The International Dota 2 Championships opened as an orchestra, complete with a choir, welcomed Valve’s Gabe Newell to the stage. Thousands cheered at the mere utterance of their favorite team’s name. Short films explored the personal lives of players, each of whom have a hint of hubris in their inspiring determination — nobody seems willing to settle for anything less than first place.

LGD vs. Team Empire

After one day at The International 5, many guaranteed they would not reach that goal.The Main Event opened with boisterous enthusiasm from thousands of attendees live at Key Arena in Seattle, WA, because the stakes were high from moment one. Four teams were eliminated at the end of TI5’s first day, forcing them to settle for just $50,000 of the total $18 million. Others succeeded with such stellar performances that their Championship prize — first place and more than $6 million — seems all but certain.These are their stories, one day at a time.The Main Event’s first series saw LGD and Team Empire see-sawing for numerous reasons. Valve’s Erik Johnson told IGN, "I knew that series would go to three halfway through the first game." You can probably pinpoint the precise moment — Empire’s Resolut1on, playing an aggressive Dragon Knight, ceased his siege in favor of a deep-dive support kill. Yoky followed as Axe, and LGD responded mercilessly. Empire’s early lead crumbled beneath the team’s arrogance, affording Sylar’s Phantom Lancer the necessary time to grow into an unstoppable sieging monster. He secured Mega Creeps casually and led LGD to a late-game victory.Game 2 went exactly as Johnson predicted. A long, slow bloodletting by LGD saw Empire suffering for 30 minutes straight. Empire used that time to farm up an Anti-Mage, who became an absolute wrecking ball — patience was the lesson learned, and it paid off handsomely for the Russian squadron. Empire retaliated in Game 2 with a crushing late-game victory.The third in the best-of-three series was almost like a different game. LGD was in complete control, dominating every moment of the match and dictating where their enemies were and when they died. Never was there a moment where LGD’s victory seemed anything but inevitable, and it made for a slow, painful game that bordered on boring. The blowout ended with LGD earning more than 25 kills over Empire, and the series victory.

Watch the entire Main Event's first day.

Cloud9 vs. CDEC

MVP Phoenix vs. Newbee

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Na'vi vs. Vici Gaming

Virtus Pro vs. Fnatic

Invictus Gaming vs. MVP Hot6

CDEC rose out of the Qualifier round to place in the top four during the Group Stage as the de facto dark horse/underdog/Cinderella, and the team’s impressive performance against Cloud9 showed exactly why.In their Round 1 best-of-three, CDEC displayed a confident stranglehold even as C9 seemed to finally gain the footing it desperately needed this series. Cloud9’s trademark Big Plays led to a hilarious early Courier kill, but inspiring Clockwork Hookshots made quick work of Cloud9 carries throughout the first match. ShiKi’s Lina and Xz’s Dark Seer set up explosive kills to overwhelm Cloud9 during game two, allowing CDEC to take a clean, surgical 2-0 win against C9.If CDEC loses every match the rest of the week, it leaves TI5 with an impressive $1.2 million. If Cloud9 loses its next series, the team is out.Given Newbee’s utter annihilation of every other team at TI4 it was surprising to see last year’s Champion team place so poorly during the Group Stage this year, putting them in the unfortunate position of a potential day-one elimination at the Main Event. Or, for some, perhaps it wasn’t surprising at all. The Dota 2 meta has warped so drastically since 2014 that Newbee is almost playing a different game now than it was then — that, and the roster has changed pretty significantly.Playing against MVP Phoenix in a best-of-one elimination match, Newbee’s first game of TI5 was a tense, back-and-forth nail-biter. Just as MVP seemed to lose control, it reigned it back in. Newbee seemed to have the disadvantage just as it claimed essential kills to even the odds. This was an aggressive, action-packed, and consistently close match filled with narrow escapes, exciting fights, and even swings.That is, until MVP’s momentum steamrolled Newbee. The damage from MVP’s Juggernaut and Shadow Fiend tore Newbee’s base to shreds, with terrific all-around regeneration sustaining the entire MVP squad during a seemingly unstoppable push. Newbee lost , and was the first team to leave The International. MVP advanced, and lives to fight another day at TI5.Na'vi vs. Vici Gaming is a divisive matchup. Vici placed second at both the Dota Asia Championship and TI4, but ended up in the lower bracket best-of-one elimination situation at TI5. This is an incredible Chinese team with likable players, but there's also huge potential for Na'vi -- TI's original champion and Dota's darling fan-favorite team. Both teams deserve endorsements -- but only one could climb out of the trenches toward the coveted Aegis of Champions trophy.Na’vi, despite having half VG’s kills for the vast majority of their match, seemed to keep the game from slipping through their fingers. Sonneiko had some jaw-dropping rescue operations as Io and XBOCT’s Anti-Mage secured considerable farm, but XBOCT, a notoriously risky playmaker, found himself caught out of position numerous times by VG, who roamed as five to find some excellent pick-offs. Vici’s Hao remained competitive as Luna, farming enough items that she carried just as hard as Na’vi’s Anti-Mage, while Shadow Fiend’s damage output kept punishing XBOCT.At 40 minutes, it still seemed like anyone’s game — while, yes, VG doubled Na’vi’s kill count.Everything tilted at 53 minutes, when VG sieged Na’vi’s Ancient. Na’vi mounted two tremendous defenses, forcing most Heroes on both sides to buyback, fight again, and brutalize each other in another exhausting, exhillarating fight that could have gone either way.In the end, Na’vi couldn’t bear the weight of Vici, and the Ancient succumbed to an aggressive, astounding assault. Vici advanced, and Na’vi was eliminated. Perhaps the biggest question mark is whether or not Na’vi could have won if Artstyle’s desperate, last-second Shallow Grave had been cast on his Anti-Mage.It’s possible that Artstyle meant to.Fnatic fell to Virtus Pro in its best-of-one series despite VP trying its hardest not to capitalize on its team fight victories. For a good while, VP and Fanatic were dead even, but despite Fnatic losing skirmish after skirmish they always seemed poised to fend off a team that couldn’t (or chose not to) destroy its tier three towers. Make no mistake: When Fanatic started losing fights — no damage and inferior initiation really crippled them — it was clearly VP’s game.Eventually, of course, they won with dieback-inducing brute force. Ilidan’s Gyrocopter ended the match 16-0, so maybe VP doesn’t need to worry about objective gaming when they can force their opponents into submission.Nearly 14 hours after the opening ceremony, day one of the Main Event concluded with MVP Hot6 taking on TI2 winners Invictus Gaming -- numerous members of which are rumored to retire following TI5. IG gave up First Blood to MVP, and had a bit of a rocky start in the early game, but Ferrari's Shadow Fiend, BurNing's Phantom Lancer, and Xi's Spirit Breaker were incredibly aggressive, giving IG an edge in the mid-game. Chuan's Rubick was also on point -- his Spell Stealing led to numerous disables MVP Hot6 didn't see coming.On paper, MVP Hot6's team looked great. Bloodseeker and Zeus combo nicely, and Earthshaker was a fortuitous pick to have when IG drafted Phantom Lancer. Lina and Jakiro do a great job of singling out Phantom Lancer amid his illusions, too, but IG's engage-kill-disengage precision made it challenging for MVP to accomplish much once the ball started rolling.As IG approached MVP's base, Hot6's Heroes threw themselves into a the meat-grinder of Invictus' fed, farmed cores. Hot6 called "gg" in the enemy jungle after a failed engagement, and MVP Hot6 was eliminated.