This story was originally published by Dead Spin
Xtreme Gaming, Team Spirit and Team Liquid swept their two matches Wednesday, the first day of The International 2024, a $2.4 million tournament being played in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The field for the Dota 2 evet contains 16 teams — six invited teams and 10 teams who made it via regional qualifiers — divided into four groups of four teams, with each match best-of-two. After group play Wednesday and Thursday, eight best-of-three seeding matches will be played Friday and Saturday to set the playoff bracket.
The playoffs begin Sunday with the best-of-five grand final taking place Sept. 15. The total prize pool is $2,415,143. Payouts for each finishing place have yet to be announced.
Playing in Group A on Wednesday, Xtreme beat HEROIC in 41 and 35 minutes, both times on green, before downing Gaimin Gladiators in 35 minutes on green and 30 minutes on red.
Liquid and Spirit made quick work in establishing the pecking order in Group D. Liquid beat Aurora in 33 minutes on red and 44 minutes on green, then topped beastcoast in 41 minutes on green and 29 minutes on red.
Spirit topped beastcoast in 38 and 30 minutes, both times on green, before taking down Aurora in 26 minutes on green and 57 minutes on red.
Cloud9, one of two teams to play only once on Wednesday, also ended the day unbeaten after topping G2 x iG in Group B, winning in 35 minutes on red and 44 minutes on green.
In other matches Wednesday, 1w Team tied HEROIC and lost to Gaimin Gladiators in Group A; Tundra tied Talon Esports and G2.iG beat Talon in Group B; and Team Falcons registered a pair of ties, against Team Zero and nouns, while BetBoom Team beat nouns and lost to Zero in Group C.
The International 2024
Thursday’s schedule
Group A
–Xtreme Gaming vs. 1w Team
–Gaimin Gladiators vs. HEROIC
Group B
–Tundra Esports vs. Cloud9
–G2 x iG vs. Tundra Esports
–Talon Esports vs. Cloud9
Group C
–BetBoom Team vs. Team Falcons
–nouns vs. Team Zero
Group D
–beastcoast vs. Aurora
–Team Liquid vs. Team Spirit
–Field Level Media
