The International 9: Big Upsets as Day 2 of TI 9 Concludes

The biggest tournament of Dota 2 with the biggest prize pool of any eSports tournament, The International of 2019, is up and running. The group stages have begun and teams are battling each other to make it to the playoffs. As Day 1 and Day 2 of the group stages come to a closure, we saw the underdogs dominating the best Dota teams in the world.

Day 1 saw SE Asian team, Fnatic, completely steam-rolling North American team Evil Geniuses, who were considered one of the strongest teams to come for TI 9.

Fnatic were considered as an underdog by many Dota 2 analysts, especially if we compare them to the likes of Team Secret and PSG.LGD.

However, the South Asian team stunned the Dota community with their incredible gameplay and near perfect execution of strategy.

Their position 2 player, Abed, was up against SumaiL - one of the finest mid laners in all of Dota. However, Abed showed everyone that he has the talent to take on any player.

The cherry on the cake was Fnatic’s position 2 getting a double rampage with his signature hero Meepo.

You can watch the full game here:

Day 2 was not exactly lucky for CIS Team or Virtus.Pro. Team Natus Vincere were considered one of the underdogs going into the tournament, but they completely stunned the world with their win over fellow CIS team, VP.

The first match looked classic VP, where they had an early game advantage and were looking set to win. However, Na’Vi got hold of the game by crushing their carry and getting pick offs with the help of Na’Vi’s support, Bakyt “Zayac“ Emilzhanov, and Akbar “SoNNeikO“ Butaev on Earth Spirit and Ancient Apparition.

The second game saw VP getting a good draft with teamfight oriented heroes, but they failed to shine later in the game after frequent unorganized fights in the mid game. Na’Vi pulled a 2-0 lead over VP in the group stages, which has proved to be one of the biggest upsets of TI 9 till now.

You can watch the full game here: