The International 2018 Dota 2 Championships: Everything you need to know.

The International 2018 - Location, Participants and Prize Pool.

The 8th edition of the International, TI8 is set to begin on August 15th and conclude on 25th of the same month. For the second time, the location will not be in Seattle, USA. Ever since the first TI took place in Cologne, Germany every TI since then has taken place in Seattle. For the first time in 7 years, The International will emanate from The Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada.

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The Dota Pro Circuit Season has provided 8 invites to The International and 10 other teams had to fight for qualification. The overall 8 teams have had the best performances throughout the year in all Major and Premier tournaments all over the World. The 8 invited teams to TI8 are:

1. Virtus.Pro - The top team of this Dota 2 season, Virtus Pro leads the Dota Pro Circuit leaderboards by almost 3000 points. The Russian organisation's team has finally found their rhythm and are going into TI as favorites. Line-up - Ramzes, No-one, pasha, Solo and Rodjer.
2. Team Liquid - The second placed team of the season, defending TI champions Team Liquid managed to maintain their unstoppable form throughout the season after winning last year's TI. The line-up of Kuroky, Miracle, GH, Matumbaman and Mind Control goes into TI8 as serious contendors again.
3. PSG.LGD Gaming - The best performing Chinese team of the season, LGD Gaming were taken over by football giants Paris Saint-Germain earlier this year. And the new representation only seemed to strengthen the line-up of Ame, Somnus, Chalice, fy and xNova.
4. Team Secret - Coming in at 4th this season was Team Secret who's consitency was again at display in addition to their inability to win tournaments. Reaching top 4 regularly but always failing to go past that, Secret will go into TI hoping to turn things around. Line-up - Puppey, Ace, Midone, Fata, Yapzor.
5. Mineski Gaming - The only SEA team to be invited, Mineski's success over the season largely rest on their surprise victory at the Dota 2 Asia Championship back in April. The team of Mushi, Moon, iceiceice, jabz and Ninjaboogie look to fight for their region at TI8.
6. Vici Gaming - The second Chinese team to merit an invite, Vici looked strong the whole season, but need to step up their game if they want to be a serious threat to the likes of Virtus.Pro and Liquid. Line-up - Paparazi, Ori, eLeVeN, LaNm, Fenrir.
7. Newbee - The runner-up of last year's TI will be looking for redemption after underperforming much of the season. Also representing China, it will be an uphill battle for Newbee. Their line-up remains the same from TI7 - Moogy, Sccc, Kaka, Faith and kpii.
8. VGJ.Thunder - The 4th Chinese team to be invited, VGJ.Thunder scrapped their way into TI after edging past Optic Gaming at the very last major of the season. They are the lowest ranked team to get an invite and will look to write a successful underdog story. Line-up - Sylar, Freeze, Yang, ddc and Fade.

In addition to the invited teams, 6 qualifiers were held to determine the other 10 teams of the International.

1. Team Serenity and Invictus Gaming qualified for TI8 through the Chinese Qualifiers. Serenity's team of zhizhizhi, Zyd, Xinq, Pyw and XCJ will be making their debut at TI and TI2 champions Invictus Gaming will be returning to the grand stage with Agressif, Boboka, Xxs, Srf and Q.
2. Team OG won the European Qualifiers to reach TI8. The newly formed line-up of Notail, Jerax, Ana, Topson, and 7ckngMad will be performing in OG's 3rd International in a row ever since their formation.
3. Winstrike Team won the CIS Qualifiers to join Virtus Pro as the only other CIS team in TI. Silent and AlwaysWannaFly will be playing their 2nd TI since TI5 while Iceberg, Nongrata and Nofear will be making their TI debut.
4. Fnatic and TNC Predator qualified from the SEA Qualifiers. Fnatic's seasoned roster of EternalEnvy, Abed, Universe, DJ and Pieliedie will all perform having attended numerous previous TI's. While TNC's Raven, Armel, SamH, Kuku and Tims will be making their 3rd TI appearance in a row.
5. Pain Gaming qualified through the SA Qualifiers. The Brazillian team also became the only South American representative in TI8. Hfn, w33, tavo, Kingrd and Duster make up their line-up.
6. VGJ.Storm, Evil Geniuses and OpTic Gaming qualified through the NA Qualifiers to round up 18 teams in the TI. Yawar, Resolution, Sneyking, MSS and SVG make up the VGJ line-up which will be making their debut in TI. TI5 Champions EG return to the grand stage with Sumail, Arteezy, S4, Crit and Fly. OpTic will also make their TI debut with Pajkatt, CC&C, Zai, 33 and ppd.

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The current prize pool of TI8 stands at just over 20 million dollars. Ever since TI3, Valve implemented a new system for collecting the prize pool of TI: The International Compendium. An in-game DLC which gives the player a lot of new content $9.99 only. A level based system where the user earns new rewards every time they level up with virtually unlimited levels possible. Levels can also be bought using real money. The best thing about this system is that for every purchase made by a player, 25% of the money is added to the prize pool of TI8.

The prize pool keeps increasing all the way through TI untill the last day of the tournament as every purchase made till then will contribute to the entire prize pool. Thanks to this system every TI has seen an increase in prize pool since the 2nd version of the tournament. TI8 currently has a prize pool of $20,092,513. While TI7 had a final prize pool of $24,787,916. With over a month to go, TI8 will surely cross TI7's prize pool and it is to be seen how far it goes. One can keep track of the prize pool by clicking this link.