BetBoom Team won two matches on Sunday night, including a marathon battle that lasted over three hours, to stay alive in the lower bracket of The International 2023 main event in Seattle.
After sweeping Keyd Stars 2-0 in the opening round of lower-bracket play, BetBoom Team defeated Talon Esports 2-1 in a Round 2 match and will tangle with Virtus.pro in a lower-bracket Round 3 match on Friday.
Virtus.pro advanced by knocking off Entity 2-0 in Sunday’s other Round 2 clash. Earlier, Entity swept Tundra Esports in a Round 1 match in the lower bracket.
The Dota tournament annually has the largest prize pool in Esports, with the amount rising throughout the competition based on in-game sales to the public. The prize pool for last year’s International began at $1.6 million but wound up at $18.9 million, with Tundra Esports claiming the $8.5 million first prize.
This year’s prize pool started at $1.6 million and is currently at $3.08 million.
The double-elimination playoffs will conclude next weekend, also in Seattle. All matches will remain best-of-three until the grand final, which will be best-of-five.
Talon and BetBoom traded 70-minute wins, with both victors playing on green, before BetBoom won the third map in another lengthy battle, 55 minutes, doing so on green once again. Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko of Russia headlined the victory with an average kills-deaths-assists ratio of 9.3-3.7-11.3, while Rafli “Mikoto” Fathur Rahman of Indonesia finished at 7.3-3.0-12.7 for Talon.
Virtus.pro and Entity appeared set for a long battle of their own when Virtus.pro, playing on green, won in 61 minutes. But they had an easier time on the second map, crushing Entity in 30 minutes, this time while playing on red. Ilya “Kiritych” Ulyanov of Russia dominated for the winners, posting an average K-D-A of 11.5-1.5-7.5. Kim “Gabbi” Santos of the Philippines led Entity at 3.5.-4.0-7.0.
BetBoom’s wins over Keyd Stars came in 34 and 37 minutes, and both came on red. Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko of Russia dominated for the winners, with an average K-D-A of 10.5-1.5-9.5. Joao “4nalog” Giannini of Brazil and countryman Gustavo “fcr” Ribeiro averaged three kills apiece for Keyd.
Entity’s victories over Tundra came in 48 minutes on green and 43 minutes on red. Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov of Kazakhstan carried Entity at 12.0-2.5-9.5, while Neta “33” Shapira of Israel led Tundra at 7.5-5.5-11.0.
Playoff action resumes Friday with four matches:
Upper-bracket semifinals:
–Team Spirit vs. Team Liquid
–LGD Gaming vs. Azure Ray
Lower-bracket Round 3:
–nouns vs. Gaimin Gladiators
–BetBoom Team vs. Virtus.pro
–Field Level Media