The International 11 South American Qualifier results

The South American Qualifier for The International 2022 was just as chaotic as the Eastern European one. And once again, the favorites didn’t win because there was a dark horse in the race. Hokori, the team of Thiago “Thiolicor” Cordeiro stunned Infamous in the Grand Final and guaranteed themselves a ticket for TI11.

The two teams that will compete in the Last Chance Qualifier are Infamous and Tempest. Both of them were ranked first and second in the region, excluding of course beastcoast and Thunder Awaken, who qualified for The International 11 directly, thanks to their positions in the Dota Pro Circuit rankings table.

Hokori’s run

Hokori started the tournament in the upper bracket and had to play the first match against one of the strongest competitors in the region, Wolf Team. On Wolf’s roster are some of the best players in South America, so Hokori’s victory was very significant and proved that they can win the whole race. The final score was 2-1.

In their second match, Hokori encountered Tempest and tried to do what they had done in their previous match against Wolf. Only this time, Tempest countered them brilliantly in both games with a combination of stuns (by picking Earthshaker) and mobility (by picking heroes like Weaver, Void Spirit, Ember Spirit, and Phoenix).

The score was 2-0 in favor of Tempest and the road ahead looked almost impossible for Hokori, who now had to win four consecutive matches to qualify. What happened next was extremely unlikely and very impressive. Hokori went on to win all four matches without losing a single game. And some of their rivals were very strong teams.

The first match was against No Runes and was won with a combination of slows and raw physical damage. Hokori picked Undying and Templar Assassin in both games and were successful.

In their next match, against Mad Kings, they changed their strategy and picked a mixture of slows, initiation, and durability. Their carry heroes, Medusa and Terrorblade, looked unkillable during the mid portion of the games.

The lower bracket final was controversial. It rarely happens at this competitive level but Tempest actually got disqualified because of a connection issue that they couldn’t fix fast enough.

Arguably, given the fact that there was no time pressure on the side of the organizer, Tempest should have been given the chance to play, even with a one-day delay. But the rules were followed to the letter and the team lost the match by default.

Grand Final

In the Grand Final, Hokori opted once again for unkillable carries like Terrorblade, Sven, and Phantom Assassin. They struggled a bit in the early part of the games, but once the late game was reached, they were unstoppable. The final score was 3-0.

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