In Brood War, there were the Koreans. In DotA, there were the Chinese. They dominated the scene with only a few Western and South East Asian teams giving them a good fight. As a nod to their prominence, five out of the sixteen slots in The International 2012 have been allotted to Chinese teams. LGD, iG, DK and EHOME were invited while Tongfu qualified in convincing fashion in the Eastern bracket.

The Chinese in the past have been known for their farming games: ZSMJ with his 720 creep kills at 50 minutes, YYF buying back multiple times in a row with Storm Spirit, and Burning finding tier 4 items seemingly out of nowhere all attributed to the idea that the Chinese are farming machines.

However, Dota has changed and the Chinese had to adapt along with everyone else. They now also employ pushing strategies and ganking strategies with their own twist. The Chinese usually play a safe style (look out for Earthshaker, the king of safe laning). They play no-risk Dota and in general dislike diving for kills lest they are punished heavily. They will remove towers if they can, and will be content with not pushing the enemy's high ground before they feel confident enough that they are that much stronger. Yet they are not shy to strategies such as offensive trilanes; expect difference and variety in their strategical choices.

A lot of these teams can play multiple play styles. Tongfu leans to more of an aggressive play style, using heroes such as Night Stalker, Bounty Hunter, and Queen of Pain to great effect. Tongfu went 6-8 to end up in the losers bracket, perhaps a bit disappointing as they tried to do a Lone Druid strategy multiple times. Hao, self-admittedly, is not very known for his Lone Druid play and that was shown through and through in the preliminaries.

iG can play everything. Boasting legends like Chuan and Ferrari, they can play an aggressive style or be the most passive team in all of Dota2. They too like Queen of Pain and Night Stalker. In DotA and arguably Dota2, out of all the Chinese teams they are the strongest. While iG was present at the first International, they have gone through roster changes, with only Zhou and 430 (Ferrari) still on the roster from last year's team. Coming from the skill-packed Group B, iG has destroyed its competition in the preliminaries, going 13-1 with one loss to a pocket EHOME strategy.

In the Dota2 community, Team DK is known for their carry, BurNing. They are the masters of "4 protect 1", creating space on the map with 4 heroes that allows BurNing to farm. Most closely resembling the old Chinese DotA, they have been needing to adept recently. DK has done so quite decently, defeating Tongfu 3-0 recently in the It's Gosu Razer Mini Madness final. Team DK has done very well for themselves in the International preliminaries, going 11-3, losing twice to the behemoth that is LGD and trading even with the Singaporean powerhouse Zenith.

While LGD can play anything, they most like playing a pushing strategy where they remove towers and secure map control, often utilizing Lone Druid and sometimes Pugna or Dragon Knight. They play solid and safe Dota. LGD hasn't shown their hand yet, going 14-0 while using pretty much the same strategies. Their carry player, Sylar, is often on Morphling, and he uses the watery hero to its fullest potential. The scary part about LGD's current dominance is that their strategy hasn't deviated much in any game at all: they play safe, methodical Dota with Syllar always farming in the background. No team has so far found an answer to this. Even scarier (to other teams), LGD may have a lot more cards to play as we saw them needing to play only 1 hand in the preliminaries.

EHOME, while a legendary name with legendary players, hasn't shown as much of itself in Dota2. They are strong in their own right though, and like other teams can play both aggressive and safe styles. They are perhaps the weakest out of the Chinese Dota2 teams, yet they are experienced players on LAN so never underestimate them. EHOME finished the preliminaries 6-8 and ended in the lower bracket.

There's no arguing that China was the dominant force in DotA. The International 2012 is the perfect arena for them to show if they have what it is to become the dominant force in Dota2 as well. From what we can see from the preliminaries, this is the case. Although TongFu and EHOME did not make it to the winners bracket, iG, DK, and LGD swept the competition and brutalized their opponents.

Heroes to look for from Chinese teams

Dragon Knight, while not very popular in general in (western) Dota2, he has it all. He is tanky, has good damage through Breathe Fire, and has a stun. His Dragon form at level 6 quickly allows him to mow down towers from a safe distance while being virtually unkillable through Dragon's Blood. Dragon Knight is often used in combination with a strong push around the 20 minute mark involving Pipe and Mekansm. One of the strengths of this hero however is that not only is he strong early to mid but he can also go late game using items such as Mjolnir.

