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Meet the 10 teams that qualified for The International 8
We’re edging ever close to The International 8 and the teams are now locked in – but which of the qualifying teams is likely to make a splash in Vancouver?
The mammoth inaugural Dota 2 Pro Circuit season is over. Eight teams secured direct invitations to Dota’s biggest event with ten more slots promised through an arduous week of qualification. After 24 hours a day, seven days a week of jam-packed Dota 2 action, the regional qualifiers were completed and the remaining teams for The International cemented.
There are a few surprises in the final ten, but largely the field this year looks brilliantly competitive, and we would expect the tournament to be one of the most heated to date. Ahead of the big event, we’re running through each of the ten qualifiers, how they got to TI and what their chances look like ahead of the biggest esports tournament of the year.
OG
Arguably the biggest roster shakeup prior to The International qualifiers was Tal ‘Fly’ Aizik and Gustav ‘s4’ Magnusson jumping from OG over to North American outfit Evil Geniuses. After a disappointing initial DPC season and Roman ‘Resolut1on’ Fominok being released, OG welcomed the return of legendary captain Seb ‘7ckngMad’ Debs to the roster, and Open Qualifiers looked like the best bet for the former Major winners.
The European outfit welcomed back Australian youngster Anathan ‘ana’ Pham, a player who forged his career previously on OG, and the currently unproven Finn Topias ‘Topson’ Taavitsainen. Johan ‘n0tail’ Sundstein moved from carry back to support, and 7ckngMad to the offlane after a brief stint as carry.
If truth be told, the new look outfit were rarely troubled on their way to securing a spot in Vancouver. The group stage saw OG not drop a single game on the way to a 7-0 record, whilst a 2-0 win versus Kinguin and two victories over Wind and Rain would ultimately secure another TI appearance. It’s safe to say the European qualifier wasn’t the most stacked, so it’s hard to gauge just how good OG can be. For once, however, there’s no pressure heading into TI, and that could well see this immensely talented roster go deeper than they’ve managed previously.
Winstrike
Winstrike, formerly known as FlyToMoon, showed glimpses of just how good they can be this season with qualification to the Epicenter Major and a Starladder Minor. The roster of Airat ‘Silent’ Gaziev, Bogdan ‘Iceberg’ Vasilenko, Alexey ‘nongrata’ Vasilev, Aleksander ‘Nofear’ Churochkin and Andrey ‘ALWAYSWANNAFLY’ Bondarenko are no strangers in the pro Dota scene.
One slot was allocated for the CIS region, and with the likes of Natus Vincere, Team Spirit, Vega Squadron and Espada all in the pool it looked a daunting task at best for the eventual regional winners. Winstrike looked strongest in the group stages, going 6-1 before then easing past Double Dimension and beating Espada twice to make it to The International.
There won’t be many expecting them to tear it up in Vancouver, but there’s no denying the talent of players such as Iceberg and Silent. If the two of them can bring their immense talent to Dota’s biggest stage, Winstrike may well be one to watch.
Team Serenity
The Chinese region looked one of the most competitive coming into the regional qualifiers. Mammoth names such as Invictus Gaming, iG Vitality, Keen Gaming, CDEC and LGD.Forever Young all looked closely matched heading into a huge week of Dota 2. With two slots on the line, the qualifiers weren’t quite as boom or bust as Europe or CIS but still, the tension was palpable.
Team Serenity is a team and set of players that not many in the Western world will be well acquainted with. The team has well and truly failed to make a splash this year having tried and failed to make it to several DPC events. They made it through the Open Qualifiers to make it to the regional stage, and in the groups dropped two maps to For The Dream and Keen Gaming on their way to a 5-2 record. The unknown Chinese roster would then dispatch LFY 2-0 before coming from 1-0 down to beat Invictus Gaming and secure a spot at one of esports biggest events.
The unknown factor is something not to be underestimated with these players. There’s been hints of Wings Gaming about them, and we all know how that ended a few years ago with arguably the finest TI run in history. Definitely keep an eye out for Serenity.
Invictus Gaming
Invictus Gaming were the only team to be invited to the regional qualifiers as they didn’t fall foul of Valve’s DPC rules for the season. The roster brought in Sun ‘Agressif’ Zheng and Sun ‘Srf’ Runfa in February to join Lin ‘Xxs’ Jing, Ye ‘BoBoKa’ Zhibiao and Fu ‘Q’ Bin on an already established roster.
