The International’s group stage is more important than ever — and it’s kicking off with a bang.
The TI12 group stage has finally been announced in a post from Wykrhm Reddy, with the competition’s 20 teams split into four different groups.
TI12 group stage: Looking even at the start
Group A
- 9Pandas
- Entity
- Evil Geniuses
- Team SMG
- Team Spirit
Group B
- Azure Ray
- BetBoom Team
- Shopify Rebellion
- Team Liquid
- Thunder Awaken
Group C
- beastcoast
- Gaimin Gladiators
- LGD Gaming
- nouns
- Virtus Pro
Group D
- Quest Esports
- Talon Esports
- TSM
- Tundra Esports
- Vivo Keyd Stars
At first glance, each group seems fairly even. The three (arguably) top teams in the world now — Gaimin Gladiators, Team Liquid, and Team Spirit — find themselves in three different groups, and defending champions Tundra Esports is also in its own group, making all their advancements incredibly likely.
The revamped group stage will see five teams in each group compete in a best-of-two, single round-robin, with the bottom team eliminated — and that’s just the first phase.
The second phase sees the top two teams from each group playing the third and fourth-placed teams in the opposite group. This will be a best-of-three, and will determine the main event bracket placement.
20 teams will battle it over four days, from October 12 to 15 — before finally leaving 16 teams to dust themselves off and prepare for the playoffs.