TI3 Retrospective Part 3: The World Is Flat(ter) August 28th, 2013 01:21 GMT Text by flamewheel Graphics by riptide The International 3



Follow TI3 on

and in the



Focus Mode

Turn off Focus Mode [x] Follow TI3 on Liquipedia and in the LR Thread



TI3 Retrospective Part 3:

The World Is Flat(ter)

by flamewheel



In the Dota year 2011-2012 (meaning the time period between TI1 and TI2), the only East-meets-West games happened at The Internationals. Otherwise, Asia played Asia and EU/NA played EU/NA. Cross-regional pollination didn't exist, and the metagames between regions were highly discrepant. The East was, to put it bluntly, simply better than the West in 2012, and the final standings at TI2 reflected this. Of the eight teams that placed in the money, the only non-Asian team was Natus Vincere, finishing second after the then-invincible iG. TI2 sent a clear message to the world, best expressed by XBOCT in a DHW 2012 interview at the end of the calendar year: "They (China) play against each other; we play against teams like this," stated the Na`Vi carry. "We need to go to China before The International."



Fast forward six months. With new teams, patch changes, and a flourishing professional scene, the landscape of competitive Dota 2 had changed. While Eastern and Western teams still did not play together in the same tournaments, there were a few notable cases of regional blending. Evil Geniuses took the first step, qualifying for season 4 of the G-1 Champions' League. While EG failed to qualify for the LAN finals, they paved the way for the following season. For season 5, G-1 hosted a qualifier exclusively for Western teams, with Liquid and Alliance earning tickets to China.



In the first official East-meets-West LAN tournament match, Alliance shocked the Chinese crowd.





I pulled this in a pub game with Hot_Bid tonight and felt dirty.

Even with the level 1 Roshan kill, Alliance struggled to end the game against DK's strong defense as Bulldog carried the team to victory. After that game, I thought that Alliance had shown a strong pocket strategy too early. Yet throughout the rest of G-1, Alliance demonstrated not only better preparation through drafts, but also better execution and teamplay. With a flawless run to the gold, Alliance showed that China's complacency was misplaced. Even Liquid showed moments of strength against the Chinese. While Liquid finished poorly, the team walked away with the valuable lesson that China wasn't invincible.



Two months later, after a long and troubled road, Na`Vi won the Alienware Cup, besting Tongfu, iG, and LGD to take yet another gold from Chinese teams on their home turf. Though Na`Vi and Alliance may not be the best litmus tests when deciding if the West had caught up to the East, we all knew that going into TI3, the playing field between the regions would be much more level.



Reflecting now on TI3, can we say we were surprised by the results?



2012 2013



Natus Kongcere.

One quick glance highlights two very separate storylines between 2012 and 2013. Looking at TI3, not only was the finals a contest between two Western teams (shockingly, Alliance and Na`Vi), but two other western teams (Liquid and Fnatic) placed in the top eight. The group stage as well were more contentious, and the fight for the upper brackets was much tougher. LGD barely made it, and Liquid barely missed the mark. Fnatic surprised everyone, and Alliance and Na`Vi crushed their respective groups. Yes, Complexity and EG had fantastic runs in the TI2 group stage, but that only matters so much. Neither team placed in the money for TI2.



When comparing the final standings, I'm much more pleased with TI3. 2013 was right down the line, with a 4:4 split between East and West. Juxtaposed against 2012's lopsided 7 Eastern and 1 Na`Vi, as a fan of parity I'm much happier this year. In the dormant state of post-TI2, everybody would have said that China was stronger. This year, a definitive statement is incredibly hard to make.



So what does this mean going forward? Hopefully, in the upcoming Dota year there will be even more cross-regional play after the roster shuffling is done. G-1 officials seemed pleased with the Western teams, and the Chinese crowd loved it. Hopefully they and other Chinese tournaments will have more chances for Western teams to fly over. And perhaps the West and be more accommodating to the East as well. Would you like to see DK at Dreamhack, or Orange at EMS? I know I do.