They definitely had a disappointing season in the DPC, however. A 9-12th finish at DAC and 9-10th finish at the MDL Changsha Major were the only tournaments of note that we saw iG appear in and it’s safe to say they didn’t set the world on fire. Still, the organisation won The International 2 and this roster has got considerable experience on the big stage. They’re not going to be on the top of anyone’s power rankings for good reason – but no one will be taking them lightly in Canada.
Fnatic
Fnatic so nearly made it through the DPC rankings to qualify for The International. As with everything Jacky ‘EternalEnvy’ Mao is involved with, however, it had to come down to the wire and seem more difficult than it needed to. The South East Asian region had two qualifier slots allocated to it, so Fnatic not making it would have been a big upset.
As is the Fnatic way, they made the group stages look tough, going 4-3, losing to both TNC teams and a team called Sterling Global Dragons who only won one map the entire qualifier – against Fnatic.
A switch seemed to flick after that however, and in the playoffs, they made light work of both TNC sides beating Tigers and then Predator to secure a spot in Vancouver. Any team with EternalEnvy have the chance to go far. Equally, they have a chance to drop out early doors. Fnatic are a wildcard that could very well spring an upset, but equally may crash out early doors when we reach the main event.
TNC Predator
The other SEA slot ultimately came down to a battle of the TNC teams. Predator is the ‘original’ roster, whilst Tigers was the Theeban ‘1437’ Siva-led squad, including legendary names such as Lee ‘kYxY’ Kong Yang.
The final match of the South East Asian qualifier saw the two teams face each other in the most tense of finales. With the match poised beautifully at one game apiece, the final game went the full distance and lasted 75 minutes. A Refresher Orb Omniknight from the Tigers kept them in the game and hanging on by a thread – but it just wasn’t meant to be. TNC Predator were eventually able to overwhelm their sister team and make it through to TI.
We know just how good TNC can be at The International, given their legendary run knocking out OG a few years back. They’ll be headed to the Rogers Arena full of confidence and could well go the distance.
VGJ.Storm
The North American region wasn’t the most intriguing of qualifiers, given that it was awarded three slots for The International. Ultimately, the feeling was that one of OpTic Gaming, Evil Geniuses, compLexity Gaming and VGJ. Storm would miss out. With coL, OpTic and VGJ.Storm all tied at the top of the group, a three-way tiebreaker decided the first qualifier to The International.
Ultimately, VGJ.Storm with midlaner Resolut1on would come out victorious and secure the first slot to The International. They’ve shown how good they can be with a second place at the MDL Major, so they’ll certainly be an interesting prospect in late August.
Evil Geniuses
With Tal ‘Fly’ Aizik and Gustav ‘s4’ Magnusson joining Artour ‘Arteezy’ Babaev, Sumail ‘Suma1L’ Hassan and Andreas Franck ‘Cr1t-’ Nielsen, many have dubbed the new EG as the Dota 2 dream team. The outfit looked far from formidable in the group stages, but through beating coL and Immortals in the playoffs secured a place at yet another TI.
The original OG support duo is reunited, with Fly and Cr1t- forming an unstoppable duo back in the day. If they can work their magic once again, Arteezy may well win Dota’s biggest tournament on home soil. Only time will tell.
OpTic Gaming
It’s safe to say it would have been an upset if OpTic didn’t make it to The International. Given that they were just one spot outside of the DPC and one series away from a direct invitation, if anyone deserved a slot, it was these guys.
Alas, after an unexpected playoff loss to Immortals, they scraped past compLexity to win the battle of Texas and make it to Dota’s biggest tournament. Peter ‘ppd’ Dager has won this before and given his reputation as a captain, we wouldn’t write him off from doing it again just yet.
paiN Gaming
Everyone’s favourite underdog from the Birmingham Major were not the underdog in the regional qualifiers. The main competition came in the shape of SG e-sports with their two American imports; with the final series showcasing the finest Dota 2 South America has to offer. Eventually paiN came out 3-2 victors.
With Aliwi ‘w33’ Omar in the midlane they have a star player that can win them games individually. Plus with buffs to Enigma, don’t sleep on Otavio ‘Tavo’ Gabriel who’s an absolute demon on the playmaking hero. No one will expect paiN to go far, but that’s what makes them so dangerous.
