A heart-warming opening features nostalgic faces of The International champions, who return the Aegis for TI10.
It has been a full decade of The International. Players and fans of Dota 2 have celebrated tons of beautiful moments together; whether joyous victories or bittersweet memories. It has been a long journey filled with many stories. This year marks a special milestone for Dota 2 and The International. Despite TI10’s unfortunate “Riki crowd”, fans were presented with a heart-warming TI10 opening ceremony.
A Throwback to the Previous TIs mark the Beginning of the Event
The TI10 opening ceremony was graced with the talent of Linsey Stirling, a platinum-selling electronic artist who played the violin beautifully. Together with an international artist, JJ Lin, both of them harmonized and played the Dota 2 soundtrack. We witnessed The International archives, showing nostalgic clips of the previous participants’ journey to claim the Aegis of the Immortal. Darude, a world-known DJ, and producer also appeared in the opening.
The opening flash-forwards to the present day. The International 10 is upon us and Valve showcased clips of this year’s participants. Several participants of various nationalities, including Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg, Wang "Ame" Chunyu, and Yaroslav "Miposhka" Naidenov went forth and stated ‘Thank You’ in their respective languages.
As the battle begins, we witnessed TI10 teams arriving at the stadium. The International introduced all teams on stage, except for Team Aster and Invictus Gaming who weren’t able to make it (for the filming) due to COVID-19.
The TI10 opening ceremony presented Gabe Logan Newell, president of Valve who welcomed the community.
“Welcome to The International. It’s been a long time since we have been able to hold this event. I’m super excited to see the best teams in the world come together and compete on the stage. On behalf of everyone at Valve and the Dota 2 community, I want to thank the people of Romania for making this possible. Let’s watch some Dota.”
The Aegis of the Immortals return for TI10
Undoubtedly the most beautiful moment of TI10 opening ceremony featured TI champions from 2011 to 2019. Representatives of TI winners, from its first iteration to its latest appeared on the stage of Arena Naţională in Bucharest.
We first saw four members of Natus Vincere, Danil "Dendi" Ishutin, Clement "Puppey" Ivanov, Ivan "Artstyle" Antonov, and Dmitriy "LighTofHeaveN" Kupriyanov - the first champions of TI. Artstyle raises the Aegis of the Immortals and then passed it to Jonathan "Loda" Berg and Gustav "s4" Magnusson, of Alliance from TI3.
Alliance handed the Aegis to Zhang "xiao8" Ning, of Newbee from TI4, Syed Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan of Evil Geniuses in TI5, Zhang "Faith Bian" Ruida and Zhang "y`" Yiping of Wings Gaming in TI6, and Topias Miikka "Topson" Taavitsainen and Johan "N0tail" Sundstein of OG in TI8. Finally, the Aegis lands in the hand of TI9 champions representative, Sébastien "Ceb" Debs, who returns the Aegis - marking the beginning of The International 10.
A nostalgic ceremony opens the event and the Main Event begins. The first series of the day, Invictus Gaming vs Team Spirit is now live. You can refer to the Playoffs schedule here.
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Image Credit: Dota 2 Flickr.