The storylines that were spun at TI3 promise many exciting things for the competitive scene. I look forward with anticipation.





Games in 2013 were closer



TI2 featured small skirmishes, many more "big plays", and a whole lot of throws. TI3 featured careful execution, solid/safe strategies, and big fights. Big plays, and conversely, throws, can make games exciting. While TI3 had its own share of huge plays and misplays, chief among them respectively the 800K Dream Coil and kyxy's Aegis deny, overall the games felt more calculated than those of 2012. Laregly, this is due to teams being much better prepared, both in terms of execution as well as metagame understanding. Scattered, prolonged fights were few and far between. In TI2, pushing compositions that didn't overwhelmingly wipe or get wiped would oftentimes lead to Benny Hill-style chases.





Puppey gets a triple kill with his Lycan wolves after dying.

Viewing this pivotal game between LGD and Na`Vi last year now, I see both Na`Vi and LGD making errors, both in terms of execution as well as decision-making. The fight is sloppy, with plays and misplays on both sides. While seeing kills happening all over the map is entertaining on a basic level, we have to shift our gaze outward. Teams this year learned to play cautiously, as one thrown fight can lead to downfall. While the record-breaking 90+ minute game between DK and iG is definitely an outlier, a majority of the games at TI3 found a decent balance between farming and fighting.



While the metagame now can be somewhat summarized as "gain advantages in lane, use advantages to farm multiple core heroes for 40 minutes and win the game by getting Aegis and pushing mid", that is an unfair simplification. Besides better in-game execution, TI3 featured teams that were simply much better prepared. While the very macro-level metagame was basically the same across regions, TI3 teams brought in a lot of small differences that made games interesting. Drafts this year were more diverse and more cerebral; teams had better awareness of their opponents on a global scale and picked accordingly. Instead of the solo-core farming Naga or Morphling of 2012, we saw aggressive dual- and tricore teams looking to fight. In 2012, Morphling and Naga just sat and farmed unimpeded, and safe trilanes to protect solo core heroes were common (note that Morphling basically just sat mid and couldn't be killed). 2013 had Weaver, Razor, Alchemist, and Outworld Devourer. Yes, OD sat mid and had an uninspiring record, but Weaver looked to fight often. XBOCT on Weaver always delivered entertaining games where he not only farmed, but actively helped his team accrue advantages. And even when, say, Burning played Alchemist, he would get his Shadow Blade and start using the ludicrous concoction to set up kills around the map. Razor as well looked to fight, abusing his strong static link and higher levels through lane dominance.



There was still a large degree of farming at TI3, but that's just natural, as having more core heroes on a team requires more gold, and farming the map better than your opponents due to an advantage gained is a safe way to heighten one's lead. Furthermore, while many drafts didn't standout heroes such as Meepo, Bristleback, Spiritbreaker, smart drafting and counterpicking led to some great compositions.



All in all though, I'm a bit tired of this metagame. The next patch should be coming at some point, and there are new heroes to try in CM. Once teams reform and tournaments start up again, the game should start shifting.





More for the audience



Valve was stricter this year regarding who could go where in Benaroya. For both 2012 and 2013 at The International, the same types of badges were used: Spectator, Media/Press, VIP, Production, Player/Manager, and Valve Staff. I'll differentiate for those of you that weren't at the event.

Spectator - If you bought your ticket from Valve through the Dota 2 store, you got this badge. Gives you access to the open area of Benaroya and first/third floors seating. Not allowed to bring backpacks into the venue.



Press/Media - For interviewers of various companies/teams/sites. Allowed to use the media area (second floor), Allowed to bring backpacks (and laptops/cameras) into Benaroya and could sit in player boxes on the second floor. Not allowed in the player lounge or backstage except for in the interviewer area.



VIP - For friends/family of teams/players/organizations. Allowed access to media area and player boxes. Not allowed backstage or in the player lounge.



