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OG is the first two-time — and back-to-back — champion of The International Dota 2 championship, following a 3-1 rout of Team Liquid in Shanghai on Sunday.
OG took a grand prize of $15,609,384 for its triumph, which follows last year’s Cinderella run from open qualification to world champions. This time, OG returned as an invited team, posted the best record in group play and was a top seed for the main event. OG swept through the upper bracket to dispatch Team Liquid — which itself had only lost one game out of the lower bracket — in four.
Team Liquid, the 2017 champion, earned $4,459,830 as runner-up. Team Liquid captain Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi set a record for most games played at The International with 204.
Match reports describe a dominant performance by OG, led by Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen’s 16/3/18 KDA. Team Liquid won a see-saw battle in the first game, but from there, OG was in unrelenting control, powering through Liquid’s short-lived fightback in the fourth game to take their second Aegis of Champions.
The International 2020, the 10th edition of the tournament, will be held in Stockholm at the Ericsson Globe; it will be the first time The International is played in Europe since the first tournament, The International 2011, was held in Cologne.
