The International 3 is starting now!

Just a heads up, watch it here http://www.twitch.tv/dota2ti?utm_campaign=live_embed_click&utm_source=www.dota2.com

Or in the Dota 2 game client.

GLHF

can they not put the GB chat up with it? would prefer to chat with a smaller amount of people than on the twitch chat.

Ask @mrpibb or @ltsquigs.

Don't forget @brad

Great start, who is hoping for the early upset?

Navi vs Orange game 2 starting now!

Gonna be an awesome weekend, gotta get those viewer items

Navi vs Orange currently 1-1. Going into game 3!

Edit: Navi to winners bracket!

Tune in now to the trolliest of trolliest professional dota match of the International!

MEEEEEPOOOOOOOO!

That allstar match was way too fun. Why can't Dota be like that every day?

I was watching this on my phone on and off last night. Some of the matches were great! Every time the crowd and announcers would go crazy my wife would just look over at me and laugh.

Curse my luck, i got stuck in replacing a co worker in a country with terrible internet and download limits :(

Gonna have so much backlog to watch through, sigh.

I loved Navi's game but the entire night in general made me go "Did people really forget about 'The Puck + Lifestealer Initiation' attack?"

chat's up!

Almost off work to go watch this! I can't wait!

I'm really enjoying watching the lady presenter try and deal with all the weird nerds.

She is doing a pretty good job, this is the sort of situation that has the potential be incredibly awkward viewing at times.

Does anyone know if the games will be available to download within the client at a later date? I have watched a good amount but still lots I want to catch up on, namely the all star match! Only managed to catch half of it

@uselessluke: They will be, they should be put up rather shortly, but they won't be there instantly. I bet you can already find the prelims on there.
Or you can find vods of it on twitch/youtube.

You can watch them directly off Valve's web page. The way they designed it is nice in an engineering manner. :)

Wednesday: http://www.dota2.com/international/mainevent/schedule/wednesday/

Thursday: http://www.dota2.com/international/mainevent/schedule/thursday/

If you want to watch any particular game:

Game 7: http://www.dota2.com/international/game/7

Game 8: http://www.dota2.com/international/game/8

Game 9: http://www.dota2.com/international/game/9

And so on. The web page handles the video with specific language commentary or use the link to launch the match in client.

As for the matches themselves, Game 11 IG vs DK was pretty dumb. I've never been annoyed by long running games but this is a first. I understood IG's defensive stance because conventional wisdom says that with mid exposed DK should get Rosh then come down a lane to pull down a tower or go for the kill. But no, DK's master plan was "time to go far ancients!"

Thanks for the answers people. I shall be catching up on yesterdays activities :) Turns out the videos are all youtube, so you can just sub http://www.youtube.com/user/dota2

Does anybody know which matches are worth checking out? No way I'm gonna be able to watch all of that. I know there were some crazy matches, judging by Twitter reactions.

Match 3 of the finals was pretty ok man.

And match 3 of Na'Vi vs Orange

My Opnions:

Alliance vrs LGD Game 1:

http://www.dota2.com/international/game/7

Crazy base race

Zenith vrs. VP:

http://www.dota2.com/international/game/25

Really nice invoker play

NaVi vrs Tongfu Game 1:

http://www.dota2.com/international/game/13

Dendi Pudge just dominating

NaVi vrs Tongfu Game 3:

http://www.dota2.com/international/game/15

Fountain hooks!!!

IG vrs. DK Game 2:

http://www.dota2.com/international/game/11

Not really my thing, but worth mentioning. 98min game, longest pro game ever.

NaVi Vrs Alliance (First series, winners bracket finals):

http://www.dota2.com/international/game/19 and http://www.dota2.com/international/game/20

Both worth watching, Alliance baits NaVi into picking wisp and then completely shuts them down.

NaVi vrs Orange (series 2) Game 3:

http://www.dota2.com/international/game/43

Big comeback from NaVi

And then the entire grand finals...

Sorry, long post is long...(edited to make links clicky)

Supposedly, this is how close Dendi was to TP'ing home: http://i.imgur.com/t70i5Xf.jpg

Oh wow thanks for those. Can't wait to check them out.

Don't forget the absolutely ridiculous Clockwork play by Bulba of TL during the LGD lower bracket match. Kinda sad to see TL go, really would have loved to see a TL v Na'Vi or TL v Orange match. Would have been bonkers.

Games 2,3, and 5 of the grand finals were also pretty outrageous. #2 was especially nuts considering the previous game NaVi were squashed so badly that s4 decided Alliance could let Wisp go and still win. A strategy which quickly backfired and ended up costing them a game when XBOCT(Alch) and Dendi(Wisp) became super tether pals and also un-fucking-stoppable.

Jesus Christ what a final.

Dat final game.

Holy shit; Game 5, you guys.

I am still wondering: How did that Dream Coil land in time?!

