The greatest game in the world is Dota 2, and the greatest event in the Dota 2 calendar is The International. Sixteen teams meet at Seattle's KeyArena to compete for a share of the tournament's $20,770,460 prize pool. The winning team takes home a cool $9.1 million.

Dota 2 made me understand the passion and obsession suffered by people who follow sports. Attending the sixth International (TI6) took this to another level. I've spent the last week feeling thoroughly drained. Empty, even. I want the International to come back. I miss it. My life is incomplete without it.

Valve's augmented reality presentation at TI6, in which life-sized models of the heroes mixed with commentators and presenters, gave the contest an exciting new layer of polish. Two new heroes were revealed, not just the widely anticipated Underlord, but the sort-of-new and sort-of-secret Monkey King. And the competition itself had perhaps the greatest storylines of any International. There were teams I hated, and teams I really wanted to do well.

Everyone loves a villain, and the greatest villain on the Dota 2 scene right now is Team Secret. While the team has many fans, Secret strikes me as being particularly mercenary. Instead of building the best team, our villains consistently poach the best players. If a Team Secret line-up doesn't work out, the group doesn't try to work on weak areas and improve team dynamic. They just swap out one star player for another. I'm reliably informed that they're like the Yankees in this regard.

If player poaching isn't reason enough to hate a team, consider the way in which Secret does their poaching. The details are too long and boring to get into here, but their most recent hunt for players hurt another team—the 2015 winners Evil Geniuses. The resultant fallout almost destroyed a third team named Digital Chaos. Both groups recovered, just, but Secret's moves put both teams and, arguably, player careers in jeopardy.

So watching Team Secret go out in last place at The International was pretty darn fabulous. Look, seeing your own team win is great. But seeing a team you hate lose? It's almost better.

Sadly, the team I most wanted to win also underperformed and went out at the same stage as Secret. I'm a Na`Vi fanboy to be sure, not least because I think that Danil "Dendi" Ishutin is one of the greatest ambassadors the game has. I love Dendi, and so I'll always want Na`Vi to win. But I do this with the resignation of a fan who knows that the team's performances can be a little... uneven. It's not the despair—I can stand the despair. It's the hope. Being a Na`Vi supporter isn't easy, and I was gutted when they lost their best-of-one elimination match. The joy of seeing Secret go out was almost—but not completely—erased.

Underdog stories

But no matter! Other heroes needed cheering on. Chief among them were Digital Chaos, the team ravaged by Secret's pillaging, and TNC Pro Team, a Filipino team captained by legendary American Dota 2 stalwart Jimmy "DeMoN" Ho. DeMoN has been a part of Dota 2 since the beginning and placed fourth in the very first International back in 2011. He was part of the 2011-2013 Evil Geniuses team that had a reputation for throwing away massive leads and losing games that should have been in the bag. DeMoN was thinking of retiring from Dota 2 if he didn't have a good run at TI6.

As for Digital Chaos, they were looking mediocre at best coming into the tournament. But their history—the way they were formed as a last-minute team of rejects—the fact that the team owner Shannon "SUNSfan" Scotten was perhaps best known for the Dota 2 "Fails of the Week" series on YouTube—their choice of professional idiot Jake "SirActionSlacks" Kanner as official substitute—you couldn't help but support them as one of the true underdogs of the tournament.

Surpassing all expectations, TNC finished 7/8th overall and scored the biggest payday any of the team's members had ever won. They shocked everyone with a 2-0 win to knock out tournament favorites OG, and they inspired everyone with their tight, confident team play. TNC were knocked out by Digital Chaos, who hit their form at the perfect moment.

Digital Chaos won game after game that they weren't meant to. Knocked down into the lower bracket by unpredictable Chinese team Wings, Digital Chaos took out two mainstays of the Chinese scene—LGD Gaming and EHOME—one of South East Asia's strongest teams, Fnatic, as well as TNC. Based on past form, DC probably shouldn't have won any of these games, but their play at TI6 was better than it has ever been. Every round felt like it should have been their last, and yet, every round they upped their game and kept on going.

When Wings beat EG in the upper bracket final, knocking them down to the lower bracket, the end of DC's run seemed near. In spite of their loss, EG had been strong all tournament. A repeat of last year's result—EG lost the winner's bracket final, coming through the lower bracket final to win the Grand Final—looked inevitable.

But somehow it wasn't to be: Digital Chaos defied the odds to beat EG and reach the best-of-five Grand Final. Wings had no shortage of supporters from KeyArena's large Chinese contingent, but every neutral was backing this American-owned, largely European team, hoping against hope that they could do the unthinkable.

Digital Chaos didn't, unfortunately. After taking the first game in the series, DC lost the next three, giving Wings a well-deserved 3-1 victory. And if any team other than DC had to win, Wings was a good one; of all the teams at TI6, they had the most varied, unusual team compositions, and they were consistently exciting to watch.

TI6 was filled with thrilling highs and stomach-twisting lows. The tournament's passing has made my days a little emptier, a little duller. Professional Dota 2 is now in its quiet post-TI reshuffle period, when team after team will disintegrate while players regroup as they prepare to embark on the long road to TI7. It's probably for the best. I don't know how many 10-hour days of watching Dota 2 and eating KeyArena's awful food I can stand, though I'd rather like to find out (the chicken tenders are the only thing on the menu worth eating, by the way). But, golly, these post-season blues are wretched. I just don't know what to do with myself any more.

Listing image by Valve