Here is the end of the main Dota 2 tournament of the year The International 2019.

The competition, which was awaited by the esports world, was happening in Shanghai from 20 to 25 August. All matches was taking place at the famous Mercedes-Benz Arena, which was filled by thousands of local fans.

Of course, there also were viewers from other countries supporting their favourites. But Dota 2 too is so popular in China, that crowds of Chinese fans just dampened other fans of the game.

Ignore of opponents

Unfortunately, there were some minor troubles. The fact is that local fans who were supporting Chinese teams uncontrollably, reacted to the performances of other participants drowsily. This was not seen at any previous final competition happened in North America.

As for the other facts, the first world championship that was held not in the North American continent, took place without complaints. And as for rare pretensions and critical comments on technical problems and some other troubles turned out to be usual fakes which have nothing to with the objective reality.

We can conclude that the tournament realized the expectations from the fact that the place of the next The International 2020 will be flourishing Stockholm. It means that the organizers of the competition admitted that the tournament became truly international.

Some facts about the prize pool

The main event of the tournament became its record prize pool which was growing from tournament to tournament. This time participating team played for almost $35 000 000.

The winners gained $15.6 million, and it means, that each player of the team got a bit more than 3 000 000 dollars to their pocket. Only a few professional sportsmen can boast such success in the sports field.

Of course, earnings of other teams participating in the tournament have grown up. So, the teams taking the last four places got paychecks with $506 000, which is good for professional sports. To compare, the biathlon champion of the current season Johannes Bø earned not more than 100 000 euro.

If we compare it with earnings of players taking The International from previous years as an example, the Ukrainian team NaVi, beating 16 best teams earned more than teams, taking the second place at TI 2011.

Unforgettable moments of the tournament

The European team OG not only won The International 2019, but became the first team that managed to do it twice.

In the relatively short history of the tournament, there has not been any case when a team that did not seem to be so outstanding just won The International. Before the very beginning of the competition, nobody believed in them: neither specialists, nor bookmakers, nor devoted fans.

The first group meetings everything went upside down. The audience could see a team of soulmates where everybody knew what to do. The European team looked more confident both at the group and playoff stages.

The only team that could oppose to OG during the tournament was Team Liquid, also representing the European continent and being one of the main favourites of the competition before its start. But no matter how the finalist tried to show their skill and persistence at the Grand final, the powers were not equal and OG were stronger which gave them a chance to beat their opponents.

Unrealized hopes

Before the tournament, several teams were expecting to win the event. They were showing great results during the season. But only Team Liquid were able to realize the expectations about them as they made it to the Grand final.

Hopes of many fans could not be realized by the Chinese team PSG LSD, that lost a battle to the finalists.

One of the biggest disappointments was performed by the Russian team Virtus Pro. The players made several tragic mistakes during the tournament. The result was unsatisfactory position in the third strongest group of players. Before the tournament, failure to pass to the final had been considered a breakdown for the team. Probably, there must be the start of serious changes in the roster of the team which caused a lot of hype at the terminated season.

The second representative of the CIS countries, the Ukrainian team NaVi, performed even worse. But there is some logic in their failing performance: the team had middling results during the season and it was difficult for them to make it to the tournament only by the results of the qualifying round.