Tundra Esports Win The International 2022 Following ‘Eva Elfie Buff’

Image credit: Tundra Esports

London-based esports organisation Tundra Esports have won the biggest Dota 2 tournament of 2022 – the International (TI) 11.

It’s an historic victory for Tundra, as it’s their first International win and the first ever for an esports organisation based in the UK. They were also said to have an ‘Eva Elfie buff’, with the adult start modelling their jersey ahead of the finals (see further in the article).

While Tundra as an organisation are technically based in London, UK, their Dota 2 roster features a mix of nationalities:

• Skiter (Slovakia)
• Nine (Germany)
• 33 (Israel)
• Saksa (North Macedonia)
• Sneyking (USA)

Tundra took home the TI 11 trophy and their $8.5m share of the prize pool, which this year was around $18.9m. While this is a substantial amount, it’s a lower figure than International prize pools from recent years ($40m in 2021 and $34m in 2019). In fact, the prize pool hasn’t been this low since 2015, when The International that year had an $18.4m prize pool.

Part of the prize pool comes from crowdfunding, and the lower prize pool may be a result of declining Dota 2 player numbers.

There were also declining viewing figures compared to last year, with the International 2022 having peak viewership of 1.7m and just over half a million average viewers, while 2021 saw 2.7m peak viewers and 800,000+ average viewers.

Regardless, the International 2022 is a major event in the esports calendar and Dota 2 is still one of the top competitive games in the world.

The finals took place in Singapore and started on October 15th, with the grand final taking place today in front of a live audience for the first time in two years, following covid, which saw the 2020 event cancelled.

20 teams competed, with Tundra Esports beating Team Secret 2-1 in the upper bracket final and 3-0 in the grand final to take home the win. Tundra also topped group B before going on a dominant upper bracket run.

Tundra Esports defeated the reigning champions, with a consistently strong performance and didn’t lose a single series throughout the tournament.

Team Secret consistently improved but were still no match for the undefeated and unstoppable Tundra. In the third game Team Secret took the lead but left themselves open, allowing Tundra to take back the game, secure the trophy and the grand prize.

The International 2022 saw nearly 1.75m peak viewers, with more than 67m hours watched across 120 hours of airtime.

Some say that Tundra won due to an Eva Elfie buff, with the adult start modelling the Tundra Esports jersey ahead of the finals:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eva Elfie (@theevaelfie)

The news comes after Tundra qualified for the 2022 Dota 2 International back in August, while in the same month Tundra Esports announced Virgil van Dijk as ambassador and shareholder in a Tundra music video.

Tundra also joked they had lost the Aegis trophy which resulted in a lot of speculation (and clicks on their socials)!

Tundra Esports team captain, Wu ‘Sneyking’ Jingjun, said after the win: “I want to thank everyone for coming here, supporting us and watching the grand final. We wouldn’t be here without you guys. Shoutout to everyone who has supported us along the way!” 

Tundra’s considered the MVP of the tournament, Neta ’33’ Shapira, added: “I am so happy… we did an amazing job throughout this tournament.” 

Tundra carry, Oliver ‘skiter’ Lepko, commented: “It’s surreal, I’m trying to digest the emotions… it’s crazy!”

Fellow Tundra player, Martin ‘Saksa’ Sazdov, said: “It doesn’t feel real, I’m still trying to understand what happened in my mind, I can’t even believe it.”

You can watch Tundra Esports’ performance back here

Dom Sacco

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.

As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.