It's that time of year again. The International is starting soon. Sooner than expected, actually. MUFC had some last minute passport issues, and so their spot in the tournament has opened up. Mousesports and World Elite are currently playing a best of 5 to decide who gets it.

For those who want to watch in their browser, Tobi is casting at JoinDota:

http://www.joindota.com/en/live/tobiwan

You can also watch the games in the client. Even if you don't have a beta invite, you can still use the spectator features in the client. It's available here:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/570/

Finally, keep in mind that there are team pennants available in the Dota store. You can sport them while you watch games, and when your particular team does something of note you have a chance to get an item drop.

Cheers for the live-stream link!

Hopefully we'll see a wider variety of strategies this year as the hero pool is so much larger. I'm keen to see what teams have held back for the tournament.

Bummer for MUFC but...

@Jokers_Wild btw were you able to watch the games in dota tv or the client it kept jumping me to a random game that was over already had to watch tobi's stream

WE really didn't play well, Mouz on the other hand were really good. To be honest I'm glad MUFC couldn't get there because there are very few teams that I enjoy watching more than Mouz.

@Mr_Skeleton:you just wanted to hear SNSD at the end :p

@Dizzyhippos: The first game had problems in Dota TV, which Valve admitted to on Twitter. After that they got it working

@Eviternal: I really hope we see specter come back as a carry

More than 130k people are watching the games!

I will be there live in Seattle.

Crazy good games today. Just non-stop dota action and Dota TV actually held up the whole time. Some of the most fun I have had in Dota was just jumping from game to game chatting about it with people.

I must say it's amazing how much work Valve has put into this event and it shows.

The first day of preliminaries have ended, and it was surprising all around.

Na'vi, the current champions, going 2-4 was something I doubt anyone predicted. Amazing performances by LGD and CLG, who both went 6-0.

At this point, all bets are off. I think the coming matches are going to be mindblowing.

I am chomping at the bit to see pro-level Shadow Demons and Rubricks. So many new heroes since last year!

Man, I'm so pissed that the time zones are so massive between Seattle and Australia - I can only catch matches if I stay up super late or wake up super early. And I already bought a mousesport pennant! D:

Another great day of matches. Pretty much the thing we can say for sure from all these games, is that China is finally here on Dota 2. LGD and iG have both been looking unstopable.

@IndieFinch said:

Another great day of matches. Pretty much the thing we can say for sure from all these games, is that China is finally here on Dota 2. LGD and iG have both been looking unstopable.

eh these games are just for seeding, not willing to crown them just yet best of 1's anything can happen beating a team like navi or zenith best 2 out of 3 is something else. mouz has been wildly disappointing though not as disappointing and darer

Dendi's Pudge is OP. People are even banning it out against him now. Also, the tiny/wisp combo that I've seen (mostly from the Chinese teams) is absolutely DEVASTATING late game. I think iG has impressed me more than LGD, and complexity has kinda hit their stride so wouldn't be surprised to see them in it late.

@WhiteBrightKnight said:

Dendi's Pudge is OP. People are even banning it out against him now. Also, the tiny/wisp combo that I've seen (mostly from the Chinese teams) is absolutely DEVASTATING late game. I think iG has impressed me more than LGD, and complexity has kinda hit their stride so wouldn't be surprised to see them in it late.

again not to rain on anyone's parade but best of 1 games anything can happen, call me when LGD takes 2 of 3 from Navi or DK. Althought I do find it gratifying that mTw cant win to save there lives without there bullshit in game coach, hard to win when its fair huh.

@Dizzyhippos said:

@WhiteBrightKnight said:

Dendi's Pudge is OP. People are even banning it out against him now. Also, the tiny/wisp combo that I've seen (mostly from the Chinese teams) is absolutely DEVASTATING late game. I think iG has impressed me more than LGD, and complexity has kinda hit their stride so wouldn't be surprised to see them in it late.

again not to rain on anyone's parade but best of 1 games anything can happen, call me when LGD takes 2 of 3 from Navi or DK. Althought I do find it gratifying that mTw cant win to save there lives without there bullshit in game coach, hard to win when its fair huh.

You did NOT just call synderen bullshit!!