Production - For hired people not on Valve staff (i.e., analyst desk) and backstage crew, etc. Allowed everywhere except for in the player lounge. Lots of casters had Valve Staff badges as well so they could go to the player lounge.



Player/Manager - Allowed everywhere.



Valve Staff - Pretty obvious. Allowed everywhere. For TI2, security was pretty lax after the first day of the event. Every badge but Spectator could go to the player lounge and backstage. Non-Spectator badges could vouch for regular Spectators to get them in the player lounge as well. Basically, the player lounge was swarmed with non-players.



This year, the access to the player lounge/backstage was restricted. If you weren't a player, manager, or Valve staff member you had to be vouched for by a Valve employee to get into the player lounge. Backstage access was limited to the aforementioned badges as well as production. I agree on this decision to sequester the players from the public, as there was very little peace and quiet for the teams with everybody walking into the player lounge in 2012.



So, in the end, spectators had less casual access to the players in 2013 than they did in 2012. However, the autograph/signing tables at TI3 more than compensated for that.





And that line for signatures is probably one of the shortest ones I saw at the event.

Throughout the event, players, personalities, casters, workshop designers, and other Dota notables would be on the second floor signing digital autographs. Basically, signers would use a scanner to scan your badge and you'd receive an in-game signature that you could append to an item. Pretty cute, and in the end some signatures were worth a ton of money. Dendi's was worth somewhere between 150 and 200 USD. And when Ellen McLain (voice of GLaDOS, Broodmother, and Death Prophet) was signing, the line wrapped around the entirety of Benaroya. Quoting Heyoka, "The line for the GLaDOS signature wraps around the whole building wtf I can't even find the end".



The only downside to the autograph booth and other upstairs attractions were that they happened during games. So as a spectator, you had to choose whether you wanted to watch the game or get a signature. I'm hoping the signature system sticks around for future LAN events, as it was a big hit at TI3. Future tweaks to improve efficiency/scope would be to have handheld scanners (TI3 ones were bulky in that they had to be affixed to a laptop) or to allow handwritten (actual) signatures be translatable to in-game digital ones.



The Compendium and its accompanying Fantasy league offered yet another degree of immersion for viewers. I won't linger on this subject too much, but I really enjoyed the Compendium's features and expect to see them implemented for future tournaments. Though, the fantasy league should be changed up to better represent performances, as the Compendium's fantasy league was too linear. For example, a player could easily be awarded more points by going 2-1 in a match over going 2-0 by the way points were calculated. There also was no cost to the fantasy league in drafting players; you could pick whoever you wanted with no repercussions (as in, an "all-star" team with Dendi, Loda, Mushi, EGM, and Puppey would cost the same as picking players from MUFC). Of course, these fixes are all easy to make as there are plenty of other fantasy leagues to draw upon as examples.



Speaking of the all-stars, both the 1v1 tournament and the all-stars match were incredible. The G-1 all-stars match was a flop. The same can definitely not be said for TI3's. If you didn't watch it, I'm just going to post the video here. If you like Pudge, Meepo, mass melee heroes, and in-game banter/flaming between professional players, then this is for you.





There was enough Chuan for everybody.

For those of you that dabble in Dota 2 item trading and weren't in Seattle, you missed out. The Secret Shop this year had ridiculous lines, ridiculous items, and ridiculous prices. I wonder how much Valve made from selling stuff, but I'd have to guess it was a lot. The doors to Benaroya opened at 11:00 AM on Wednesday. By 11:05, the line was more than an hour's wait long. And for good reason as well. The merchandise was quite nice. Headsets, plushies, posters, mousepads, shirts, hoodies, mugs--all with digital items that were worth ludicrous amounts. The shirts for TI3 were much nicer than last year's, though my favorite has to be the Tidehunter polo. After seeing that spoof on Lacoste, I had to buy one.





Well played!

