The International 2018 Standings and Predictions

Dota 2
August 17, 2018
Radu Muresan

The first two days of The International 2018 were full of surprises as the Bo2 format proved to be troublesome for most of the top contenders. No less than 19 of the 40 matches ended in a draw and the likes of Team Liquid, LGD.PSG and Virtus.pro ended the first 4 of 5 matches with only one victory.

evil-geniuses-the-international-2018

Standings after day 2

Group A:

  • Evil Geniuses – 9 W – 1 L
  • Team Liquid – 5 W – 3 L
  • Fnatic – 5 W – 3 L
  • PSG.LGD – 5 W – 5 L
  • Mineski – 4 W – 6 L
  • Invictus Gaming – 4 W – 6 L
  • VGJ.Thunder – 3 W – 5 L
  • OG – 3 W – 5 L
  • Winstrike Team – 2 W – 6 L

Group B:

  1. VGJ.Storm – 7 W – 1 L
  2. TNC Predator – 6 W – 4 L
  3. Virtus.pro – 5 W – 3 L
  4. Newbee – 5 W – 5 L
  5. Vici Gaming – 4 W – 6 L
  6. Team Secret – 4 W – 6 L
  7. Team Serenity – 3 W – 5 L
  8. OpTic Gaming – 3 W – 5 L
  9. paiN Gaming – 3 W – 5 L

Main conclusions

One region that has performed much better than people had expected is North America. Both Evil Geniuses and VGJ.Storm are leaders in their groups and won all of their matches with apart from one. EG drew against Invictus Gaming while VGJ.Storm drew against OpTic Gaming.

VGJ-storm-dota-2-the-international-predictions-2018

In Group A, the battle at the bottom of the standings table will take place between OG and Winstrike Team, with the second one being much more likely to get eliminated after the Group Stage based on its performance so far. OG and even VGJ.Thunder aren’t doing much better either, but at least these two have shown some signs of strength and seem to have a couple of strategies that can help them win a game.

In Group B, the situation at the bottom is very hard to predict, as 5 teams are trying to avoid elimination and all 5 of them are of roughly the same strength, at least based on how they’ve performed so far. Team Serenity and paiN Gaming seem to be the most likely candidates for elimination, but anything can happen on day 3 and 4.

Predictions for day 3 (1 – X – 2)

Invictus Gaming vs. VGJ.Thunder – X
Evil Geniuses vs. Winstrike Team – 1
Team Liquid vs. Mineski – 1
Fnatic vs. OG – 1
paiN Gaming vs. Vici Gaming – X
Newbee vs. Virtus.pro – X
TNC Predator vs. VGJ.Storm – X
OpTic Gaming vs. Team Serenity – X
Invictus Gaming vs. OG – 1
PSG.LGD vs. Fnatic – X
Team Liquid vs. Winstrike Team – 1
Mineski vs. VGJ.Thunder – X
paiN Gaming vs. Virtus.pro – 2
Newbee vs. VGJ.Storm – 2
Team Secret vs. OpTic Gaming – X
TNC Predator vs. Team Serenity – 1
Invictus Gaming vs. PSG.LGD – X
Evil Geniuses vs. Team Liquid – X
Fnatic vs. Winstrike Team – 1
OG vs. VGJ.Thunder – X