This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

　　DK's iceiceice & MushiDK turned out to be too much for all the participating teams in the tournament as they leveled all of their competition without dropping a single map. Alliance, Team Empire, MVP.Phoenix, Invictus Gaming and Evil Geniuses all put up their best attempts against the Chinese titans, but neither seemed to be able to scratch their armor.

　　But to say that China is back in the driver seat would be putting the cart before the horse, as TI2 champions iG looked to be in surpisingly poor shape, barely managing to advance into the winner's bracket from their group. In the bracket itself, iG were quickly knocked down to the loser's bracket, following a sound 2-0 beating by DK. But even their stay in the lower bracket was cut short as Team Empire were preparing themselves for a date at the grand finals. Chugging through both iG and eventually EG, they had silenced their critics after their initial shaky showing in the tournament.

　　EG meanwhile enjoyed more success than anyone had ever expected. With talks of inflated winrates due to playing almost exclusively North American teams for the past month and a half sounding strong, few expected EG to become one of the initial favorites to win the entire tournament. But after dispatching their group without losing a game, as well as defeating reigning TI champions Alliance 2-0, EG's performance showed that their position as a top-tier team has been earned.

　　AllianceIt did, however, come at the price of revealing the mortality of the old guard. One of the biggest storylines going into the event was the fact that all three champions of The International were present in Kiev, but all three of them showed up in a state that revealed them all to be in a less than stellar state. Whilst Alliance and iG managed to reach the winner's bracket before they were eliminated shortly after, the Na'Vi that was competing at Starladder were not the one's who had reached all three finals The International has ever hosted, going out in the second round of the loser's bracket after a disastrous group stage. With TI4 dawning upon us, a new order seems to have risen and it will be interesting to see if the old guard can compete at the event.

　　All-in-all, Starladder brought us an incredible amount of entertainment, tense matches and has helped build the hype for TI4 immensely.

Relive Starladder IX through the coverage provided by onGamers.

　　

　　Photo Credit: Starladder, onGamers