The International’s main grand spectacle, the main event on the main stage, is finally here.

After an extremely grueling group stage, sixteen teams are ready to fight their way through a tough bracket of extremely well-polished contenders. With plenty of tense best-of-two games and tiebreakers in the days past, they have only one goal: win by whatever means possible.

And there’s a lot at stake. Dota 2 itself is a storied game with an immense history in the world of gaming and esports, and many players have been working for glory for years. Of course, the largest esports purse of over $24 million and climbing is at stake, with the winning squad taking over $11 million — and there are still seven days in the famous fundraising campaign.

Six days of Dota 2 is a lot to keep up with, for sure — so given this is the most important even of the year, we’ll be working to keep this schedule up-to-date.

And stay tuned to The Flying Courier’s dedicated feed for plenty of coverage of The International 8!

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Format

The main event is a double-elimination bracket:

Valve

It works like this:

• The bracket was formed via the group stages.
• Upper bracket matches are not elimination matches. If a team loses an upper bracket game, they drop to the lower bracket, with seeding based on how far they got in the upper bracket.
• Lower bracket matches are all elimination matches. Teams can still win from here, but they must avoid elimination all the way through to the Grand Finals.

How did the bracket get formed? — The tournament began with a group stage, which ended Saturday afternoon. From there, the event was sorted into brackets based on each team’s performance. You can read more about the final results on TFC.

We’ll also be putting in any announced special events, so keep an eye out!

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Schedule: Upcoming matches

Note: Broadcast begins each day at 10:00 AM PDT (1:00 PM EDT).

Spoilers may come in the form of filled bracket and match slots due to previous results. Times are listed in Vancouver local time (PDT), then EDT. Need to convert to your local time? Click here for a handy time zone converter.

Reminder that COMPLETED MATCHES will be moved into the Results section below. If a match today is missing, it likely already occurred.

Friday, August 24th

Lower Bracket Round 4 — Match 2

• Team Secret (EU) vs Team Liquid (EU) [UB Semifinals M2]

Upper Bracket Finals

• PSG.LGD (CN) vs OG Dota (EU) [Winners of UB Semifinals]

Lower Bracket Semifinals

• Evil Geniuses (NA) [LB-R4-M1] vs Winner of LB-R4-M2

Other Events (times unknown)

• Cosplay Contest showcase & winner announcement

Saturday, August 25th

Lower Brackets Final

• UB Finalist Loser vs LB Semifinal Winner

Grand Final [Best of 5]

• UB Winner vs LB Loser

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Results

We’ll move past matches and list the results.

Spoilers below, probably.

Monday, August 20th

Upper Bracket Round 1 — Match 1

• Team Liquid (EU) vs OpTic Gaming (NA)
• RESULT: Team Liquid (2-0)
• Seeded from group stage
• Team Liquid proceeds into UB-R2-M1
• OpTic Gaming falls into LB-R2-M1

Upper Bracket Round 1 — Match 2

• Virtus.Pro (CIS) vs PSG.LGD (CN)
• RESULT: PSG.LGD (2-0)
• Seeded from group stage
• PSG.LGD proceeds into UB-R2-M1
• Virtus.Pro falls into LG-R2-M2

Lower Bracket Round 1 — Match 1 [best of one]

• Fnatic (SEA) vs Team Serenity (CN)
• RESULT: Team Serenity (1-0)
• Seeded from group stage
• Team Serenity proceeds into LB-R2-M1
• Fnatic is eliminated from The International

Lower Bracket Round 1 — Match 2 [best of one]

• TNC Predator (SEA) vs Mineski Pro Team (SEA)
• RESULT: Mineski Pro Team (1-0)
• Seeded from group stage
• Mineski Pro Team proceeds into LB-R2-M2
• TNC is eliminated from The International

Lower Bracket Round 1 — Match 3 [best of one]

• Newbee (CN) vs Winstrike (CIS)
• RESULT: Winstrike (1-0)
• Seeded from group stage
• Winstrike proceeds into LB-R2-M3
• Newbee is eliminated from The International

