGL that’s capable of finding a successful strategy against a competitor like Liquid, and Aster are far from being the strongest team in China. Everything looks perfect for William “Blitz” Lee’s team. If they can beat Aster, they have a great chance of winning the tournament.

In the lower bracket, everyone will struggle. Even if they win their first round, teams like Spirit, beastcoast, Fnatic, and RNG will face tough opponents immediately after.

Header: Valve Corporation