If you were a "serious" trader, you could have more than paid for your TI3 trip by buying the merchandise and selling the digital items. The Siberia headset that came with an exclusive in-game Nature's Prophet Scythe of Vyse cost 120 USD. The Scythe is currently selling for around 350. And that's just one example--the "blindbox" with microplushies cost 10 dollars, and with it you received a "Lockless Luckbox" sellable for 40 dollars, as well as a 1/12 chance to get a Shitty Wizard courier worth around 330 dollars.



Needless to say, most products sold out extremely fast. Yes, paying 40 dollars for a T-shirt is a lot, but I'm sure everybody who bought one was quite satisfied with all the extras received.



To conclude this section, I'll very briefly talk about the documentary shown at Benaroya, "Free to Play". And I say 'very briefly' because I actually didn't watch the documentary, so I can't offer any actual insight! Though from everybody that did watch it, I heard nothing but praise. And apparently Dendi was supposed to be a bear fighter before he ventured into the wide world of Dota. Or something like that.





Professionalism, preparation, and execution



Compared to TI2, TI3 felt like a sleek, well-oiled machine. Of course, some degree of improvement is expected, but I'd like to take a few minutes to highlight just how much better and well-run The International 2013 was in comparison to its 2012 counterpart.



The analyst desk of yesteryear consisted of 2GD, GoDz, Nebu1a, and Bruno. To avoid mincing words, I'm going to be straightforward about this: the title of "analyst desk 2012" was a misnomer. While the desk was mostly enjoyable to listen to between games and during technical downtime, there was not much "real" analysis. While there were some funny moments such as Bruno discussing the "



For TI3, the desk was to be mostly the same, with the sole difference being the replacement of Nebu1a with Maelk. However, GoDz wasn't able to appear on time and Valve found a last minute replacement in Merlini. While I'm sure that GoDz would have done an excellent job this year, Merlini brought in a ton of knowledge and analysis. I'm sure many people think he was the best person that could have replaced GoDz, and I'd agree with that statement.



With 2GD hosting, proffering leading questions, and providing clean transitions, the analyst desk at 2013 actually gave us analysis between games. In the past year, Dota 2 has been hit with the stats craze. Bruno, the Statsman, gave us glances into the numerical side of the game while still keeping the antics fresh. Maelk and Merlini, both former professional players, had very insightful commentary into the less-known tactical aspects of the drafts/gameplay.



Combining 2013's strong analyst desk with Kaci's interviews/hosting, Kpoptosis' in-game stats/fantasy updates, significantly reduced downtime, and stabler streams, the time between games at TI3 was simultaneously more enjoyable and educational than that of TI2.



Speaking of Kaci, she did an absolutely wonderful job. When I heard that Valve hired a local Fox anchor to host TI3, I was skeptical since it didn't seem like Kaci knew much about Dota. Yet she did very well in integrating herself into the tournament, providing great interviews and a decent number of her own funny moments throughout the week. With TI3 behind her, hopefully she can move forward to playing pub games without feeling too much rage.



The last thing I'll touch on in this section is the matter of Valve's official interviews, specifically those in languages other than English. For TI2, Chinese interviews were conducted by Anderson, with somebody writing quick translated captions. While these captions were understandable, they might have mistranslated some of the nuances here and there.





Skip to around 1:08 to directly collect telephones.

This year, Josh replaced Anderson as the Chinese translator for interviews. As monotonous as I found him, he definitely did a better job in conveying Chinese thoughts and sentiments (though really, Chinese people are just boring when interviewed). A job well done to him!



I'll close out the section with some Dendi.









"Good."



Valve's ability to adapt and move forward



Flash back briefly to my thoughts on the Compendium/autographs, etc. These were all things that came into existence at TI3 as novel concepts. Going along with the company culture, Valve is not afraid to say "hey, this seems cool" and try something previously undone. Apart from that, Valve also knows to listen to feedback. Talking to players this year, they overwhelmingly were much more satisfied with the way they were treated and how the tournament was managed compared to 2012.



