Crazy TI so far with Ehome and MVP with some big upsets. Secret falling to lower bracket so early.

CDEC are doing it! Guaranteed fourth place finish minimum. That's million bucks.

@tennmuerti: Your not wrong about Artstyle, but Xboct has a long history of getting caught from making stupid mistakes. He throws almost as much as he carries.

The lower bracket makes me so sad at this point I dont want to see any of those teams go home yet. Though I am especially pulling for MVP.P if they get top 6 it will do a world of good for growing the SEA and KR Dota scene.

@jslack: (It was DJSchmitty, I forgot that wasn't mine here, sorry). Crazy EG match last night, clutch Techies.

VP were my dark horse team, but wow. Beating secret seemed nigh impossible only a few days ago. Secret officially tied MVP Phoenix at TI5, let that sink in.

Rooting for the underdogs, go go CDEC.

Damn. I missed day four's first series but I was really hoping to see MVP.P make it through - really enjoyed their previous games I saw.

With them and Ehome out the Asian teams I was rooting for are gone, but CDEC is looking terrifyingly impressive from what I've seen.

I'd love to see one western team in the final at least, so go EG/VP.

@kittydrago: Sweet man!! If you aren't working, I'd like to buy you a beer! LMK

LET'S GO EG

I'm holding out for 420BootyWizard to win the best new player award, what about you guys?

I'm also partial to 'Bubba' and this 'Dendi' fellow.

Well, this showed up on the front page of ESPN.

@jslack: Well, I was a little late on that. Maybe at the PAX Meet-up? Also, I got both of the TI5 courier, PM me.

@monkeyman04: They had been putting 2-3 minute segments into sportscenter around the main event. Some of the commentary was a little cringey and more then once I thought, well you wouldnt say that about a baseball player or a golfer.

really enjoyed the event this year. mvp to ppd for facing down the intimidating CDEC assault with fearless drafts and strategies in the final. it was odd to see CDEC focus on farming for so long in game 4, not going for early fights the way they usually did, seems like he had them rattled.

Can't wait for next year now :) The new team rules from Valve should make this year really interesting, less roster shuffle.

@jslack: What are the new team rules? Admittedly my attention span for following the scene tends to lapse between TIs, but I'd like to check in every now and then before TI6.

Really enjoyed TI5 overall, it feels like they adapted better to being in Key Arena this time. It was also easier for me to watch live, especially with the final actually falling on a weekend. A final worth watching, for that matter.

Doesn't hurt that I finally have good internet and a nice TV; watching the 1080 60 streams between matches was near indistinguishable from broadcast sports for me.

@gutterkisser: Not 100% sure on the new rules. But there will be majors throughout the whole year. I am pretty sure invites to the international will depend on how well you do in the majors, and such valve requires teams to have a stable roster from september on for the whole season to have a chance of making it in.
I think it is 5 players and 1 or 2 standins.

@cheappoison: I remember hearing something about this but can't recall where I heard about it. I think the majors will also be organized by Valve?

@zomgfruitbunnies: I do think so, perhaps not all of them?
I am not even sure if there is official information out there. It seems there are mostly leaks and have heards.

@gutterkisser: @zomgfruitbunnies: @cheappoison:Ya, I'm not sure what's finalized yet, but Valve did say they are releasing details about their Majors circuit. It will restrict player movements, and roster sizes and such. It also helps establish major tournaments throughout the year that are "first party". I hope this leads to having more professional quality play throughout the year, with streaming and coverage that we've come to expect. Not sure when they are expected to release details.

Huh?

Que?

It has to be an elaborate joke right?

@hassun:

This REALLY pisses me off. Aui was part of the god damn team that WON the tournament, if they're seriously booting them, then FUCK EG. I hope they fail every upcoming tournament - it doesn't help my bias that I already don't like Sumail because he's an egotistical little shit (seriously, watch his stream, he's probably the most rude and downright mean player in the pro scene, and he wonders why he has no friends).

I can see why people don't like Arteezy now though - he gets in 8th place, gets only 500k, and decides to bail? What an ass.

This REALLY makes me wish that CDEC had won the finale.

If Fear can play the 4 as well as he did 2 years ago or whatever it was, I think this move can make them a stronger team. Arteezy is probably the best farmer in the game, an absolute beast of jungle and lane efficiency.

However, is it really worth doing this to Aui just for the chance of possibly being better when you are already the best in the world? I don't know. But with so much money in the sport, I can hardly blame teams for changing out players if they really believe they will be a better team for it.

Seems like DotA is quickly becoming more and more like real sports. You could see that in, I think it was an interview between PPD and Hotbid, PPD was saying how it is really like a real job, how the team was strictly business. All they cared about was winning. And just like real sports players are cut in and out all the time, it is strictly professional.

Another thing to think about is what happened to teams like Alliance and Na'vi after their great runs at TI. After TI3 these teams came back with the same lineups and just bombed out completely. I am sure EG is afraid of complacency and that probably has some influence on their decision to do anything possible to improve the team. That said, this must be excruciating for AUI. My heart goes out to him knowing he is one of the nicest dudes in the scene.

I just saw the aftermath of this on Twitter... I really wish my exposure to professional Dota outside of TI was more than team turmoil, but I get impression there's a lot of it. Maybe I'm just naive to think professional sports would be anything else.