General impressions about The International 12

Arguably, The International 12 was not the hyped tournament it should have been. But it was still surprisingly entertaining.

Toward the end, the apparently silent Seattle crowd started to chant a bit more, enhancing the atmosphere for the 1.4 million viewers who enjoyed the Grand Final online.

Key observations

For such a “small” community, the viewership numbers of this TI were quite impressive. Nearly one million people watched each of the final weekend matches, and the Sunday battles were enjoyed by 1.26 and 1.42 million people respectively. That’s not bad at all.

Another remarkable thing about The International 12 is the sheer quality of the games. IceFrog’s latest patch, 7.34d, created a meta that’s super fun to watch and action-packed. Many games lasted for 40-60 minutes and averaged one kill per minute.

The number of swings was impressive, and in most cases, you simply couldn’t know in advance who was going to win. A perfect example is game 3 of the Grand Final, played between Team Spirit and Gaimin Gladiators.

Spirit were at a huge disadvantage and it looked as if they would lose the game because they also had two Hand of Midas items. But thanks to a series of brilliant moves, they came back and won the match 3-0.

Congratulations to Team Spirit for their victory at The International!

— IceFrog (@IceFrog) October 30, 2023

One feature of TI12 was the number of young Dota 2 players who displayed excellent abilities and a surprisingly deep understanding of the game. The veterans, who are around 30 years old, are probably quite shocked and how fast the younger generation is able to master sophisticated concepts and strategies, and then use them in effective ways.

The biggest disappointment regarding TI12 is Valve’s approach to building the game’s prize pool. It’s unfortunate that the standard method was abandoned and then replaced with something that proved to be ineffective at best.

However, as some people pointed out, Valve might have done this to change everyone’s perception of The International and also to prove to the teams that the fan base will primarily pay for Valve content and not to support them.

Team Spirit won $1.4 million of the total prize pool, which was $3.14 million, and became the second team after OG to win the Aegis of Champions twice.

They also did it with almost an identical roster, which demonstrates that you don’t need to make a lot of frequent roster changes or become an obscure team after winning a big event. Consistency can exist, even in esports.

Header: Valve