Three years after TI5 All Star Match the ten vs ten format has taken over the competitive scene. TI8 is the first International to adapt the format, and the anticipation for it is unprecidented. League of Legends, HOTS, vanilla Warcraft, and Candy Crush have all moved to dota now that each game is playable as a custom game mode inside the dota engine. Player counts have crossed the 40 million mark, and nearly half of them have bought a compendium, skyrocketing the prize pool to $100 million dollars.

This year's favorites to win are the 420 Booty Wizards - a merger of the old Team Secret, Dendi, Universe, Ferrari 420, Sumail, and ppd. With them already winning DAC, the Summit, and every group stage match, most betting sites have them at a 73% chance of winning. They're unstoppable. The aggression of the dendi/puppey/s4 trio dominate the midgame. The tactical feeds by ppd make more space than gaben leaving a room. The salt of rtz burns the fresh wounds of the enemy. No team can stand up to them, ggs are called in under 10 minutes. For most spectators, the excitement lies not in the slaughter of the 420 Booty Wizards, but in the competition for second place. In the race for second place, the remaining teams are MVP.Pheonix, EG, Navi, VP, LGD, CDEC, and a previously unknown team called F#, consisting of players simply named F1, F2, F3, F4, etc. The F#s are enigmatic - each of the players are small in stature save one, an enormously overweight man. Rumors are that the man is Gaben himself, and that he's used his mountain of cash to pay for coaching from YaphetS, ZSMJ, Fatal1ty, and icefrog himself. With the full body haptic suits and the steam VR headsets though, the man's true identity has been concealed. Even their play is confusing - choosing to ignore the meta and draft heroes with simple mechanics - wraith king's single stun and right click is a core on the team. Often times they even eschew from leveling up skills and choose stat based builds instead. Nonetheless, their play is effective. EG, Navi, VP, LGD and CDEC are all eliminated under incredible games by both F# and MVP.Pheonix. Whispers on the air question if Korea can finally dominate in the post-starcraft esports scene.

The semifinal match approaches, and the draft from MVP.Pheonix defies all semblance of a meta. They pick Faceless Void, Lifestealer, Antimage, Sniper, Huskar, Invoker, Storm Spirit, Gyro, Obstinant Destroyer, and Drow. With nearly no support the crowd draws a silence. As the horn sounds, all of MVP.Pheonix's heroes are still in well. The only activity on the map is two messages from MVP.March:

MVP.March: gg, we ff
MVP.March: We believe. 

The crowd goes crazy. Has the one Korean hope abandoned their dream for this no name team? Officials are called on stage to determine if MVP is even allowed to forfeit like this. Chaos fills the arena. The Korean fans though all of this remain calm and composed. Maybe they too believe.

With MVP out, the final match between F# and 420 Booty Wizards quickly starts. 420 Booty Wizards quickly bans the core wraith king that F# is known for, and without it the team quickly falls apart. The first two games are over with barely a fight out of F#. In the draft of the third and probably final match, F# ignores the standard simple heroes it's known for and first picks meepo. 420BW is taken by surprise, is this a pocket strat saved for the end? F#'s draft continues defy all previous trends, now favoring immensely complex heroes. Meepo, Invoker, Storm Spirit, Puck, Naga, Chen, Enchantress, Brood, Beastmaster, and LD are all picked by F#.

As the horn sounds, a pause is requested by F#. Suddenly 9 of their players stand up and leave the player booth and exit the arena. The chat shows a single message from F1:

F#.F1: g

Thinking F# has all but given up, the game resumes. Much to everyones surprise though, all of F#'s heroes are still being played. First blood goes the way of F#, and for the first time ever 420BW seem to be fighting against an even match, despite there only being a single player on the other team. Player perspective shows F1's screen flying over the entire map. He's controlling every hero with unprecedented skill. Camps are stacked nearly every time with creeps controlled by chen and enchant, and the meepo's GPM quickly approaches 2k. Both teams trade rax. A massive fight at roshan takes place and PPD/Universe land another incredible AA/ES combo. Another pause comes out on the side of F#.

F#.F1: It's time. 

Appears in the chat. Suddenly F1 stands up from his seat, and begins undressing. To everyones surprise, the behemoth of a man was not a behemoth at all, but rather a small asian man wearing weights all over his body. As he sheds each one, a tear sheds from every Korean fan's eye. He disconnects briefly from the game,

F#.Flash has reconnected

Shines bright on hundreds of millions of screens worldwide.

F#.Flash: Now that there's 10 of you, it might actually be competition. 

The game resumes and the APM graph skyrockets on F#'s side. Flash's is capping out the graph, which only goes to 1k APM. A hot patch is inserted live by Valve, showing that his true APM is near the 5k range. The player booth is a flurry of movement. Casters can't react quick enough to the micro going on. Not a single broodmother spider dies, each one pulled back individually at the last second before dying, each one healed by converted hill troll priests. Flash eats through 420BW like Chuan eats through cheese. The once one sided series has now done a full 180 noscope. Games 3, 4, and 5 fall easily to the control of Flash.

Korea goes wild. North Korea rejoins with South Korea under the immense amount of national pride. Flash immediately tops the esports earning charts. In a post interview, the only thing Flash says is, "jaedong, we will no longer be at the bottom of the charts. Come, let us show Sumail the true meaning of 'easy'"