Pugna is fairly squishy and not much used in Dota2. However, he is a great farmer, pusher and counterpusher; his tower-damaging Nether Blast makes sieging significantly easier. His Nether Ward is not only great for team fights, but it also makes it both hard to push and counterpush against. After all, squishy supports with counterpush such as Crystal Maiden, Rhasta or Lina will take significant damage from the ward after dropping their spells. He also inconveniences the popular pick Sand King: the ward damage disables Blink Dagger if Sand King channels Epicenter, forcing him to get a BKB or risk losing pulses.While not very common, Pugna can be quite a strong pick and will likely see some play by the Chinese.



South East Asia is represented by 3 teams: Zenith, Orange, and Absolute Legends.

Zenith from Singapore is perhaps the most (in)famous out of these teams, with players such as Iceiceice, HyHy and Loda making up part of their impressive roster. They have made their name by destroying many teams in their region despite employing questionable strategies and picks up to the point where people were questioning if they even picked or played seriously in their tournaments. They took first place in the joinDOTA Masters IV, first place in the ItsGosu Monthly Madness Asia and second in the Gigabyte Dota Masters. A dominant force in Asia and one of the best teams out there, they are one of the favorites to win The International 2012. Zenith had an incredibly shaky start in these prelims, going 1-5 in the first day after losing to Chinese powerhouse LGD, trading equal with DK and surprisingly losing to EG. Nevertheless, Zenith destroyed its competition on the days following and made it to the upper bracket with a 8-6 score.

Orange, home to legends such as Mushi and Yamateh (also known as M-god and Y-god respectively), hails from Malaysia. Their accomplishments include 1st place in the joinDOTA Masters IX, 3rd place at the Gigabyte Dota Masters, and 1st place in several tournaments located in Malaysia. Orange loves to play aggressive; Templar Assassin and Queen of Pain are favorites among this team and they utilize these heroes to their full potential. They also enjoy running surprising strategies, as they are a team who have successfully done quadlanes to swiftly take a tower and gain map control. Orange made it to the upper bracket in Group B, defeating both Na'Vi and EHOME to secure their spot. Mushi and Yamateh have also showcased some excellent individual skill.

MUFC is the other team from Malaysia, top dogs there before Orange came along. In Dota 2 they have taken the WCG Championship Asia and the joinDOTA Masters IX. MUFC also played in The International 2011, however they were knocked out in the Losers Bracket in the 2nd round. MUFC is one of the only teams who has played Obsidian Destroyer in the past, however OD with not as strong as many other heroes and falling out of favor, they often use Templar Assassin as well. Unfortunately due to Visa issues and other delays MUFC was replaced by Mouz.

Absolute Legends represents Australia and was one of the first teams to take games (online) off of Na'Vi. They had a good start of the year, taking first place in the It's Gosu Monthly Madness Season 1, second place in the joinDOTA Masters III and IV, and third place in The Premier League. Recently they haven't been doing very well, though they did take third place at ECAL: America to revive hope for Australian Dota. They are one of the few teams that is willing to disregard ping and scheduling problems, showing up for competitions in Europe and America while playing at awkward hours with high ping.

For those who thought aL was going to be the worst team, you were wrong. AL didn't make it to the upper bracket but they sure as hell put up a good fight as they defeated EG 2-0 and went 5-9 in group stage.

Heroes to look for from SEA teams

Templar Assassin is a hero favored by some of the SEA teams. This hero is what its name implies, an assassin. TA has Refraction, an ability that gives her extra damage and makes her immune to several ''instances'' of damage, losing 1 charge each time she takes damage greater then 5. This makes TA hard to kill while allowing her to confuse and trick their opponent into thinking they have the upper hand. TA can also go invisible and deal damage while applying a minus armor debuff, and on top of this she has a passive that causes her near-melee attacks to become ranged and splash in a line(a very small cone in reality). Her ultimate is the ability to place invisible traps on the map, up to a maximum of 11 at level three. These traps grant a small amount of vision (useful for rune spotting and other vital crossroads and for chasing into spots where you think heroes have gone) and can be triggered remotely from anywhere on the map for a 50% slow. The power of these traps is also that they can be placed at a large range and then instantly triggered. This, combined with Blink Dagger makes her a potent assassin and she strikes fear in the hearts of supports everywhere. Used by iG.Ferrari430 with great effect.



Of the 5 teams hailing from Europe, 3 are from the CIS countries, former Soviet Republics.

Mouz was added as the 6th team from Europe following their 3-0 victory over WE for the spot that MUFC left vacant due to Visa issues.



Aggression is the name of the game for the CIS teams. Darer, Na'Vi and M5 all like to play very aggressive heroes such as Queen of Pain, Furion, Chaos Knight, and Chen.

