Out of the blue. Upsets are the rule at THE DOTA 2 INTERNATIONAL 2014

There are no fixed narratives in sport. You can set up your returning champions and your underdog heroes but a tournament is always going to follow its own course. That is the difference between sport and the types of entertainment that games normally provide. This year?s Dota 2 International Championship, held in Seattle, made the case for games-as-sport precisely because the event was defined by upsets and turnarounds. Formed in February out of veterans of the Chinese Dota scene, Newbee were invited to the fourth International on the basis of their roster.

They were a dream lineup, of a sort ? each of their players had competed in a prior International ? but they were untested as a unit. Although they picked up pace in the months prior to the tournament, most would have placed Team DK, another Chinese dream team, ahead of them. Or Invictus Gaming, who won ESL One Frankfurt only weeks before in June. This year, Valve changed the format to feature eight teams, rather than the full sixteen, in the main event. Where previously the playoffs determined initial rankings, now they were elimination games. It suited some teams more than others. Those chaotic initial matches demonstrated just how lively and international (cough) the Dota 2 scene is at the moment. Team Liquid, who barely snuck into the tournament after a second-place finish in the US qualifiers, blitzed through a run of teams ranked much higher than them before finally tapping out in 7th place.

While Liquid rose, European Dota crumbled. Returning champions Alliance finished an ignominious 12th, struggling in a tournament format and metagame that no longer suited them. The first games of the tournament suggested a uniquely healthy metagame. Almost every character in the game was played at the International, an unprecedented testament to the game?s competitive breadth. Or so it seemed until Newbee, LGD and Vici figured it out. On the final day of the playoffs, Newbee faced a 9th place finish and elimination. Then they won three best-of-threes in a row to secure not only a place in the main event, but a slot in the upper bracket. They demonstrated mastery of a form of Dota built around sieging early with a team built to fight as a group. When play moved to Seattle?s KeyArena, the mood in the packed stadium reflected a game that had changed overnight. On the first day, Newbee sent Vici Gaming to the lower bracket while Evil Geniuses did the same to Team DK. EG had already progressed further in an International than an American team ever had: the crowd loved them. Continuing their extraordinary run, Newbee beat them 2-0 to claim a place in the grand final.

In the lower bracket teams doubled down on their particular talents. Watch Cloud 9 vs Na?Vi for a demonstration of unorthodox modern Dota. Watch Cloud 9 vs Vici for SingSing?s Meepo, a Hail Mary performance on the micro-intensive hero that almost kept them in the tournament. When EG faced Vici Gaming, their incredible year came to an abrupt end. An early surrender call in the final game implied a team that had finally been dragged down by the morale problems that have plagued US Dota for years. And then that final. Last year, the International Grand Final ran to five games over several hours: this year, with both teams favouring a fast, aggressive style, it was over in half the time. Newbee?s advantage was that they had the flexibility to combine the strengths of their rival with their own. After losing the first game due to a fantastic performance from Vici?s support players, a resurgent Newbee showed some flare and begun to ran a few personal favourite heroes alongside metagame standards.

In game two, Hao?s aggressive carry play with Weaver achieved dominance despite fierce opposition. In game three, Mu played a nearperfect game as Puck, a flashy hero that has long been a staple of the best International matches. And then it ended. Newbee?s dominant start in game four seemed to break Vici?s spirits ? especially those of their captain, rOtk. A metagame that had started out broad had been resolved down to a contest determined by a few brutal first engagements. That Vici waited as long as they did to surrender says more about the prize at stake than the state of the match. Despite the pyrotechnics and the thundering music, there was a muted feeling in the arena: like the World Cup final not long before, there was the sense that this wasn?t the final contest spectators wanted. But that?s how sport works, sometimes, and it doesn?t detract from Newbee?s talent or the scale of their accomplishment.