Team Radiant took the victory in The International 2019 All-Star Match.
As always, the show match took place with a unique rule set, with the game being competed under All Random Death Match rules, which sees players change heroes with each death and teams limited to 40 respawns. The game can be won by destroying the enemy ancient, or completely wiping out the enemy team.
For TI9, the teams were determined by their success in the fantasy mini-game. Previous years have seen the All-Star teams selected by popular vote.
Team Radiant was comprised of Syed “SumaiL” Hassan from Evil Geniuses, Ding “Dy” Cong from Vici Gaming, Michael “miCKe” Vu from Alliance, Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev from Virtus.pro, and Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev from Natus Vincere.
Meanwhile, Team Dire was composed of Newbee’s Johan “pieliedie” Ă…ström, PSG.LGD’s Lu “Somnus” Yao, TNC Predator’s Timothy John “Tims” Randrup, Team Secret’s MichaĹ‚ “Nisha” Jankowski, and Team Liquid’s Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi.
The game started and both teams seemed to be looking for a quick game. Team Radiant went straight for the opponent’s middle tower while Team Dire opted to push in the side lanes.
However, Team Dire was forced to defend its tower from the aggression of Team Radiant. This translated into a bloodbath that favored Team Radiant, allowing the team to snowball.
SoNNeiko made stellar plays with Windranger and Leshrac and helped carry the team through skirmishes, despite traditionally playing a support role.
After 18 minutes, Team Radiant took all the 40 lives of Team Dire and claimed the victory, with SoNNeiko winning the MVP award.
Though some fun was had, Dota 2 fans were a bit disappointed with how the event turned out.
There was an obvious miscommunication among the event staff because Team Radiant ended up playing on the Dire side. The award ceremony also brought confusion because Team Dire’s pieliedie was forced to take a bite from a wheel of cheese despite the fact that it was meant to be an award for the winning team.
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