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The International 2025 - Day 4 Discussion Thread
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this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2025
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I don't think there is any?
That's my feelings too.
Rollback to one day before (pre-Round 5), 1-3 teams were fighting for the last straw, and 3-1 teams were grabbing the VIP pass to stadium. These games were brutal. But for the three games between six 2-2 teams, it meant almost nothing
However you slice the group stage you'll get some bad or low-stakes games. I feel like for me at least the swiss format this year was the best in a long time with more hype matches and series than any group stage I can remember.
Yeah, I totally agree. Old group stage had too many zero-stake games. This year, every swiss game might decide if a team would go home early
I do miss the times of old where all teams got to play on the main stage at least once. I hope I'll be proven wrong next week but ever since Valve stepped away and gave the whole thing to PGL The International hasn't felt the same.
In theory, winning would mean you have an easier elimination match as you will be placed up against a 1-3 team or someone else that has lost. Looking at the matchups though I don't think there are any easy matchups, apart from maybe Wildcard. But I think that is down to how competitive it is rather than the tourney structure.