The Most Underrated Teams at The International 10

Apart from the main suspects, there are 4 other competitors that can realistically win The International 10: OG, T1, Team Secret, and Elephant.

OG

When it comes to The International, OG is probably the most underrated team of all time. And that’s exactly what allows N0tail and Ceb to do what they do. The fact that so many participants overlook them and probably neglect to study their games carefully allows them to simply appear out of the blue at the end of a poor season and surprise anyone with a playstyle that’s completely unique and very hard to counter.

OG may not have ana on the roster, but Sumail is just as good. When he played mid, his opponents often allocated a lot of resources to shut him down in the early game. When he played position 3, he couldn’t do much with the heroes and the farm he used to have. But as position 1, he is thriving.

Protected by multiple OG heroes at all times, Sumail often gets a networth lead and then does what he does best: stomp opponents. So it’s hard not to count OG among the favorites. After all, this team won the previous two editions of The International and is the only one who has lifted the Aegis of Champions twice.

T1

Despite having some poor results last Summer, T1 is the strongest team in Southeast Asia and has one of the most talented players in the world as its carry. He is one of the few that managed to break the 12,000 MMR barrier and his in-game decisions are mind-boggling. 23savage is one of the few carries that can be compared to ana in his prime. And T1 has a real chance of winning The International 10 because of that.

In 2021, T1 won Season 2 of DPC’s SEA Upper Division. The team also finished 3^rd at WePlay AniMajor and 1^st at ESL One Summer. After Dota 2 patch 7.30 was released, T1 had some rather unexciting results at ESL One Fall (4^th) and OGA Dota PIT Invitational (4^th). However, it’s clear that the lineup has great potential and thanks to the weeks of training it was able to do since then, there’s a high chance that it has corrected its weaknesses and will perform well at TI10.

Team Secret

Because of its rather disappointing results in 2021, Puppey’s team went from being the esports team of the year in 2020 to being just another participant at The International 10. But don’t be fooled. This roster could easily win the tournament if it had a proper bootcamp.

Keep in mind that a long preparation tends to favor the most experienced captains. In this particular case, the teams had 3 solid months to prepare for TI10. Knowing what Puppey is capable of, there’s a high chance that we’ll see Team Secret thrive at this edition of The International. If they finish the Group Stage in the top 4 and secure a spot in the Upper Bracket, they only need a handful of well-executed pocket strats to reach the top 6 or even the top 3.

Secret’s main weakness at The International is the fact that its captain, Puppey, does not deal well with pressure. He may have won TI1 but since his glory days with Na’Vi, he has struggled to find success at this event. His best result came in 2019 (4^th place) but even then it was a struggle.

Elephant

Elephant had to qualify for The International 10, so you might argue that the team is not that strong compared to its regional rivals. And it’s certainly not in the top 6 overall. But if you look at the roster and forget about what happened until it got here, you’d have to be naïve to underestimate this team. Eurus used to be the best position 1 / 2 player in the world and probably still is one of the best. As for the other players, such as Somnus` and fy, they used to finish 2^nd and 3^rd at The International with PSG.LGD just 2 – 3 years ago.

It will be interesting to see what this team can do at TI10. It all depends on how well the preparation went but in 3 months, any serious team is guaranteed to improve tremendously. And when you have a roster full of world-class players, gradual improvement is guaranteed.

 

Photo credit: Valve