With TI3 over and done with, what's next? There's a whole 'nother year of Dota before TI4 comes back around. Compendiums, autographs, fantasy teams--I fully expect these to be prominent features of upcoming LANs. As for next year's International, I have even higher expectations. Most likely, it won't be hosted at Benaroya anymore. As nice as the venue is, it has proven to be too small and unable to meet the sheer number of people that wanted to be at TI3. With Valve's ticket price being 50 USD and resale/scalping prices being as high as 300, that's some significant arbitrage.



Perhaps next year, The International 2014 will be held not at Benaroya (1800 people), but at a sports stadium able to seat 10000. More people can and will attend. The secret shop will have even more stuff. The overall level of play and understanding of the game will be higher.



So will you go? That decision is still a year away, but even now I'd highly recommend going. I know I'm travelling over to Seattle for the third time in a row.







CREDITS

Writers: flamewheel

Gfx: riptide, Heyoka

Editors: Firebolt145, TheEmulator, riptide

Photography and art via

Writers: flamewheelGfx: riptide, HeyokaEditors: Firebolt145, TheEmulator, riptidePhotography and art via Valve and R1CH In the Dota year 2011-2012 (meaning the time period between TI1 and TI2), the only East-meets-West games happened at The Internationals. Otherwise, Asia played Asia and EU/NA played EU/NA. Cross-regional pollination didn't exist, and the metagames between regions were highly discrepant. The East was, to put it bluntly, simply better than the West in 2012, and the final standings at TI2 reflected this. Of the eight teams that placed in the money, the only non-Asian team was Natus Vincere, finishing second after the then-invincible iG. TI2 sent a clear message to the world, best expressed by XBOCT in a DHW 2012 interview at the end of the calendar year: "They (China) play against each other; we play against teams like this," stated the Na`Vi carry. "We need to go to China before The International."Fast forward six months. With new teams, patch changes, and a flourishing professional scene, the landscape of competitive Dota 2 had changed. While Eastern and Western teams still did not play together in the same tournaments, there were a few notable cases of regional blending. Evil Geniuses took the first step, qualifying for season 4 of the G-1 Champions' League. While EG failed to qualify for the LAN finals, they paved the way for the following season. For season 5, G-1 hosted a qualifier exclusively for Western teams, with Liquid and Alliance earning tickets to China.In the first official East-meets-West LAN tournament match, Alliance shocked the Chinese crowd.Even with the level 1 Roshan kill, Alliance struggled to end the game against DK's strong defense as Bulldog carried the team to victory. After that game, I thought that Alliance had shown a strong pocket strategy too early. Yet throughout the rest of G-1, Alliance demonstrated not only better preparation through drafts, but also better execution and teamplay. With a flawless run to the gold, Alliance showed that China's complacency was misplaced. Even Liquid showed moments of strength against the Chinese. While Liquid finished poorly, the team walked away with the valuable lesson that China wasn't invincible.Two months later, after a long and troubled road, Na`Vi won the Alienware Cup, besting Tongfu, iG, and LGD to take yet another gold from Chinese teams on their home turf. Though Na`Vi and Alliance may not be the best litmus tests when deciding if the West had caught up to the East, we all knew that going into TI3, the playing field between the regions would be much more level.Reflecting now on TI3, can we say we were surprised by the results?One quick glance highlights two very separate storylines between 2012 and 2013. Looking at TI3, not only was the finals a contest between two Western teams (shockingly, Alliance and Na`Vi), but two other western teams (Liquid and Fnatic) placed in the top eight. The group stage as well were more contentious, and the fight for the upper brackets was much tougher. LGD barely made it, and Liquid barely missed the mark. Fnatic surprised everyone, and Alliance and Na`Vi crushed their respective groups. Yes, Complexity and EG had fantastic runs in the TI2 group stage, but that only matters so much. Neither team placed in the money for TI2.When comparing the final standings, I'm much more pleased with TI3. 