The International 12 will have four groups instead of two

The International 12 is fast approaching and Valve will be doing things a bit differently this year. While previous years had two groups in The International group stage and a playoff over a few days, the new format promises more groups and nearly a month of Dota 2 action.

The International is the biggest Dota 2 tournament of the year, with 20 of the best teams in the world competing for the chance to lift the Aegis of the Immortal, along with a massive prize pool.

Most of The International 12 matches will be played over the weekend

Three weekends of Dota 2 action are incoming. (Credit: Valve)

Last year, the first group stage matches of The International 11 were played on Saturday, October 15. The group stage concluded the following Tuesday and the playoffs began on Thursday, October 20th.

While The International often featured the grand finals on the weekend, most of the matches are played over weekdays, forcing diehard fans to skip work to watch games or catch them later through VODs.

To give viewers the best chance to watch games live, most of the games in this year's International will be played over the weekends, with three weekends allocated to the event, as Valve stated in their post.

"We're scheduling nearly every game over a Friday through Sunday weekend break. It'll take three weekends to fit in all the games for a twenty-team tournament — a weekend for Group Stage (October 12-15), a weekend for Playoffs (October 20-22), and a weekend for The Finals (October 27-29)."

The International will have four groups instead of two for the first time

You really don't wanna come in last in groups this year. (Credit: Valve)

Unlike previous Internationals, this year's edition will include four groups instead of two, with each group comprising five teams. It's the same overall amount of teams in the tournament, but the smaller groups mean each win and loss is far more impactful than the previous format.

Additionally, doing badly in the first couple of days of the group stage no longer forces teams to go to the lower bracket of the playoff.

Instead, once the group stage concludes, the first and second place of each group faces off against the third and fourth place in a best-of-three series, with upper bracket slots on the line.

So to summarize the group stage, the worst-performing team in each group gets eliminated, and the remaining 16 teams battle each other out in one best-of-three match to determine upper bracket allocation.

This year's lower bracket will be different, as every single playoff match will be a best-of-three, this means a reverse sweep is possible now, allowing teams to come back and retain their spot at The International 12.

Overall, the changes this year have made the tournament easier to follow, with each match being pivotal to a team's success. If a team does badly early but recovers by the end of the group stage, they can still make it to upper bracket, while losing the first game in the lower bracket isn't a death sentence.

It will be interesting to see how these changes play out, for my part, I think they look pretty great on paper and I am looking forward to another great International.

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Featured Image source provided by: Valve Software