Tundra Esports Are the Winners of The International 11

Two weeks ago, when The International 11 started, nobody would have given Tundra more than a 1% chance to win the tournament. On paper, there were at least eight other teams ahead of them. And not just because of the Dota Pro Circuit rankings.

Competitors like PSG.LGD, OG, and Team Spirit were in great shape, had won or had come close to winning the tournament in the previous year, and were in the top three in DPC rankings.

Other participants, like Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, and Team Secret, were regarded as being among the favorites because of their experience. But Tundra had nothing going for them, except for the formidable strategies that we were going to discover later.

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Tundra’s Run at The International 11

Tundra made more than $8 million by winning the Aegis of Champions at TI11 and their run was hard to predict ahead of the race. However, after The International 2022 started, it quickly became clear that they were one of the strong teams.

In Group B, Tundra didn’t lose a single match and were the only team who managed to defeat Secret. The competitors they beat during this stage were Entity, Fnatic, Secret, Spirit, and Talon Esports. The victories against Secret and Spirit should have been huge red flags for the other participants.

In the Playoffs, Tundra started with an easy win against OG. The final score was 2-0 and the first game ended after just 24 minutes. In game two, OG were in the lead but their less than 3000 gold advantage was lost very quickly. A couple of team fights around the 28-minute mark secured Tundra’s victory.

The second match was much tougher. Team Aster proved to be a very strong opponent. But in the end, after two long games, the Chinese team had to admit defeat. Like in their previous match, Tundra won with heroes like Slark, Tiny, and Mirana. In their first four games at the Main Event, Tundra picked Mirana four times.

This pattern continued in the Upper Bracket Final against Secret. Tundra won with a score of 2-1 and their two games were won thanks to Mirana. The two teams would meet again in the Grand Final after Clement “Puppey” Ivanov’s side defeated Liquid in the Lower Bracket Final.

Grand Final

Valve Corporation | Tundra Esports

Ahead of the Grand Final, Puppey jokingly said that Tundra were cheaters. He then went on to explain what he meant by that, saying that this team had the ability to break the game by playing in completely counterintuitive ways.

For the most part, Tundra played casual heroes in the Grand Final and had the same tactics every single time. But Secret weren’t able to deal with them and lost without winning a single game.

This situation was a repeat of the one from The International 7, where Liquid won the Grand Final with a perfect score.

For Puppey, this was his third defeat in a TI Grand Final. So far, he has played four of them in total and only won the first.

Header: Tundra Esports