2013 was right down the line, with a 4:4 split between East and West. Juxtaposed against 2012's lopsided 7 Eastern and 1 Na`Vi, as a fan of parity I'm much happier this year. In the dormant state of post-TI2, everybody would have said that China was stronger. This year, a definitive statement is incredibly hard to make.So what does this mean going forward? Hopefully, in the upcoming Dota year there will be even more cross-regional play after the roster shuffling is done. G-1 officials seemed pleased with the Western teams, and the Chinese crowd loved it. Hopefully they and other Chinese tournaments will have more chances for Western teams to fly over. And perhaps the West and be more accommodating to the East as well. Would you like to see DK at Dreamhack, or Orange at EMS? I know I do.The storylines that were spun at TI3 promise many exciting things for the competitive scene. I look forward with anticipation.TI2 featured small skirmishes, many more "big plays", and a whole lot of throws. TI3 featured careful execution, solid/safe strategies, and big fights. Big plays, and conversely, throws, can make games exciting. While TI3 had its own share of huge plays and misplays, chief among them respectively the 800K Dream Coil and kyxy's Aegis deny, overall the games felt more calculated than those of 2012. Laregly, this is due to teams being much better prepared, both in terms of execution as well as metagame understanding. Scattered, prolonged fights were few and far between. In TI2, pushing compositions that didn't overwhelmingly wipe or get wiped would oftentimes lead to Benny Hill-style chases.Viewing this pivotal game between LGD and Na`Vi last year now, I see both Na`Vi and LGD making errors, both in terms of execution as well as decision-making. The fight is sloppy, with plays and misplays on both sides. While seeing kills happening all over the map is entertaining on a basic level, we have to shift our gaze outward. Teams this year learned to play cautiously, as one thrown fight can lead to downfall. While the record-breaking 90+ minute game between DK and iG is definitely an outlier, a majority of the games at TI3 found a decent balance between farming and fighting.While the metagame now can be somewhat summarized as "gain advantages in lane, use advantages to farm multiple core heroes for 40 minutes and win the game by getting Aegis and pushing mid", that is an unfair simplification. Besides better in-game execution, TI3 featured teams that were simply much better prepared. While the very macro-level metagame was basically the same across regions, TI3 teams brought in a lot of small differences that made games interesting. Drafts this year were more diverse and more cerebral; teams had better awareness of their opponents on a global scale and picked accordingly. Instead of the solo-core farming Naga or Morphling of 2012, we saw aggressive dual- and tricore teams looking to fight. In 2012, Morphling and Naga just sat and farmed unimpeded, and safe trilanes to protect solo core heroes were common (note that Morphling basically just sat mid and couldn't be killed). 2013 had Weaver, Razor, Alchemist, and Outworld Devourer. Yes, OD sat mid and had an uninspiring record, but Weaver looked to fight often. XBOCT on Weaver always delivered entertaining games where he not only farmed, but actively helped his team accrue advantages. And even when, say, Burning played Alchemist, he would get his Shadow Blade and start using the ludicrous concoction to set up kills around the map. Razor as well looked to fight, abusing his strong static link and higher levels through lane dominance.There was still a large degree of farming at TI3, but that's just natural, as having more core heroes on a team requires more gold, and farming the map better than your opponents due to an advantage gained is a safe way to heighten one's lead. Furthermore, while many drafts didn't standout heroes such as Meepo, Bristleback, Spiritbreaker, smart drafting and counterpicking led to some great compositions.All in all though, I'm a bit tired of this metagame. The next patch should be coming at some point, and there are new heroes to try in CM. Once teams reform and tournaments start up again, the game should start shifting.Valve was stricter this year regarding who could go where in Benaroya. For both 2012 and 2013 at The International, the same types of badges were used: Spectator, Media/Press, VIP, Production, Player/Manager, and Valve Staff. I'll differentiate for those of you that weren't at the event.For TI2, security was pretty lax after the first day of the event. Every badge but Spectator could go to the player lounge and backstage. Non-Spectator badges could vouch for regular Spectators to get them in the player lounge as well. Basically, the player lounge was swarmed with non-players.This year, the access to the player lounge/backstage was restricted. If you weren't a player, manager, or Valve staff member you