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All wildcard and group stage pairings are out, check them here. It’s time for Ti5 to begin.

The international 2015 wildcard matches will be played on the 26th of July, 9am PDT.

If you’re late to the party, you can read about The International 5 qualifiers to get a feel here. The biggest and most anticipated Dota 2 tournament of the year (with a prize pool of 17,233,220 USD at the time of writing) is about to begin!

The Wildcard matches will be played on the 26^th of July, 9am PDT. BO3, double elimination. All teams will start in the upper bracket, meaning that everyone will play at least 2 matches, with the runner-up of the wildcard playing 3 matches. The teams playing are Vega Squadron, CDEC gaming, MVP Phoenix (sister team of HOT6) and Team Archon (previously NAR)

Upper Bracket 2A – Lower Bracket 2A are my predictions. If Team Archon manages to remain consistent, the brackets should turn out this way.

Given the team’s consistency and synergy, I predict Team Archon to emerge from Wildcard 1 (meaning they win all their matches) and MVP Phoenix to emerge from Wildcard 2.

Vega Squadron and CDEC Gaming both can play an early-gank aggressive style of Dota, but Vega looks to be the better team to benefit from early-game scrambles. Their games against Virtus Pro and Navi are close enough that you it can be said that they have the execution potential of a tier 1 team.

MVP Phoenix is no slouch, but they seem to be much less synergistic than the North American Team Archon. They formed after Ti4, and still have some decision-making difficulties as a team. They have their playmakers QO and March, but they rely on individual skill too much, sacrificing their teamplay. Team Archon, on the other hand, are much more co-ordinated and less messy when it comes to teamfights, which leads me to predict that they will perform better in the BO3 format which emphasizes consistency.

Archon is much more likely to take it over CDEC or Vega as their mid-game oriented style is often executed well enough to rescue any lanes being ganked. If dazzle or wisp are not banned against Archon, they will have a much easier time weathering early-game ganks, allowing them to snowball in the mid-game.

Picks to look for:

Team Archon – Dazzle (against CDEC, Vega), Shadow Fiend, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker

MVP Phoenix – Slark, Witch Doctor, Ember Spirit, Io

Vega Squadron – Queen of Pain, Tusk, Gyro, Lina

CDEC Gaming – Brewmaster, Lycan, Batrider, Slark

You can follow me on twitter @TheFreakofnatur and email me at [email protected]. Until next time!

Chen Yiji
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheFreakofnatur