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Dota 2 – The Underdogs at The International 12

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Dota 2 – The Underdogs at The International 12

Let’s go over some of the underdogs at The International 12 and everything we have to know about them. 

The International 12 is slowly approaching, which is why Dota 2 fans are becoming more interested in it. The world’s biggest tournament will have 20 teams in total, and each one has proven it needs to be among the best. 12 of these teams made it by securing DPC points, whereas the other 8 had to go through hell in TI 12 qualifiers. After a long battle, we finally know the names of the teams that will represent their regions in Seattle this October.

While it’s true that all teams have the chance to lift the Aegis, as we’ve seen a couple of times so far, some teams are more likely to win than others. With that said, this article will focus on the Underdogs at The International 12 and look at the teams there. Let’s learn additional details about each one.

Keyd Stars

When talking about the Underdogs at The International 12, we need to address the team from South America. Keyd Stars wasn’t able to secure enough DPC point, so the Brazilian squad had to take part in the South American qualifiers. Even though we expected to see Infamous here, Keyd Stars surprised everyone by securing one of the slots. The other one went for Thunder Awaken, which was the favorite in the qualifiers.

What’s interesting about this team is that it has a very interesting mixture of players. For some of them, TI12 will be their first big tournament, whereas others have a lot more experience. The squad’s captain Kingrd has been a part of the professional Dota 2 scene for many years and also played at The International in 2018.

Although Keyd Stars earned their sport at this tournament by battling some of the best in the world, it will be really hard for the team to survive. That’s one of the reasons why most people think this will be one of the underdogs.

Thunder Awaken

Aside from Keyd Stars, the second team from South America that wasn’t able to get the needed DPC points but made it into the finals is Thunder Awaken. Normally, this wouldn’t be an underdog because the team had impressive results in the last 2 years. However, the roster changes after the arrival of Evil Geniuses to the region had a bad effect on the squad.

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While it’s true that Thunder Awaken’s roster looks pretty good, we believe this is going to be one of the underdogs at The International 12. It will be really hard for the inexperienced team to defeat some of the biggest names in Dota 2. After all, TA will have to play against the likes of Gaimin Gladiators, PSG.LGD, and much more.

Nouns

After sharing more details about the two teams from South America that we believe will be underdogs at TI12, it’s time to move to another region. This time, we want to focus on the only team from the North American open qualifiers – nouns.

Generally speaking, nouns is one of the best teams in North America. The squad always had good results, but it was not on the same level as Shopify Rebellion or TSM. Consequently, Moo and the rest missed out on a lot of big tournaments.

Even though nouns wasn’t able to get the DPC points it needed to secure a slot for TI 12, it did that by winning the qualifiers. The team had no problems, as we explained in the Dota 2 TI 12 qualifiers recap, which was not surprising for most fans.

While it’s true that nouns are an interesting combination of several experienced players, the team’s inconsistent results internationally make them one of the underdogs at The International 12. There’s no arguing the team has the power to win against pretty much anyone. However, unless it does a miracle, it will be hard to come on top versus the big European opponents.

Team SMG

Team SMG is The next interesting club we want to include when discussing the underdogs at The International 12. If we have to be honest, a lot of people are surprised that the squad won the SEA qualifiers because the region only had 1 slot. Moreover, there were several other bigger clubs that had more chances, such as Blacklist International and BOOM Esports. However, it seems like Team SMG knew what to do because the team ripped through its opponents.

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If we take a look at the squad’s current lineup, we can see that it has 3 well-known players. MidOne, No[o]ne and ah fu have been a part of the big Dota 2 scene for years and can definitely help the squad. With that said, some of the WEU opponents are just too strong, so it will be really hard for Team SMG to win. That’s one of the reasons why we’re putting them on the list with the underdogs.

Entity

Even though most Dota 2 fans think that all Western European teams have the chance to win The International 12, we disagree. Sure, the region is the best in the world, and it will most likely lift the Aegis again. However, there are a few teams that can be considered the Underdogs at The International 12, and Entity is one of them.

Although this squad was among the best one year ago, its results in 2023 have not been good. The team couldn’t win anything, and it didn’t get enough DPC points. We did not expect it to perform well during the qualifiers either, but the squad surprised us and won them.

Entity’s roster is almost the same as it was at TI 11. Stormstormer and Watson will try to show the rest that they still have it. Adding Gabbi to the roster makes them even more dangerous because the SEA superstar gained a lot of experience and will help the team feel stronger.

Conclusion

In addition to the teams mentioned so far, we can also include Quest Esports and Virtus.Pro. Both have promising rosters and good results, but the lack of experience will play a role in their results. Make sure to follow us for more information about The International 12.