Darer houses, among others, Artstyle and GodKillThemAll (better known as G). Artstyle is the legendary former captain of the Na'Vi that won The International 2011. Known to be one of the best drafters and captains of Dota, Artstyle has used unorthodox tactics against stronger teams to defeat them against all odds. G plays the solo mid for Darer or the off lane Broodmother. He is usually the flashiest player, and likes kills, a lot of kills, so look out for him to show off the high aggression of the CIS teams. Although Darer has not been showing the best of results recently, Artstyle is sure to bring some of his brilliant, insane or bizarre picks to The International 2012. Darer went 3-11 in their group stage; yet these scores are deceiving in that Darer looked quite good and put up decent fights.

Moscow 5 is home of the famous pgg, who shows a tendency to ragequit and early GG similar to Idra. The team also features Vigoss, one of the most aggressive players in Dota history — he will tower dive, and he will die for it... but he will bring you down with him. M5, while not looking too strong online, has done well in StarLadder and won the joinDOTA Masters X. They are, along with the other CIS teams, much stronger at LAN play and we will see that at The International 2012. In the prelims M5 has looked possibly the weakest out of all the teams going 3-11 in group A while forfeiting their games against DK in the process.

Natus Vincere or Na'Vi, to anyone who is familiar with Dota 2, means one thing: Champions. Champions of The International 2011, champions of ESWC 2011, champions of The Defense, champions of Starladder (twice). Na'Vi was the dominant force in early Dota 2 following The International 2011 for quite some time. They are one of the favorites to win The International 2012 and with good reason, boasting an impressive record and backed up strong players such as Puppey , LightOfHeaven and Dendi on their roster. Na'Vi as of late has been having some internal problems and Puppey stated on Lo3 that they only practiced 10 days but they will step it up at LAN as CIS teams always do and will be one of the teams to look out for for winning The International 2012. Na'Vi had an incredibly shaky start as well as but managed to make it to the winners bracket with blood, sweat, and tears, going 8-6 in Group B.

Heroes to look for from the CIS teams

Wisp has become a fairly popular pick in the CIS teams. This hero can link itself to a teammate, giving both players movement speed; any enemy hero which touches the link between the wisp and his teammate will become stunned. On top of this Wisp also shares his regen with the hero that he links with, as well as attack speed later on. Wisp can also teleport himself together with his linked target to any location on the map on a 60 second cooldown, leading to swift and effective ganks on any hero you desire, and we all know how CIS teams love their ganks and aggression.

Death Prophet has also seen play by the CIS teams. This hero can push creep waves incredibly fast, has a silence for teamfights, and can knock down heroes and towers quickly with her ultimate. She falls off in the late game, but teams who pick her often aim to end the game earlier and aggressively seek fights when Death Prophet is at her strongest.

The other 3 teams from Europe are mTw, CLG, and Mousesports.


CLG used to be a very strong team, having both Loda and Pajkatt. However, Loda eventually left for Zenith while smulgullig chose to focus on his studies. CLG fell in a slump, then bolstered their lineup with Misery and Lacoste, both players previously playing for EG. While not showing results for a while they have recently been in good shape. They placed second in both the Prodota2 Pro League and The Premier League season one, third in The Defense 2, and first in the Beyond the Summit World Tour. They can play aggressively and love heroes such as Broodmother and Night Stalker. Yet they can also play passively to allow Pajkatt, sometimes jokingly named farmkatt, to carry them in the late game. CLG went 6-0 the first day, and many people were impressed. Then they went on a 8 loss streak and failed to make it to the upper bracket, as the opponents they played on the other two days were simply too much for them to handle.

mTw has gone through several roster changes, eventually merging with a few of the players from the Western Wolves. mTw is one of the strongest European teams, and have accomplished a feat that very few teams can pride themselves on: they have beaten Na'Vi in a series on LAN. Na'Vi was invincible, indestructible, no team could touch them... and then mTw happened. mTw beat Na'Vi at DreamHack Summer 2012 after being down 1 game in a Bo3. After that they continued to do well, taking the Western Qualifer for The International 2012 to show that they are a team that has what it takes to do well at the main event. mTw has had some ups and downs as of late and they took a disappointing third place in the Samsung European Encounter at Gamescom, but they are no team to be trifled with. mTw plays conservatively — safe is the name of their game, leading some to criticize them for playing too safe. Give mTw an inch and they will take a mile, then they will expand that mile, inch by inch until nothing is left but mega creeps attacking your throne. mTw is also home to Synderen, not only a popular player but also caster. Synderen casts alongside Tobi Wan when he can, receiving great response from the community and it is expected that he will try and cast some games at the International. mTw has not delivered in the International so far, going 3-11 in the prelims. Yet some it can be said that Group B was a group of death, meaning there were no weak teams in it.