had to be vouched for by a Valve employee to get into the player lounge. Backstage access was limited to the aforementioned badges as well as production. I agree on this decision to sequester the players from the public, as there was very little peace and quiet for the teams with everybody walking into the player lounge in 2012.So, in the end, spectators had less casual access to the players in 2013 than they did in 2012. However, the autograph/signing tables at TI3 more than compensated for that.Throughout the event, players, personalities, casters, workshop designers, and other Dota notables would be on the second floor signing digital autographs. Basically, signers would use a scanner to scan your badge and you'd receive an in-game signature that you could append to an item. Pretty cute, and in the end some signatures were worth a ton of money. Dendi's was worth somewhere between 150 and 200 USD. And when Ellen McLain (voice of GLaDOS, Broodmother, and Death Prophet) was signing, the line wrapped around the entirety of Benaroya. Quoting Heyoka, "The line for the GLaDOS signature wraps around the whole building wtf I can't even find the end".The only downside to the autograph booth and other upstairs attractions were that they happened during games. So as a spectator, you had to choose whether you wanted to watch the game or get a signature. I'm hoping the signature system sticks around for future LAN events, as it was a big hit at TI3. Future tweaks to improve efficiency/scope would be to have handheld scanners (TI3 ones were bulky in that they had to be affixed to a laptop) or to allow handwritten (actual) signatures be translatable to in-game digital ones.The Compendium and its accompanying Fantasy league offered yet another degree of immersion for viewers. I won't linger on this subject too much, but I really enjoyed the Compendium's features and expect to see them implemented for future tournaments. Though, the fantasy league should be changed up to better represent performances, as the Compendium's fantasy league was too linear. For example, a player could easily be awarded more points by going 2-1 in a match over going 2-0 by the way points were calculated. There also was no cost to the fantasy league in drafting players; you could pick whoever you wanted with no repercussions (as in, an "all-star" team with Dendi, Loda, Mushi, EGM, and Puppey would cost the same as picking players from MUFC). Of course, these fixes are all easy to make as there are plenty of other fantasy leagues to draw upon as examples.Speaking of the all-stars, both the 1v1 tournament and the all-stars match were incredible. The G-1 all-stars match was a flop. The same can definitely not be said for TI3's. If you didn't watch it, I'm just going to post the video here. If you like Pudge, Meepo, mass melee heroes, and in-game banter/flaming between professional players, then this is for you.For those of you that dabble in Dota 2 item trading and weren't in Seattle, you missed out. The Secret Shop this year had ridiculous lines, ridiculous items, and ridiculous prices. I wonder how much Valve made from selling stuff, but I'd have to guess it was a lot. The doors to Benaroya opened at 11:00 AM on Wednesday. By 11:05, the line was more than an hour's wait long. And for good reason as well. The merchandise was quite nice. Headsets, plushies, posters, mousepads, shirts, hoodies, mugs--all with digital items that were worth ludicrous amounts. The shirts for TI3 were much nicer than last year's, though my favorite has to be the Tidehunter polo. After seeing that spoof on Lacoste, I had to buy one.If you were a "serious" trader, you could have more than paid for your TI3 trip by buying the merchandise and selling the digital items. The Siberia headset that came with an exclusive in-game Nature's Prophet Scythe of Vyse cost 120 USD. The Scythe is currently selling for around 350. And that's just one example--the "blindbox" with microplushies cost 10 dollars, and with it you received a "Lockless Luckbox" sellable for 40 dollars, as well as a 1/12 chance to get a Shitty Wizard courier worth around 330 dollars.Needless to say, most products sold out extremely fast. Yes, paying 40 dollars for a T-shirt is a lot, but I'm sure everybody who bought one was quite satisfied with all the extras received.To conclude this section, I'll very briefly talk about the documentary shown at Benaroya, "Free to Play". And I say 'very briefly' because I actually didn't watch the documentary, so I can't offer any actual insight! Though from everybody that did watch it, I heard nothing but praise. And apparently Dendi was supposed to be a bear fighter before he ventured into the wide world of Dota. Or something like