The final four teams at The International 2022 couldn’t find anyone to scrim for a week

With the main event starting at The International 2022, fans witnessed some of the best Dota 2 being played in 2022. However, the action was paused for five days with four teams remaining in the competition for a venue change, a decision criticized by pros like Puppey, Monet, n0tail, and Ceb.

In TI’s usual format, teams would generally get to play on stage every day. This builds a habit for teams as they are used to performing to the best of their abilities. A five-day-long pause may have looked refreshing for everyone working at the event, but it also sent players into a void of emptiness as their scrimming partners were already leaving Singapore.

While the teams get to play frequent scrimmages before a tournament kicks off, they usually stop when the official matches start, as over 100 matches get played in the group stages alone. Tundra’s Nine and Saksa appeared on the Late Game show after advancing to the Grand Finals and briefly talked about how hard it has been to practice during the break in Singapore.

The two shared that Tundra players had to rely on playing ranked matches to stay in shape as there were no regional scrim partners. The topic was even discussed in OG’s Monkey Business, where Ceb expressed his concerns for remaining teams since squads that were knocked out of the competition wouldn’t be up for practice. The two founders also joked about how OG could charge teams for scrims since they were out of options.

Considering the four remaining teams in the competition wouldn’t practice with each other to save strategies, players faced a dire issue, losing momentum.

According to Puppey, a long break could cause players to get out of the “zone” as they would start worrying about keeping their form and thinking about subjects other than Dota. Despite a less-than-ideal five days off from the competition, Aster, Secret, Liquid, and Tundra came out swinging from the woods as the two series that were played to that were extended to the final third game.

If Valve decides to take feedback from the professional players in the event in this regard, the five-day break may end up being a one-time occurrence. Since players also organize Bootcamps in the same cities and hotels before the event, any additions to the tournament that prolong their stays would be unwelcome.