Probably one of the most anticipated tournaments in the entire e-sports world is The International Dota 2 Championships where eighteen(18) teams will battle it out for the Aegis of Champions and the prize pool worth millions!

The International 2017 Aegis of Champions

Every year eight(8) teams will get a direct invite to join The International, this is based on current performance of the "season", and the other ten(10) teams will be from the Regional Qualifiers.

The way the competition goes is in the beginning all eighteen(18) teams will be split in two groups and battle in a round robin style wherein the bottom teams in each group will be directly eliminated! After, the remaining sixteen(16) teams will have a double elimination to determine the next champion

And now, for the direct invites!

It came to no surprise that Virtus.Pro got one of the first invites seeing that they are currently the #1 team in the whole world. Returning as well are the 2017 Champions, Team Liquid. PSG.LGD and Mineski had strong runs in the DAC tournament finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively. Team Secret, Vici Gaming, Newbee and VGJ Thunder also had strong seasons which is no surprise why they got invited.

I would say though that it's a shock to not see Evil Genuises up there, but it's probably since it was a tough season and some teams just out performed others.

It's definitely gonna be a fun International, and you'll be sure to see me watching it this coming August.