that.Compared to TI2, TI3 felt like a sleek, well-oiled machine. Of course, some degree of improvement is expected, but I'd like to take a few minutes to highlight just how much better and well-run The International 2013 was in comparison to its 2012 counterpart.The analyst desk of yesteryear consisted of 2GD, GoDz, Nebu1a, and Bruno. To avoid mincing words, I'm going to be straightforward about this: the title of "analyst desk 2012" was a misnomer. While the desk was mostly enjoyable to listen to between games and during technical downtime, there was not much "real" analysis. While there were some funny moments such as Bruno discussing the " no legs strategy ", all in all I felt that the 2012 desk could have added more value to TI2 than they did. Of course, I can't fault them too much. The 2012 desk spent much more time on camera than they were probably prepared for, as there were an inordinate number of technical issues.For TI3, the desk was to be mostly the same, with the sole difference being the replacement of Nebu1a with Maelk. However, GoDz wasn't able to appear on time and Valve found a last minute replacement in Merlini. While I'm sure that GoDz would have done an excellent job this year, Merlini brought in a ton of knowledge and analysis. I'm sure many people think he was the best person that could have replaced GoDz, and I'd agree with that statement.With 2GD hosting, proffering leading questions, and providing clean transitions, the analyst desk at 2013 actually gave us analysis between games. In the past year, Dota 2 has been hit with the stats craze. Bruno, the Statsman, gave us glances into the numerical side of the game while still keeping the antics fresh. Maelk and Merlini, both former professional players, had very insightful commentary into the less-known tactical aspects of the drafts/gameplay.Combining 2013's strong analyst desk with Kaci's interviews/hosting, Kpoptosis' in-game stats/fantasy updates, significantly reduced downtime, and stabler streams, the time between games at TI3 was simultaneously more enjoyable and educational than that of TI2.Speaking of Kaci, she did an absolutely wonderful job. When I heard that Valve hired a local Fox anchor to host TI3, I was skeptical since it didn't seem like Kaci knew much about Dota. Yet she did very well in integrating herself into the tournament, providing great interviews and a decent number of her own funny moments throughout the week. With TI3 behind her, hopefully she can move forward to playing pub games without feeling too much rage.The last thing I'll touch on in this section is the matter of Valve's official interviews, specifically those in languages other than English. For TI2, Chinese interviews were conducted by Anderson, with somebody writing quick translated captions. While these captions were understandable, they might have mistranslated some of the nuances here and there.This year, Josh replaced Anderson as the Chinese translator for interviews. As monotonous as I found him, he definitely did a better job in conveying Chinese thoughts and sentiments (though really, Chinese people are just boring when interviewed). A job well done to him!I'll close out the section with some Dendi.Flash back briefly to my thoughts on the Compendium/autographs, etc. These were all things that came into existence at TI3 as novel concepts. Going along with the company culture, Valve is not afraid to say "hey, this seems cool" and try something previously undone. Apart from that, Valve also knows to listen to feedback. Talking to players this year, they overwhelmingly were much more satisfied with the way they were treated and how the tournament was managed compared to 2012.With TI3 over and done with, what's next? There's a whole 'nother year of Dota before TI4 comes back around. Compendiums, autographs, fantasy teams--I fully expect these to be prominent features of upcoming LANs. As for next year's International, I have even higher expectations. Most likely, it won't be hosted at Benaroya anymore. As nice as the venue is, it has proven to be too small and unable to meet the sheer number of people that wanted to be at TI3. With Valve's ticket price being 50 USD and resale/scalping prices being as high as 300, that's some significant arbitrage.Perhaps next year, The International 2014 will be held not at Benaroya (1800 people), but at a sports stadium able to seat 10000. More people can and will attend. The secret shop will have even more stuff. The overall level of play and understanding of the game will be higher.So will you go? That decision is still a year away, but even now I'd highly recommend going. I know I'm travelling over to Seattle for the third time in a row. damn, i was two days from retirement