OG Wins The International 2019

The International 2019 has finally concluded, and history has been made. The TI9 grand final was held to a crowded audience of nearly 20,000 in the Mercedez-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China.

The two finalists were OG and Team Liquid. OG, after having a rather shaky year, managed to shock everyone at The International. The reigning champions dominated the group stage and battling through Newbee, Evil Geniuses, and PSG.LGD to make the grand finals.

Meanwhile, Team Liquid, who some teams thought to be a bit of a non-factor, made an incredible run through the lower bracket after some disappointing results in the group stages.

The TI7 champions defeated Fnatic, TNC Predator, Royal Never Give Up, Evil Geniuses, Team Secret, and PSG.LGD to make the grand final. In fact, Team Liquid only dropped one game throughout its entire lower bracket run.

For the first time in TI history, there would be at least four guaranteed two-time TI winners. The first game saw the surprise pick of Meepo for Aliwi "w33" Omar in an attempt to counter OG's pick of Spectre for Anathan "ana" Pham.

While Team Liquid had the momentum going into the first game, OG managed to hold its base around the 37 minute mark, shifting the momentum and net worth lead into OG's favor. Although, it was not meant to be, and Team Liquid managed to take down three OG heroes, and started running down the mid lane. TL skipped mega creeps, tried to force buybacks on the side of OG by attacking the tier four towers and destroyed the Ancient.

The other three games, however, were not even close. Several standout plays in particular came from Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen getting a rampage with Monkey King during a crucial team fight towards the end of game two, an ultra kill with Pugna just 11 minutes into game three, and even diving the enemy fountain towards the end of the final game with Gyrocopter, getting a triple kill without any regard for his own safety.

Team Liquid were outplayed, outdrafted, and outmatched at nearly every point of the finals after game one.

OG is not only the first Dota 2 team to ever win two International titles, but OG is the first team to ever win the TI championship title back to back. This is also the first time the same exact team from a previous year reach grand finals and win an International title.

OG brings home over $15.5 million on top of the over $11 million from last year. Team Liquid, although losing in the finals, took home nearly $4.5 million.

Photo courtesy of Valve