Dota 2: The International 8 qualifiers have begun to compete

The journey to The International 8 has begun. The open qualifiers officially start June 14, and last for a month and a half to determine who will go to Vancouver this summer.

Thanks to the Dota 2 Pro Circuit system and new roster lock, many famous teams will participate in this open qualifier instead of being invited directly. These teams are in inconsistent form, forcing the members to go through this risky open qualifier.

With the appearance of these faces, the TI8 Open Qualifier is sure to be extremely bloody – more specifically, the professional teams will face each other in their brackets.

The open qualifier structure is quite simple. But for those who do not know it well, let’s analyze it through.

• A total of 1024 teams (or less, depending on the number of teams registered) will be randomly assigned to the knockouts.
• For each qualifier, with the exception of the European qualifier, six teams will participate in the official qualifying round of that region.
• All matches are BO1s – except for the semi-finals and final. They will be the BO3 series.

The third point is very unfortunate. Because it is possible for tier 1 teams to lose to weaker opponents with surprise tactics – however this has never happened in previous tournaments.

Let’s take a look at the list of strong teams in this open qualifier

North America

• Evil Geniuses
• CompLexity Gaming
• Vici Gaming J Storm
• LvT Reunion

Unfortunately, Evil Geniuses didn’t do their best at the Dota 2 SuperMajor last week, but we can’t blame them. With a new lineup consisting of s4 and fly, it was difficult for EG to prepare for this tournament.

The team had a great time at the event, especially in the losing bracket against Team Spirit – so faith in EG is still there.

The same situation happened with CompLexity: MoonMeander and Adam Shah joined at the same time that EG owned s4 and Fly. This will be the first event after compLexity changes lineup.

VGJ Storm is probably the strongest team, with impressive results throughout the Pro Circuit season. We hope they won’t have a hard time, especially when superstar Roman “Resolut1on” Fominok is performing brilliantly.

With LvT Reunion, the boys entered this list thanks to having two strong members, BananaSlamJamma and Jenkins in their lineup. Overall, they have the ability to make it to the main qualifiers with well-known members of the lineup.

South America

• GDV
• PaiN Gaming
• SG e-sports
• ThunderPredator

GDV stood out in the South American open qualifiers for obvious reasons: Clinton “Fear” Loomis, Enzo “Timado” Gianoli and Kyle Freedman were all on this roster. They will be competing against two other unknown players, with the nicknames “Greedy” and “Mooz”. This squad is most likely created to join the fun, but we should not underestimate these members.

PaiN Gaming needs no introduction, as they appear in Pro Circuit events 4 times. Let’s hope Aliwi “w33” Omar helps the Brazilian boys get through the open qualifiers without too much effort.

As for SG e-sports and ThunderPredator, they both own prominent names in the NA and SA regions. Those are Juan “Atun” Ochoa, Scofield leches “Scofield” Gomez, and even Francis “FLee” Lee.

Europe

• Alliance
• BlinkPool
• Elements Pro Gaming
• IGX
• NoBountyHunter
• Wind and Rain
• OG

Where do we start? With only one team making it to the official qualifiers, the European teams will have to contend a lot.

Alliance will compete for the first time without Loda. Instead, they will use qojqva. Apart from last week’s two Bo2 matches in the joinDOTA EU Cup, we can’t judge much from them.

BlinkPool is MiSeRy’s new team after he was kicked from EG a few weeks ago. Along with him are Madara, Keyser, KheZu and Saksa – all famous players in Europe.

LebronDota returned to Elements Pro Gaming last month after failing against Natus Vincere.

IGX are Korean players: Jio “Jeyo” Madayag, Kim “QO” Yeon-seob, Lee “Reisen” Jun-yeong and Southeast Asia support, Wong “NutZ” Jeng Yih. fans of the old MVP Phoenix can follow IGX. More specifically, Park “March” Tae-won has returned to professional competition after completing his military service.

NoBountyHunter has Turtoi “Arise” Ionut and Pittner “bOne7” Armand so fans of the Cloud9 2014 roster should wait and see Magnus tackles from Arise. Wind and Rain have a multinational roster that includes Lee “Forev” Sang-don, Ravindu “Ritsu” Kodippili, and Milan “MiLAN” Kozomara.

Of course, people can’t ignore OG. Anathan “ana” Pham returns to the roster where he won two Majors together (in Valve’s old Major system). Joining him will be the European pubstar, Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen.

CIS

• Natus Vincere
• Empire
• Team Spirit

The CIS region is pretty brief with three names. Na`Vi will be testing its new member, Fedor “velheor” Rusikhin. Empire has Rostislav “fn” Lozovoi, Andrey “Ghostik” Kadyk, and Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov – all recognized talents by the community.

Team Spirit seems like the best candidate, given what the team showed at SuperMajor. As for the rest of the teams in the region, the names are still unknown.

Southeast Asia

• Clutch Gamers
• Battle Arena E
• TaskUs Titans
• TNC Tiger

Southeast Asia has long been known for its clean qualifiers, thanks to the top teams having little difficulty against weaker opponents. This year is not much different, but with Mineski’s absence, the open qualifiers in this region are somewhat easier to breathe for other candidates.

Looking at them, TaskUS Titans and TNC Tigers are two prominent names. The Titans have talented players: Ryan Jay “Bimbo” Qui, Ralph Richard “RR” Peñano, and James Palatlon “CartMaN” John. This team will be a formidable contender in the open qualifiers.

On the other hand, TNC Tiger is led by Theeban “1437” Siva, who was the captain of the main TNC team. Prominent SEA talents like Lee “kYxY” Kong Yang and Muhammad “inYourdreaM” Rizky also appear in this lineup.

Although not considered heavyweights, Clutch Gamers and Battle Arena E are still names worth mentioning. Clutch Gamers includes players like Lai “Ahjit” Jayson, Kim “Gabbi” Villafeurte, and Kharis “SkyLark” Zafeiriou, while Battle Arena E includes Ng “YamateH” Wei Poong, Khoo “Ohaiyo” Chong Xin, and Wai Pern “Net” Lim.

China

• LGD Forever Young
• Keen Gaming
• Invictus Gaming Vitality
• EHOME
• Sun Gaming
• Team DK

Finally, the toughest area of ​​all. The China Open Qualifiers are pretty clear, with names all worthy of appearing in the official qualifiers.

LGD Forever Young, with its star lineup, will be the best candidate. Keen Gaming is another name that definitely needs to be kept in mind, this is the Chinese Tier 2 team with the most potential. Invictus Gamign Vitality also owns veteran names like Gao “dogf1ghts” Tianpeng, Yang “InJuly” Xiaodong, and Galvin “Meracle” Kang Jian Wen.

In addition to the three teams above, which are expected to win three official qualifiers, the remaining teams are still unknown. Even EHOME, one of the oldest esports organizations, hasn’t been seen as able to make a splash.

Worth noting is the “Flaming Cyborg” registered lineup of the legendary BurNIng, which was mentioned earlier in the previous post. This will be a reagent for BuRNing in rebuilding the once-famous Team DK brand.

TI8 Open Qualifiers will begin today, with Southeast Asia kicking off first. You can follow the matches on the Beyond the Summit TI8 stream.