Chinese Rule DOTA 2 / The International 2017
The first four days of DOTA 2 / The International 2017 in the US state of Washington were brutal on European teams. The US$23-million tournament, arguably the biggest event in the burgeoning world of e-Sports, started on Monday at 17,000-seat Key Arena in the Seattle Center.
By Thursday night, all but one European team had been knocked out, with four Chinese outfits left in the race for Saturday’s Grand Final and the US$10.67-million winner’s cheque. At the time of writing on Friday morning, Shanghai-based Invictus Gaming was facing off against Hangzhou’s LGD Gaming to decide which team would proceed to Round 5 of the Lower Bracket against the Netherlands’ Team Liquid.
Double Eliminations Makes Friday and Saturday Intense
It’s a double-elimination contest, so the winner of Round 5 then plays the winner of the Round 4 losers’ playoffs in the Lower Bracket Final, with the LBF winner proceeding to the Grand Final against the team that triumphs in the Upper Bracket Final.
That will be either China’s LGD Forever Young, an exciting team that has created thrilling upsets this year, or Chinese ‘dream team’ Newbee; the two outfits were also about to start their Upper Bracket Finals at the time of writing. Invictus and Newbee were the betting favourites in Friday’s opening best-of-three matches. Team Liquid has the lowest odds of the remaining teams to win the Grand Final, at $6.00 or less.
Drawing Global Attention to e-Sports
Defense of the Ancients and its current incarnation, DOTA 2, is one of the most successful team-player e-Sports games released by developer Valve. This combination of strategy, fighting and roleplay that uses a mix of avatar heroes in each team with different skills and specialities, is open to players all over the world, even those not equipped for more athletic competition.
As a result, DOTA 2 / The International 2017 brings together online gameplay and betting fans globally; for example, it was Malaysian player Tue ‘Ahfu’ Soon Chuan who pulled off the daring steal of an Aegis of the Immortal to help his Chinese team, LGD Forever Young, to their Round 2 victory against Russian outfit Virtus.pro.
Australian punters are joining thousands in India, the Americas, all over Europe and Russia, and of course millions in China and the surrounding nations, to bet on the young stars putting e-Sports on the map.
More About Cameron Hollands
After working part time in one of Australia’s finest casinos to fund his journalism studies, Cameron Hollands discovered a passion for sports betting. A few years and many successful bets later, he is now putting his considerable experience to good use, and is a regular contributor for australiansportsbetting.net.
Cameron’s expert advice, insight into the sporting world and straightforward reporting style has earned him many fans, and he enjoys sharing his expertise with fellow punters.
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