Valve announced the first edition of The International on August 1, 2011. 16 teams were invited to compete in the tournament, which would also serve as the first public viewing of Dota 2. The tournament was funded by Valve, including the US$1 million grand prize, with Nvidia supplying the hardware. It took place at Gamescom in Cologne from August 17–21 the same year. The tournament started with a group stage in which the winners of each of the four groups were entered into a winner's bracket, and the other teams entered the loser's bracket. The rest of the tournament was then played as a double-elimination tournament. The final of this inaugural tournament was between Ukrainian-based Natus Vincere and Chinese-based EHOME, with Natus Vincere winning the series 3–1. EHOME won US$250,000, with the rest of the 14 teams splitting the remaining $350,000.
Can you summarize the main points about the first edition of the Dota 2 tournament, The International?
The first edition of The International was held at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany August 17-21 2011. Sixteen teams were directly invited by Valve to complete for $1 Million grand prize. The tournament was played in a round robin group stage, followed by a double elimination playoff. The Ukrainian based team, Natus Vincere defeated the Chinese based EHOME 3-1 in the grand finals.