With MUFC unable to attend due to Visa issues, Mousesports crushed the Chinese team WE 3-0 in a playoff match and placed themselves for the International as the 6th European team. Mouz is perhaps one of the most popular teams of Western Dota, with players such as SingSing and SexyBamboe being part of their lineup. Sadly ComeWithMe was unable to secure a Visa to America and was replaced by Kuroky. Mouz is known for their (over)aggressive playstyle while allowing Black^ to farm to his heart's content. Watching a Mouz game as a fan can be almost heartbreaking as they both make impressive plays and throw away leads often. Mouz went 2-12 in the group stage. Even though Kuroky is an impressive player, it takes 5 people to make a Mouz team... and Kuroky is not even really part of that.



2 teams have made it to The International 2012 from the America: Evil Geniuses and Complexity Gaming

compLexity Gaming picked up a proven team when they acquired the team formerly known as FiRE after a series of strong wins. Their results include taking second place in The Premier League and the It's Gosu Monthly Madness Season II, and recently they have taken first place at joinDOTA's The Defense 2 tournament. compLexity most noticeably loves their Tiny. TC is seen playing this hero all the time to great effect, so look for coL to pick up this hero for The International 2012! coL is one of the biggest suprises of this International; they went 9-5 in Group B, taking a game off EHOME and beating both Tongfu and the Malysian powerhouse known as Orange in the process to secure second place.

Evil Geniuses is a team known to everyone in esports, and they too have a Dota 2 team which will be participating in The International 2012. Veterans such as Demon, Fear and Maelk are part of their roster. Even though the team has had some problems in the past, they have recently been doing much better, making it to the semifinals of the Beyond the Summit World Tour and taking 2nd place in both ECAL: America and the joinDOTA Masters Special Edition. EG loves their Tinker, and Bulba plays it to maximum potential while Fears farms on his Morphling. EG got destroyed by the Chinese teams 0-4 the first day but surprisingly beat Zenith 2-0. EG was close to being eliminated from upper bracket contention yet miraculously came back and placed themselves in the upper bracket with an impressive record of 8-6.

Heroes to look for in America

Tiny is a hero well loved by TC and also played by Fear. This hero has the ability to do an incredible amount of burst damage in a single Avalanche and Toss combo. Tiny is nowadays played without the blink dagger (although it is sometimes still gotten) and instead with Phase Boots and Drums. Tiny's problems are that he doesn't do enough damage outside of his Avalanche-Toss combo, that he doesn't have mobility and that he has a small mana pool. Phase Boots, Drums, Bottle and an Aghanim's all solve this issue, turning Tiny into a fast moving mountain coming at you with a Tree in his hand. Tiny's spells are AOE in a medium radius, allowing him to combo well with other heroes such as Dark Seer and Enigma. Tiny's Toss can be used on both enemy and friendly heroes, enabling him to throw heroes such as an allied Tidehunter into the fray to set up for the perfect ravage.

Speculation ran wild over how the 16 teams at the International would match up to one another in the premier Dota2 tournament. Following a long three days and a whopping 112 games of Dota2, the preliminaries of the 2012 International have concluded. With the dust settling, let's just take a moment to quickly reflect upon the group stages of the Dota2 International 2012.


Despite general consensus that Group A was easier than Group B, both the score distributions and the storylines between the two groups are quite similar. Both groups featured a Chinese team dominating, a favorite clawing its way from the bottom to the winners' bracket, and some surprising play from underrated teams.

Group A:
While the main focus of Group A is centered around LGD and DK dominating everybody (with LGD destroying DK in a show of Chinese supremacy), let's not overlook a few other factors that are certain to come into play during the main stage. First, Zenith, a team many anticipated to go deep into the International, had quite the rough start during day 1. Yet during day 2, they pulled themselves from 1-5 to 7-5 with solid coordination, flashy plays, and a couple unconventional heroes (Axe, Visage, and Keeper of the Light).

Despite a lack of preparation, EG also ended up performing quite well after a rocky 2-6 start. While Bulba still mostly played Invoker, he looked quite solid on Sand King as well. With strong teamfighting heroes and efficient roamers, EG converted their later games into wins through efficient 4-1 roaming into pre-30 minute death pushes spearheaded by Fear's Ethereal Blade Morphling or Radiance Lone Druid. With their 2-0 victory over CLG on day 3, EG snagged the last winners' bracket spot in group A for themselves.

