It’s finally the eve of TI13 season as all sixteen teams have arrived in Denmark. These teams are divided into groups of four, where they will brawl it out for a chance for good placement in the Upper Bracket.
Groups have been tightly under wraps for weeks, but now
How does the TI13 Group Stage work?
TI13 Group Stage Match-up are out (Image credit: Wykrhm Reddy)
Fortunately, the Road to the International 2024 Group Stage will not be eliminating any team yet. Instead, the top two teams get to choose the bottom two seeds from the opposite group for the Seeding Decider.
In the Seeding Decider, teams that win their match will advance to the Upper Bracket of Main Stage, while the losers still have a second chance in the Lower Bracket. Then in the Lower Bracket, the first eliminations will take place.
Nevertheless, performing well in their respective groups is still crucial to allow teams to pick the opponents they are comfortable with defeating.
All TI13 Groups
TI13 Group Stage Team Match-up (Image credit: Wykrhm Reddy)
Group A
Kicking off with Group A, are 1W Team (possibly rebranded from 1win due to Valve’s new no-ads policy), Gaimin Gladiators, HEROIC and Xtreme Gaming.
This is an easy match-up to call, especially with household staples, such as Gaimin Gladiators and Xtreme Gaming being the season’s favorites. What’s more interesting to debate over is, whether Gaimin or Xtreme will place first in this group.
Both teams have gone head-to-head throughout the season, with neither side truly having the edge over the other. Regardless, it’s mindful to note that Gaimin has the better improvement since the start of season, after they won the Riyadh Masters 2024. It wasn’t an anticipated victory, so Gaimin really showed off their strengths recently.
Between 1W Team and HEROIC, the latter might have better records this season. HEROIC is also a South American candidate in TI13, which have historically pulled off miracles as an underdog. Hence, fans are certainly eyeing one this time around.
Group B
Over in Group B, which many fans can agree that it’s perhaps the easiest group for the participants. It’s comprised of only regionally-qualified teams, namely Talon Esports, Tundra Esports, G2 x iG and Cloud9. Thus, without any direct invites, there aren’t much expectations for a single team to dominate the group.
However, note that Tundra has Martin “Saksa” Sazdov as their stand-in after Edgar “9Class” Naltakian failed to secure his visa. Saksa being a TI Champion alongside Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen, will surely level up the playing field.
Group C
Team Falcons and BetBoom Team are the top contenders in Group C, while nouns and Team Zero are coming into this group as underdogs.
Team Falcons needs no introduction, being the team with the highest points on the ESL Pro Tour Leaderboard. However, we won’t count BetBoom out of the challenge just yet, as they are second only to Falcons on the same leaderboard.
Even so, the odds are against BetBoom since they have never bested Falcons in any encounters before. Their players also have a long-running beef with Falcons’ Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf, so that’s going to be exciting.
Between Team Zero and nouns, we have to side with nouns for their consistency. Their line-up is also decent for a North American squad, notably featuring their prodigy, Nicolas “Gunnar” Lopez.
Group D
Last but not least, it’s all eyes on the defending TI Champions, Team Spirit in Group D. Alongside, are opponents, such as Team Liquid, Aurora Gaming and beastcoast.
On paper, Team Liquid will likely be the only team with the potential to beat Spirit. This has more to do with Spirit’s underlying performance issues despite being a two-time champion. And Liquid is an overall better team in comparison.
Despite the heavy power gap, I, for one, is a huge fan of the golden boy, Nuengnara “23” Teeramahanon. While Aurora could have seen better days this season, this line-up once surpassed expectations at TI12. Hence, we’re rooting for Aurora Gaming, representing the Southeast Asian region.
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