On Monday, group stage assignments and wild-card matchups were finalized for The International in Seattle. The 16 teams that made the cut will be split into two groups of eight, and the top four will progress to the upper bracket. The bottom four will be put in the lower bracket and will enter the double-elimination bracket one loss down.
The divvying up of talent was well-handled this year, and both groups look extremely competitive. That said, there will always be favorites and dark horses. Looking at Group A, it certainly looks like an uphill battle for several teams.
Group A:
OG
Alliance
Wings Gaming
Natus Vincere
Evil Geniuses
LGD Gaming
TnC Gaming
Wild card No. 2
OG
The top-billed team here is the mean green OG, two-time major winner and a team set on its first Aegis. Most of OG's competition, which has traditionally been Newbee and Team Liquid, will duke it out in Group B. From star mid Amer "Miracle-" Barqawi to the excellent play of supports like Andreas "Cr1t-" Franck Nielsen, OG has the talent and cohesion to ride straight on through to the grand finals. But as the clear favorite, OG will also have a target on its back.
Wings Gaming
Which team could solidify the upset? Look to Wings Gaming, the unconventional Chinese team that has been bucking drafts and metas since its explosive entrance into the international scene at ESL One Manila. Having recently snubbed OG at The Summit 5, Wings look dominant headed into TI6. Every team worth its salt in Seattle will be watching what Wings does, trying to scrim the team and learn from its five players. The group stages always provide opportunity for surprise upsets, but Wings will likely take advantage of the format to make up for its disappointing Manila Major group run.
Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere is also riding high off its first LAN victory in quite some time at the StarSeries Season 2 finals. This fresh, aggressive Na'Vi squad is dangerous, able to pull games off teams any given day, but this Group A will be the greatest test yet. Surmounting the top teams and securing a winner's bracket berth would ignite full-blown fervor within the Na'Vi fandom, and give these five players a solid shot at the prize.
Evil Geniuses
The reforged Evil Geniuses squad has a lot to gain from a strong group stage as well. The team seemed to feed off the energy of having two former teammates return to the squad, as well as Clinton "Fear" Loomis' move back to the carry role. Evil Geniuses are still a group of five players who have all competed at the highest level, and could easily be looking at a third- or fourth-place finish in this group.
Alliance
Alliance is boasting a reunion lineup as well, though with less spectacular results. Avoiding many of the tournaments between Manila and TI6, there isn't much to gauge in Alliance's potential. That said, this is the team that won an International in 2013. It has been three years since the team's 3-2 record in Benaroya Hall, but Alliance has played these teams before. Watch out for the possibility of a dark-horse run from these former TI champions.
LGD Gaming
LGD Gaming could similarly throw a wrench into any team's best plans. Chinese teams have been mostly keeping to their region leading up to TI6, and several squads in this group have little to no experience playing LGD. Add in the veteran captain Zhang "xiao8" Ning, who led a Newbee squad in 2014 to take the title, and you have a team that could give many of these squads trouble, and might be a not-so-sleeper candidate for the top spot of Group A.
TnC Gaming
Despite some promise, TnC Gaming has a steep hill in front of it, with little experience against any of these teams. TnC hasn't played many matches against teams from other regions, and The International is its first major outing. It will be sink or swim for Jimmy "DeMoN" Ho and his team, but maybe the relative obscurity of TnC is also a boon; few teams will give the same level of prep as they might for Wings or OG, so an upset is not out of the question.
The wild card
The wild-card winner isn't known yet, but the team that takes the spot will have a difficult climb.