In my eyes right now, CLG and EG are performing on similar levels. Both were 6-6 going into their final matches against one another for the last winners' spot. Though CLG came up short, expect them to make a sweep of the lower bracket. We haven't seen a single unconventional pick out of CLG yet, and this only makes me believe more that they have some special strategies mapped out for the main games.

Yet another surprise in Group A was aL's performance. While few expected them to make the winners' bracket cutoff, aL still played with a sense of solidarity and coordination that demonstrates that good teamwork is just as important as individual skill. While aL starts off in the losers bracket, expect them to show some good games, if only by virtue of picking Storm Spirit every time.

As for mouz and M5, they performed according to expectationas thought: in a mediocre fashion. For M5, The International continues the slump they are currently in. As for mouz, you can't blame them; they didn't expect to be playing in the International until Saturday. Don't expect either team to make it far in the main event, but perhaps M5 will channel the DTS-style of 5 man ganking. Maybe SingSing will one-shot an enemy team with Kunkka.

Group B:
Yes, iG is the team to beat. Going 13-1 in a group filled with Na`Vi, Orange, and fellow Chinese teams EHOME and TongFu is no small matter, but what is truly scary is how easily iG came about most of their victories. Despite Zhou being one of the farming gods of China, many times the games are won by the other players before Zhou even comes online. Ferrari, in particular, is on fire. Handling everything from Templar Assassin to Puck to Storm Spirit, Ferrari has dominated games in ways that most solo mid players could only dream of doing. His TA game is the perfect demonstration of Ferrari's brutality on the battlefield, where he scores double rampages and nets nearly a kill per minute. And if Ferrari himself weren't scary enough, you also have to worry about the supports, Chuan and Faith, and YYF's somewhere in the shadows with his revolutionary Bounty Hunter pick.

After day 1, most people believed that Group B's winners' bracket would be dominated by Chinese teams and Orange. Yet EHOME and TongFu dropped off quite quickly. Yes, EHOME does get accolades for being the only team to take a game off of iG, but they had to pull out their own pocket strategy to do so. And TongFu went from a near lock in the winners bracket to... not being in it at all. Again, the preliminaries have drawn the lines, and while EHOME and TongFu are both Chinese, they are playing on a lower level than iG.

Orange, as the third SEA team besides Zenith and aL, has brought a unique element of the metagame to The International through their picks. We've seen Winter on Batrider a couple times, and we've seen strong killing lanes such as Shadow Demon/Kunkka and Lina/Chaos Knight coming out of Orange. While their unorthodox picks have varied in effectiveness, at the very least Orange will make the winners bracket exciting. Don't be surprised if they pull out some insane teamfight strategies involving, perhaps, Dragon Knight, Kunkka, or Doom Bringer. Too bad Magnataur isn't in the game yet.

From a horrible first day, Na`Vi rose from pretty much last place in Group B and found themselves in the winners' bracket. Perhaps this is not surprising, as Na`Vi is a team of champions. Hopefully they've gotten over their rough start, as they'll definitely need to up their play in the main event. Though ArtStyle is no longer captain, expect unconventional heroes from Na`Vi, as they have shown us time and time again that they can pick weird heroes and dominate with them. If we don't see at least one game with Wisp or Pudge (preferably both in the same), the world will breathe a collective sigh of disappointment.

In Group B, the only surprise was compLexity, who finished second with a 9-5 score. Despite being oft labeled as "safe and boring to watch", coL has shown that solidarity is the key to achieving results. So far, coL is the only team to really utilize Dragon Knight, and TC tanks pushes like a champion in his flying salamander form. Given their nature, I don't expect coL to have many zany strategies up their sleeve. Instead, I believe that through watching their games, we'll see a lot of coordinated, safe play reminiscent of 2011 Chinese play, involving slow pushes with tanky strength carries.

As for mTw and Darer, their prognosis mirrors mouz and M5 in Group A. They won't make it far, but expect some turbulent scuffles in the lower bracket. ArtStyle is insane, and sometimes that insanity masks genius. And though mTw players are a tad lacking in individual skill, their teamwork is still second-to-none.

Looking Ahead
As with most preliminary stages, many of the matches went without much surprise. Frequent stomps, with quite a few ending before the 25 minute mark at ridiculously lopsided scores, were the order of the day.

Despite the slow groups, there are still high hopes for the main event starting soon. Expect to see higher levels of coordination, pocket strategies, and bigger individual plays. No team is out yet, and both the winners and losers brackets have the potential to be interesting and action-packed. We can all wait with baited breath for ArtStyle's next insane team composition, EG's pocket strategies, and for Na`Vi to shape up and start showing that they can stand up to the Chinese. Though the lines have been drawn, this tournament is far from over.