Edit: This is what the slobs who only understand English missed:

Still have more games to watch from that post (thanks again), but man even as a Dota newbie those were some great matches. That Pudge man...my god. I can see why Navi is popular. They are really fun to watch.

I'm sorta surprised noone figured Alliance out, their style is actually really predictable. Don't get ganked, win early game farm, split push to victory. But then again it sorta reminds me of Stephanos zergling upgrade strategy in SC2, it's just straight up statistically superior.

Still was a really exciting tournament over-all, but I'm left with a feeling that even though DOTA is quite an old game by now there's plenty of room for growth.

@chiablo said:

Yeah, pretty sweet timing on that coil.

I still get the feeling Navi were further away from winning than a couple of tp cancels. The damage was already huge and even if they came back to defend, then what?

(Not implying you're saying otherwise, just venting) Cool image though.

HOLY COW THAT LAST GAME

One of if not the most entertaining competitive gaming events I can remember, I'm only a casual Dota fan and I was hooked from the prelims on. Amazing production, community, and play. Valve really has something here, can't wait for next year.

It truly was a fascinating event. I only started playing a month or so ago, so only have a basic level of the intricacies of the player skills, but it was so enjoyable to watch and really made me want to play more and more and improve. I love all of the mind games, the strategy. Captains mode is awesome. I even got really excited watching the picks. Even though I found James "2GD" Harding's voice pretty annoying and dull, the presentation on the whole was great

It would not be an esports event if it wasn't for someone to whine about how their precious ears got hurt by someone's voice. James' got a great voice, accent and most importantly: confidence, charisma and experience when it comes to this sort of thing.

I thought James did fine for the inter-game stuff. I am pretty sure he wouldn't be great at the in game like Ayesee but for the post-game and pre-game stuff he is fine. If nothing else, his voice and diction are good for a "desk" like that.

By the way. Having the streams in the giant bomb chat was a great idea. A much more interactive and pleasant experience than 135 000 people spamming kappa faces. If it's not a huge undertaking I would like to see more of that stuff when the chat isn't used in any other way.

Made the TI3 even more fun to watch.

@mbr2: All I said was that I personally didn't find him that interesting. I am gushing over every other single thing about TI3. It's not like I came and moaned about him and left. The entire event was superb

Also, I think the in game commentators (can't remember their names) were absolutely brilliant. Incredibly knowledgeable, giving great up to the second insight, huge enthusiasm and get you even more excited about the game. On par with any traditional sports commentators I've heard

I will totally second this, was great fun being able to actually chat with other people rather than watch the cesspool of twitch chat flying by at 10,000 words per second. Made the event more enjoyable and really appreciate the fact that @rorie@mrpibb and the others got that set up for us.

All credit to Pibb and those guys. All I really have to do to launch a chat is hit a button; the fact that it actually works continually amazes me.

Submitted for more TI3 amusement: I have no idea if the dialog is accurate but watching this is a lot of fun anyway:

Just got done watching the first two Grand Finals matches...just curious why did Navi give up so quickly in the first battle? Was it really a lost cause? I can understand the second game because Navi was just destroying them, but the situation didn't seem AS dire (bad still mind you).

Was Alliance just arrogant that second game letting them have all those powerful heroes or did their strategy simply fail?

Also what is this I hear about split pushing making people upset/mad? Don't really know what it is, but it seems like a controversial tactic or something. What's the deal with that?

@kishinfoulux: I haven't watched the first game, just skipped through it, but they had a line-up that was very focused on making something happen early with very little late game potential. Their saving grace would of been lots of early kills ,which should of been possible with that line up, that were boosted by Bounty hunter's Track gold. So being 2 - 12 with a lineup with no real lategame hero that could pull them back, being that far behind with a line up that shouldn't of been behind made them gg.
Also, the original idea was to draft viper i think but they decided against it after they saw what alliance picked. (not 100% positive on that though, was in an interview after the fact somewhere)

And what makes people so mad about the split pushing... I can't say for sure but it is probably because it is just something really annoying this to deal with and it turn games into a chore sometimes as you are kinda forced to play on the enemies terms/reactionary. So i bet it is just the community experience with how it can suck to have to play against a line up like that, and projecting that onto the finals. That being said it is very effective, and it is probably really annoying because it is so effective.

As for a "split push", I would say the Pudge-Chen Hook Gank move is far more controversial let alone the general concensous that Wisp is a bit too strong at this level of play (almost 100% success with sniping, easy and automatic escaping, and only counter is to group up). Drafting certain combos you know what is going to happen like Life Stealer and Puck. Inevitably they are going to leverage Puck's movement and LS's infest to ambush. The team just has to expect pushes to come from Nature's Profit just due to his mobility where it doesn't take much more of a leap to recognize the way to crack their turtling was to attack top and bot at the same moment. Maybe the complainers want a more "man to man" fights but that really isn't the goal of Dota 2.

Still Navi!!!hahahaa...Dendi is cool!!super cool :D