- The team marks a convincing 3-0 victory over Team Secret
- Tundra dictated the tempo of the match from the very beginning
- This is all five players’ first-ever The International victory
The world’s biggest esports event, Dota 2’s The International 11, has ended with the sweeping 3-0 victory of Tundra Esports over Team Secret.
Tundra Emerges Victorious
Despite the many problems The International 11 had this year, it still managed to give fans an exciting finale. The final encounter between Tundra Esports and Team Secret was not a titanic struggle between two equals, but rather a convincingly one-sided affair. This resulted in Tundra lifting the Aegis of Champions and immortalizing their names.
Although this is all five players’ first TI win, the lack of previous victories was not a hindrance at all. The team would not have won without the aid of Sneyking and his unique playstyle position five. Tundra would not have achieved this victory without the strict coaching of Aui_2000. This victory marks the second time Aui wins a TI, although his first time was as a player for Evil Geniuses back at TI5. This means Aui is the first person to have ever won a TI as both a player and a coach.
How Did Tundra Perform?
Perhaps one should not be too surprised by Tundra’s victory as the team had been performing remarkably during the whole International. They finished the Group Stage with a 14-4 record in the upper bracket and no one came close to toppling the team many pros labeled as the roster to beat.
Thanks to Nine’s Tusk and skiter’s Naga Siren, Tundra took the initiative from game one. Understandably, this shook Team Secret, who hot their stuff together during game two and put up much more resistance. Although this game was much closer, Tundra’s Nine’s Arc Warden came in at the right time to save the team.
In a post-game interview, Aui said that the team had put in so much effort in training, that once they actually started playing in the tournament it felt like all of the hard stuff was already out of the way. This was exemplified in game three when Tundra last-picked Medusa for skiter purely because he had pulled a TI11 Crimson Witness item for the hero live on stage. During the whole TI, the hero was picked only three times, and skiter hadn’t played a pro game on it in over five months. Despite that, he was still able to punish Team Secret at the crucial moments, helping Tundra wrap up the encounter with a clean 3-0.
With only five total map losses and not a series dropped, Tundra Esports finishes The International 11 with an 82,1% win rate. This puts them tied for the fourth-highest win rate in TI history.
Now that the placements are locked in, Tundra and Secret have secured themselves the lion’s share of the TI11 prize pool. It is still growing and will be unlocked on November 2, but as it stands, Tundra is taking home $8 492 444, while Secret will get $2 453 413 of the $18 872 157 total pool.
