The International 10 (TI10)'s qualifiers have widely been regarded as one of the most intense and competitive Dota 2 qualifiers ever, with OG's offlaner Sébastien "Ceb" Debs calling the Western Europe qualifier the "hardest battle of his career." Resulting from this competitive nature, we witnessed some nerve-racking games, some out-of-the-box hero ideas, and some record-breaking and history-making achievements. These were present in almost all six regions, with Southeast Asia and Europe standing out. TI10’s qualifiers were of the most intense and perhaps the most outrageous set of matches that Dota 2 fans had the privilege of witnessing. Here are five stats that illustrate how ridiculous TI10's qualifiers were.
TI10 Qualifiers: 5 Relatively Unknown Statistics
TI10’s qualifiers are the most watched Dota 2 qualifiers
TI10 qualifiers received a staggering amount of attention as they were the most watched Dota 2 qualifiers (since Esports Charts began tracking Dota 2 viewership in 2016). The company reported that OG vs Team Nigma recorded a peak viewership of 546,300 in the lower bracket final, which is the most ever for TI qualifiers since 2016.
With no open qualifiers this year and the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) format being a lot more punishing than before, more and more top tier teams had to pave a way through these qualifiers to make it to TI10. The series between OG and Team Nigma in the lower bracket final was a result of this, as the fans of the two grand finalists of TI9 flocked in to witness the teams in action.
With a peak viewership of 546,300, TI10 qualifiers became the fourth most watched Dota 2 event outside of TIs in history. They eclipsed Kuala Lumpur Major and Epicenter 2019 Major that had a peak viewership of 526K and 523K.
TI10 qualifiers only fell short of the 2017 Kiev Major (842K), WePlay AniMajor (645K), and the Singapore Major (605K).
Even though OG vs Team Nigma produced such a great record, this lower bracket series did not end well for Nigma, as it lost and did not qualify for TI10. KuroKy lost his streak of playing at every single TI with the defeat.
Biggest Comeback (Net Worth) in Dota 2 history
In a qualifier filled with many games lasting more than 100 minutes, Team Liquid's first game against Chicken Fighters in the lower bracket of the TI10 WEU qualifier stands out. You might remember this game as the one where Liquid's position five player, Aydin "iNSaNiA" Sarkohi, carried the team to victory with two Divine Rapiers on Ancient Apparition.
Furthermore, Team Liquid also registered one of the largest comebacks in Dota 2 in terms of net worth during the same game. Around 95 minutes in, Liquid was down 84K gold, but held on to their base. A large teamfight ensued, resulting in deaths from both teams, as well as a few buybacks. When the heroes of Chicken Fighters died, many Rapiers fell to the ground, some of which were picked up by the members of Team Liquid. As a result, the lead dropped to just 11k.
Following this fight, the gold lead fluctuated several times but finally, Liquid was able to close it out in their favor at 1:43:54 hours, recovering from a deficit of 84, 742 net worth at one stage.
Terrorblade was the most contested hero in TI10’s qualifiers
Typically, carry heroes do not get the most attention in the drafting phase of Dota 2 tournaments since professional teams tend to value support heroes more in early picks and bans. This was not the case in TI10's qualifiers, as the carry meta necessitated captains to consider banning and picking two carry heroes, Terrorblade and Luna, as early as possible.
Thus, Terrorblade was the most contested hero in TI10's qualifiers, even surpassing the broken Broodmother. Terrorblade was picked 85 times and banned 142 times in the 291 TI10 qualifier games (78% contention). Broodmother was the second most contested hero with 23 picks and 171 bans (66.7% contention).
Terrorblade also boasts of a high win rate of 62% with 53 wins and 32 losses in the 85 games in which it was picked. This hero is the go-to choice for carry players due to the availability of ample farm on the map in the current patch, decent laning and early to mid game prowess with Metamorphosis, and favorable carry matchups in most games.
NA Team Undying was the only undefeated team across all qualifiers
All other regional winners had to endure tough competition from their opponents barring Undying, who simply rolled over its opponents in the NA qualifier. Undying was the only team that did not drop a single game in the six regions, boasting a 100% game win rate.
Undying defeated The Cut 2-0, Black N Yellow 2-0, 4 Zoomers 2-0, and finally 4 Zoomers 3-0 in the grand final. While Undying was on many community members' favorites list, they had expected 4 Zoomers to be a tough opponent. This did not prove to be the case with Undying having a perfect 5-0 record against them.
David "MoonMeander" Tan and Kim "DuBu" Doo-young's experience proved to be a catalyst for their success as they outsmarted many of their opponents in the drafting stage. The young trio of Jonáš "SabeRLight-" Volek, Jonathan Bryle "Bryle" Santos De Guia, and Enzo "Timado" Gianoli O'Connor also delivered high-quality performances after MoonMeander provided them with favorable drafts.
God-King registers the highest GPM on a non-Alchemist hero
The safelaner of Royal Never Give Up, Zhong "Hualian" Liushuai, also known as God-King, is well-known for his ability to farm at a rapid pace in the Chinese scene. Taking this farming skill to the next level, he scored 1237 Gold Per Minute (GPM) on a safelane Arc Warden in game one of TI10's China qualifier series against Elephant. This set the record for the highest GPM scored by a non-Alchemist hero to date by breaking Muhammad "inYourdreaM" Rizky 1187 GPM record on Terrorblade set during the SEA qualifier for TI10.
It was also God-King's last hit of 1.8k that set him apart from other players in this game. Even though he ended the game with an incredible 17-1-10 KDA and helped his team extend it to 1:47:20 hours, God-King and Royal Never Give Up, unfortunately, did not win the game.
There were several other noteworthy stats that we couldn’t include. For instance, only 11 heroes were not played in any of the 291 games during TI10 qualifiers. These are Dawnbreaker (not in captain’s mode), Bane, Bounty Hunter, Dazzle, Huskar, Ogre Magi, Omniknight, Shadow Fiend, Silencer, Spirit Breaker, and Tinker. This one and several other stats were compiled by Lea Spectral in a blog post. You can check them out if you want some more ridiculous stats about TI10’s qualifiers.
