The International 2015

The International 2015 (TI5) was the fifth edition of The International, an annual Dota 2 esports championship tournament, which took place at the KeyArena in Seattle. Hosted by Valve, the game's developer, the tournament began in May with the qualifier phase and ended after the main event in August.

The International 2015

Tournament information
Game	Dota 2
Location	Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Dates	August 3–6, 2015
Administrator	Valve
Tournament format(s)	Group stage Round robin Main event Double elimination
Venue(s)	KeyArena
Participants	16 teams
Purse	US$18,429,613
Final positions
Champions	Evil Geniuses
1st runner-up	CDEC Gaming
2nd runner-up	LGD Gaming
← The International 2014 The International 2016 →

The tournament awarded one of the biggest prize pools in esports tournament history, at over US$18 million,^[1] with the winning team, Evil Geniuses, being awarded over $6 million.^[2]

Background

Valve announced The International 2015 in January 2015, again taking place at the KeyArena in Seattle.^[3] Tickets went on sale in March, selling out in around 5 minutes.^[4][5]

An interactive compendium was again announced, being released in May 2015, with purchases of the compendium going towards the tournament's prize pool.^[6] By June, the prize pool had passed the previous year's total of $11 million, overtaking it as the largest esports prize pool in history at the time, and with 60 days of funding remaining.^[7] Valve anticipated that the total would exceed $15 million by the time of the tournament,^[8] a target which was reached in July.^[9] Purchasers who reach a high enough level with their compendium were sent a miniature replica International trophy.^[10]

The tournament's games began on July 26, with the wild card matches, followed by four days of a round robin format group stage being played as best of two matches. The main brackets then began on August 3.^[2]

During the second day of the tournament, a DDOS attack was reported to have occurred, affecting around three hours of games.^[11]

Teams

Ten professional teams were directly invited to the event, with four regional winners and two 'wild card' winners also invited.^[12] The 'wild card' winners were decided during the main competition in Seattle from CDEC Gaming, Team Archon, MVP Phoenix and Vega Squadron.^[2]

Direct invitation ViCi Gaming Evil Geniuses Team Secret Invictus Gaming LGD Gaming Cloud9 Team Empire Virtus.pro NewBee Fnatic	Regional qualifier winners compLexity Gaming (Americas) MVP.Hot6ix (Southeast Asia) EHOME (China) Natus Vincere (Europe)	Wild card winners CDEC Gaming (China) MVP Phoenix (Korea)

Bracket

The International 2015 at the KeyArena in Seattle.

The tournament's first day of games began on July 26 with four teams competing for the two wild card spots.^[13] The winners of the upper and lower brackets, CDEC and MVP Phoenix, gained these positions in the main tournament.^[14]

Wild card

	Round one				Round two
	CDEC	2
	Vega Squadron	1
					CDEC	2
	Winner's bracket
					MVP Phoenix	0
	MVP Phoenix	2
	Archon	1
					MVP Phoenix	2
	Loser's bracket
					Vega Squadron	1
	Vega Squadron	2
	Archon	0

Group stage

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Pts
1	LGD Gaming	7	5	2	0	17	Seeded in Winner's quarterfinals with choosing rights
2	Team Secret	7	4	3	0	15	Seeded in Winner's quarterfinals without choosing rights
3	Complexity Gaming	7	4	1	2	13	Unseeded in Winner's quarterfinals
4	Cloud 9	7	3	1	3	10
5	MVP Phoenix	7	1	3	3	6	Seeded in Loser's Round of 16 with choosing rights
6	Invictus Gaming	7	1	3	3	6	Seeded in Loser's Round of 16 without choosing rights
7	Fnatic	7	0	4	3	4	Unseeded in Loser's Round of 16
8	Natus Vincere	7	0	3	4	3

Source: The International 2015

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Pts
1	Evil Geniuses	7	3	4	0	13	Seeded in Winner's quarterfinals with choosing rights
2	CDEC Gaming	7	4	1	2	13	Seeded in Winner's quarterfinals without choosing rights
3	EHOME	7	2	5	0	11	Unseeded in Winner's quarterfinals
4	Team Empire	7	2	3	2	9
5	Virtus.pro	7	2	3	2	9	Seeded in Loser's Round of 16 with choosing rights
6	Vici Gaming	7	1	4	2	7	Seeded in Loser's Round of 16 without choosing rights
7	Newbee	7	0	6	1	6	Unseeded in Loser's Round of 16
8	MVP HOT6ix	7	0	2	5	2

Source: The International 2015

Main event

Upper round 1

Upper round 2

Upper final

Grand Finals

A1

LGD Gaming

2

B4

Team Empire

1

A1

LGD Gaming

0

B2

CDEC Gaming

2

B2

CDEC Gaming

2

C4

Cloud 9

0

B2

CDEC Gaming

2

B1

Evil Geniuses

0

B1

Evil Geniuses

2

C3

Complexity Gaming

0

B1

Evil Geniuses

2

B3

EHOME

1

A2

Team Secret

0

B3

EHOME

2

B2

CDEC Gaming

1

B1

Evil Geniuses

3

Lower round 1

Lower round 2

Lower round 3

Lower round 4

Lower round 5

Lower final

B4

Team Empire

0

B3

EHOME

0

A5

MVP Phoenix

1

A5

MVP Phoenix

2

A5

MVP Phoenix

0

B6

Vici Gaming

2

B7

Newbee

0

B6

Vici Gaming

2

B1

Evil Geniuses

2

A4

Cloud 9

0

B6

Vici Gaming

1

A1

LGD Gaming

0

B6

Vici Gaming

1

B6

Vici Gaming

2

A1

LGD Gaming

2

A8

Natus Vincere

0

A3

Complexity Gaming

1

A1

LGD Gaming

2

B5

Virtus.pro

1

B5

Virtus.pro

2

B5

Virtus.pro

2

B5

Virtus.pro

0

A7

Fnatic

0

A2

Team Secret

1

A2

Team Secret

2

A6

Invictus Gaming

1

B6

Invictus Gaming

1

B8

MVP Hot6ix

0

Results

The International 2015 grand final in the KeyArena in Seattle.

(Note: Prizes are in USD)

Place	Team	Prize Money
1	Evil Geniuses	$6,634,661
2	CDEC Gaming	$2,856,590
3	LGD Gaming	$2,211,554
4	Vici Gaming	$1,566,517
5	EHOME.cn	$1,197,925
	Virtus.pro
7	MVP Phoenix	$829,333
	Team Secret
9-12	Team Empire	$221,155
	Cloud9
	compLexity Gaming
	Invictus Gaming
13-16	Fnatic	$55,289
	Natus Vincere
	Newbee
	MVP HOT6ix