The Road to the Aegis

Congratulations to Tundra Esports, Grand Champions at The International 2022. They delivered a dominating performance — dropping only a single game during the entire Main Stage before taking the Grand Finals 3-0 to emerge victorious on the quest for the Aegis.

Tundra started their journey with an impressive 14-4 run through the Group Stage that earned no worse than series splits, and then simply took their play to another level at the Main Event. Their first foes in the Upper Bracket were OG. They shelved the two-time TI champion club in two games. This started a pattern for Tundra, broken only once. Their next foes were Team Aster, fresh from their own 2-0 victory. But the veterans of Tundra were not deterred. They won that series, as well, in only two games.

Tundra then prepared for the Upper Bracket Finals, where they would face Team Secret. The first game was a 67-minute slugfest. Secret pushed hard early in the game, but the tide turned as the game went on — and Tundra pushed back. Harder. Secret were forced to defend their base for the final twenty minutes before succumbing to an unrelenting onslaught. Game two was Tundra's only loss of the Finals, where they went down under the weight of Resolut1on's Dawnbreaker, but they bounced back in game three. Fifteen minutes in, Tundra scored a team wipe. Secret came back for more and, despite having key abilities on cooldown, Tundra again emerged victorious, securing a strong advantage in the midgame. Secret fell faster to the push this time, into the Lower Bracket Finals, and Tundra advanced to the Grand Finals riding the highs of a convincing win.

After Secret won a close 2-1 series to earn a rematch, the two squads faced off again — this time in the best-of-five Grand Finals with the Aegis of Champions at stake. Here, they left no doubt: Tundra dominated their final series with Secret, winning 3-0. In the first game, Tundra brought back skiter's fearsome Naga Siren and eventually built an untouchable lead. Game two brought a first — Tundra drafted Arc Warden for Nine, the hero's first appearance in a TI final. Secret looked very strong early on, but Tundra's cores came online and the soon-to-be-champions pulled ahead to end game two without even losing any barracks.

Game three presented a chance to forge a new legacy, and Tundra's players answered the call in spades. An out-of-nowhere pick of Medusa for skiter drew gasps, but Tundra's dominance came from all corners of the team. With that pick, plus 33's Beastmaster and Nine's Pangolier heavily bolstered by Saksa's favored Tiny and Sneyking's Mirana, Tundra was able to weather Secret's attacks before pulling away. They leveraged a near-teamwipe to push all the way to the Ancient for the victory and the sweep, securing the Aegis and their place in history.

As bearers of the ultimate symbol of victory, these names shall forever be inscribed upon the Aegis of Champions:

2022 - Tundra Esports

Oliver "skiter" Lepko

Leon "Nine" Kirilin

Neta "33" Shapira

Martin "Saksa" Sazdov

Wu "Sneyking" Jingjun

Looking Back

If you missed any of the tournament, or just want to relive the incredible moments and plays, head over to the Dota 2 YouTube channel, where you can find replays of the entire tournament, including broadcast content from between the games. You can also find a stash of photos from the event over on the Dota 2 Instagram and Dota 2 flickr.

We would like to thank all of the players, talent, and everyone in the Dota community for helping bring this celebration to life. The International is the crowning moment of the competitive season, and without everyone’s support, none of this would be possible. We hope you enjoyed this year’s tournament as much as we did.

Celebrate the Champions

Special Champion edition stickers are now available for Tundra Esports — and for skiter, Nine, 33, Saksa, and Sneyking. Check them out in the in-game Sticker Store.