The International Dota 2 tournament down to final eight teams
Each fighting for $5m top prize.
The International Dota 2 tournament is down to the final eight teams who will each battle this weekend for an eye-watering $5m first prize.
Last night the playoff phase of the Valve-hosted tournament ended, with eight teams seeded for the championship's conclusion at the Key Arena in Seattle.
In the upper bracket ViCi, NewBee, Evil Geniuses and Team DK will battle it out for a slot in the grand final. Cloud9, 2011 champions Natus Vincere, 2012 winners Invictus Gaming and LGD Gaming (the China qualifier winner) find themselves in the lower bracket.
The International has seen a number of high-profile casualties already. Last year's winners Alliance went out at the group stage in a disappointing 12th place. Other direct invite teams Titan, Fnatic and Team Empire have also fallen by the wayside.
Looking to Friday's round of games, the match between ViCi, who topped the group stage with an impressive 12-3 record, and NewBee, who caught the eye with a number of dominating performances this week in the playoffs against Na'Vi and iG, could highlight the tournament favourites.
On Saturday, the match between Cloud9 and Na' Vi looks set to draw a great deal of attention. Both teams are popular among Dota 2's gargantuan community, with Na' Vi having made the grand final in each of The International tournaments so far (they won the first three years ago). One of the two will be eliminated.
The International grand final will be played on Monday 21st July. The winning team nets $4.949m - a figure that rises with each sale of The Compendium.
You can catch up on the action over at The International website, where Valve has uploaded videos of previous matches.