On Saturday, I grouped up with my brother and eight friends, and we went to view The International Dota 2 Championships Grand Finals over at a local movie theater. In total there were about 20 of us who were there to watch the epic battle between the American team Evil Geniuses and the underdog Chinese team CDEC Gaming. They entered the tournament as a wildcard from the open qualifiers, while EG received a direct invite.

The Grand Finals was a best-of-5 series. The first game went very well for EG; as for CDEC Gaming, they were completely demolished. The second game was the complete opposite, with EG barely able to hold on for the first few minutes of the match. The third game of the series was, in my opinion, one of the deciding factors, as EG came very, very close to losing. One of the other team’s players had farmed for the entirety of the game, and was very strong. After for more than one hour, EG was able to take advantage of a positional mistake made by CDEC, and swung the game back in their favor in two team fights, leading them to a victory and ending the game at 2-1 in the series.

The fourth game was brilliantly played by EG, with their 16 year old mid player, playing with a high level of precision that allowed EG to take good team fights early. The mid game looked a little bleak for them, until a play by EG’s Universe practically sealed CDEC’s fate in one of the most beautiful combos of the entire tournament. EG won the game and the entire series, netting the team at $6.6 million.

Even though this weekend excursion was a bit pricey (tickets were $20 a piece), I thought the entire experience was fantastic, as everyone in the theater was cheering on EG with a level of enthusiasm you wouldn’t expect from just 20 people. Not to mention we all sat through the tournament for almost five hours! Some people might not have been able to last through it all, but for us it was the experience of a lifetime.