Lower Bracket Round 1 — Match 4 [best of one]

• VGJ.Thunder (CN) vs Vici Gaming (CN)
• RESULT: Vici Gaming (1-0)
• Seeded from group stage
• Vici Gaming proceeds into LB-R2-M4
• VGJ.Thunder is eliminated from The International

Tuesday, August 21st

Upper Bracket Round 1 — Match 3

• VGJ.Storm (NA) vs OG Dota (EU)
• Seeded from group stage
• RESULT: OG Dota
• OG Dota proceeds into the UB Semifinals M2
• VGJ.Storm falls into LB-R2-M3

Upper Bracket Round 1 — Match 4

• Evil Geniuses (NA) vs Team Secret (EU)
• Seeded from group stage
• RESULT: Evil Geniuses (2-0)
• Evil Geniuses proceeds into the UB Semifinals M2
• Team Secret falls into LB-R2-M4

Lower Bracket Round 2 — Match 1

• Team Serenity (CN) [LB-R1-M1] vs OpTic Gaming (NA) [UB-R1-M1]
• RESULT: OpTic Gaming (2-0)
• OpTic proceeds into LB-R3-M1
• Serenity is eliminated from The International

Lower Bracket Round 2 — Match 2

• Mineski (SEA) [LB-R1-M2] vs Virtus.Pro (CIS) [UB-R1-M2]
• RESULT: Virtus.Pro (2-0)
• Virtus.Pro proceeds to LB-R3-M2
• Mineski is eliminated from The International

Other Events (times unknown)

• Short Film Contest winner announcement
• Arcana Vote winner announcement

Wednesday, August 22nd

Lower Bracket Round 2 — Match 3

• Winstrike (CIS) [LB-R1-M3] vs VGJ.Storm (NA) [UB-R1-M3]
• RESULT: VGJ.Storm (2-0)
• VGJ.Storm proceeds into LB-R3-M2
• Winstrike is eliminated from The International

Lower Bracket Round 2 — Match 4

• Vici Gaming (CN) [LB-R1-M4] vs Team Secret [UB-R1-M4]
• Result: Team Secret (2-1)
• Secret proceeds into LB-R3-M2
• Vici is eliminated from The International

Upper Bracket Semifinals — Match 1

• Team Liquid (EU) [UB-R1-M1] vs PSG.LGD (CN) [UB-R1-M2]
• RESULT: PSG.LGD (2-0)
• PSG.LGD proceeds into UB Finals
• Liquid drops into LB-R4-M1

Upper Bracket Semifinals — Match 2

• OG Dota (EU) [UB-R1-M3] vs Evil Geniuses (NA) [UB-R1-M4]
• RESULT: OG (2-1)
• OG Dota proceeds into UB Finals
• EG drops into LB-R4-M2

Other Events (times unknown)

• OpenAI main stage match #1
  RESULT: PaiN Gaming

Thursday, August 23rd

Lower Bracket Round 3 — Match 1

• Virtus.Pro (CIS) [LB-R2-M1] vs OpTic Gaming (NA) [LB-R2-M2]
• RESULT: Virtus.Pro (2-1)
• Virtus.Pro proceeds into LB-R4-M1
• OpTic Gaming is eliminated from The International

Lower Bracket Round 3 — Match 2

• VGJ.Storm (NA) [LB-R2-M3] vs Team Secret (EU) [LB-R2-M4]
• RESULT: Team Secret (2-0)
• Team Secret proceeds into LB-R4-M2
• VGJ.Storm is eliminated from The International

Lower Bracket Round 4 — Match 1

• Winner of LB-R3-M2 vs Evil Geniuses (NA) [UB Semifinals M1]
• RESULT: Evil Geniuses (2-0)
• Evil Geniuses proceeds into LB Semifinals
• Virtus.Pro is eliminated from The International

Other Events (times unknown)

• OpenAI main stage match #2
• All-Star Match