instead thrown himself into his gaming career. During the first stage of the competition, Online Kingdom, considered to be an underdog team, surprises onlookers by placing first in their group. Another group includes both Na`Vi and Scythe Gaming, who place first and third, respectively. In the playoffs, Online Kingdom end their run with losses to Chinese team Invictus Gaming and Russian team Moscow Five, and take home $25,000 as the 7th place team. The strongest teams remaining are Scythe, Na'Vi, and EHome, a well-disciplined Chinese team. Scythe manages to defeat EHome, but loses to Na`Vi and is then eliminated in the lower bracket finals in a rematch with EHome. In the best-of-five championship series between EHome and Na`Vi, EHome manage to hand Na`Vi their first loss of the tournament, but in the end Dendi, an unpredictable but highly skilled playmaker, leads his team to victory and Na`Vi takes home the grand prize of $1 million. Hyhy's team, Scythe Gaming, takes home $150,000 as the third-place finisher. Despite not winning the first place prize, Hyhy is ultimately successful in convincing his girlfriend to get back together with him. Fear finally buys a new computer with his share of the prize and moves in with his teammates (he would later go on to win The International 2015 with his team, Evil Geniuses, 4 years later). Dendi, with newfound peace of mind, goes fishing for the first time since the death of his father. Reception Free to Play was generally well received by critics. Chris Zele of Maximum PC magazine, who was unfamiliar with the Dota franchise upon viewing the film, called Free to Play not only one of the best video game documentaries, but documentaries about any topic that he had ever seen. Philippa Warr of Wired magazine praised the film for drawing parallels between competitive video gaming and other sporting activities, while also noting that the film runs the risk of not connecting in certain areas, as in-game knowledge may be necessary for comprehending battle scenes. Brian Albert of IGN gave similar praise for being emotionally engaging and with a great deal of variety, while also criticizing it for failing to explain more intricate details about Dota 2 for those unfamiliar with the game. References External links 2014 films 2014 documentary films American documentary films American independent films Documentary films about video games Dota Esports films Films shot in Beijing Films