@Solskugga said:

@Dizzyhippos said:

@WhiteBrightKnight said:

Dendi's Pudge is OP. People are even banning it out against him now. Also, the tiny/wisp combo that I've seen (mostly from the Chinese teams) is absolutely DEVASTATING late game. I think iG has impressed me more than LGD, and complexity has kinda hit their stride so wouldn't be surprised to see them in it late.

again not to rain on anyone's parade but best of 1 games anything can happen, call me when LGD takes 2 of 3 from Navi or DK. Althought I do find it gratifying that mTw cant win to save there lives without there bullshit in game coach, hard to win when its fair huh.

You did NOT just call synderen bullshit!!

What I said was there 6th man in game coach that they had been using up to dreamhack is bullshit one extra person sitting back and saying you can push because there all top or careful someones missing it unfair, that's why there not allowed to at TI2. I don't care who they use for there 6th man I think that they were using a 6th man period is bull. And given there performance so far it makes me wonder if they even would of beaten Next.kz without it

The games has began, good luck to all the teams*!

*Except for M5, no one likes M5.

lol omg

Man orange almost had it. They really should have pressed their advantage when they got the first hex.

Watch the games without downloading the client here http://dota2.com/international/mainevent/watch/

Tons of great games today, anyone have any favorites in particular? LGD still looks unstoppable. Both CoL and EG had their chances, just came up a little short but hopefully they will come back tomorrow. Then the highlight of the night, NaVi showing up and playing great!

Outside of the games, this event is probably the best eSport event to ever take place. Everything from game quality to production quality is top notch.

I only caught EG vs IG, but it was a pretty good series. The black holes Maelk landed in game 2 were insane, and game 3 was extremely tight almost the whole game.

Game was hard for mouz, and mtw cant win unless 6v5. Also Chinese dota to stronk, if navi want to repeat they have to go threw ig, then ether LGD or Zenith don't know if anyone's up to that but I still think they can if they get more big plays like the end of game 3

Day 2 starts in 30 minutes from now, Navi vs IG should be great.

CLG, still fighting! HEJA SVERIGE! They'll probably lose, though. I just know it.

Got to sit in on Na'Vi vs DK while I had some spare time at PAX. The setup Valve's got running is insane. Being in a theater full of people who are all excited about the game is intense.

And CLG eats it. At least Loda and Zenith is still in it. HEJA SVERIGE!

Great plays from Navi against IG in game 2.

@Mr_Skeleton said:

Great plays from Navi against IG in game 2.

That game was insane.

Dat Rubick.

Great rebound for navi after a terrible first game, forget opa dendi, opa light of heaven

@Dizzyhippos: You should watch the replay of that big teamfight from game 2, opa dendi still applies. Light of heaven bkb's to avoid the ravage, but dendi force staffs at the same time to avoid it and steal it right after.

navi vs ig should be a amazing final, sad to hear that both maelk and hyhy are calling it a career

Congrats to both iG and Navi for great tournaments. Navi played there asses off after a poor first day of qualifying and got the chance to repeat cant ask for anything more then that. Also I have never seen a more awkward award ceremony in my life, GabeN just throwing the shield and the dude and saying GGPO

Valve posted on stream that we hit 567,000 concurrent viewers. Which is massive, it shatters the previous record of 430,000ish that LoL put up. I was hoping Gabe would come out at the end and announce that the game was ready for everyone, but no such luck. I don't think Valve could have hoped for a better tournament. Everything went smooth, great games we played, and the eSport community seems to be really getting behind Dota 2 as the next big eSport title.

Watched a lot of it this weekend, what an outstanding tournament. The games were outstanding for the most part, other than the finals. Slightly disappointing we did not get to see the crowd erupt having Navi win. But as far as production, hosting, casting, lack of downtime, interviews, and the venue go they did a stellar job. I have watched countless starcraft tournaments and this easily places at the top in production value. Plus it had Gaben. This game is going places.

Congratulations to IG for a well-earned victory. The level of sportsmanship displayed after that game was amazing. The whole crowd cheered when Puppey started carrying Ferrari around.

The big Navi turn around at 1000fps

@Mr_Skeleton said:

The big Navi turn around at 1000fps

Ah, that's really beautiful... great game engine at work. Here is also the multi cam version of it, fucking amazing play by Dendii..