The International 5 Regional Qualifiers to Feature Top Philippine Talent; Open Qualifiers Included

The International 5 direct and qualifier invites have been announced, with the Philippines’ very own team, Rave, missing out on direct invites to the main event. Instead, the Filipino squad will duke it out along with the likes of Signature.Trust, G-Guard and MVP.Phoenix, among others in the Southeast Asian Qualifiers.

The winner of the qualifiers will join the other 10 invited teams in Seattle, this August.

Here are the list of the qualifier teams for Dota 2’s premier tournament:

Americas Qualifier:

ROOT Gaming
Summer’s Rift
Not Today
Team Leviathan
Team Tinker
Void Boys
compLexity Gaming
North American Rejects
Wheel Whreck While Whistling
Americas Open Winner

China Qualifier:

TongFu
CDEC Gaming
Newbee Youth
HyperGloryTeam
Old Boys
Energy Pacemaker
Vici Gaming Potential
EHOME
TongFu WanZhou
China Open Winner

Southeast Asia Qualifier:

5eva
Mineski
Can’t Say Wips
Rave
TnC Gaming
MVP.Phoenix
Signature.Trust
G-Guard
MVP.Hot6
Southeast Asia Open Winner

European Qualifier:

Vega Squadron
Burden United
Natus Vincere
Power Rangers
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Alliance
London Conspiracy
Hellraisers
4 Anchors + Sea Captain
Europe Open Winner

So what should we expect this year?

First of all, Valve has decided to give a chance to up-and-coming teams a shot at getting into Dota 2’s most prestigious event by creating the “Open Qualifier” system in which everyone could register. Up to 1024 teams from each region can join the Open, which is done in collaboration with FACEIT and Perfect World.

The Open Qualifier will start on May 16 at 11 am, Philippine Standard Time.

The Regional Qualifiers will commence on May 25, starting with the Americas and China Qualifiers, followed by Europe and Southeast Asia rounds on May 29 and will conclude on June 1.

The winner of each regional qualifier will recieve an outright slot to Seattle, while the runner-up of each region will fight in the Wild Card bracket for the final two slots in the tournament. In comparison to last year, only one slot was given in the playoffs, while this time, there is a chance for the second-best team of the Wild Card to get a slot in the main event.

Who should we watch out in this year’s Regional Qualifiers?

Everyone will fight to the bitter end for a chance to compete in the most lucrative eSports event of the year, which has reached a total of $6,386,016 (P285,581,072) pesos at the time of writing and is still actively increased through crowdfunding.

The European Qualifier is noticeably stacked: On one hand, past champions such as Natus Vincere and Alliance are in the mix. On the other hand, rising teams like Ninjas in Pyjamas and Power Rangers are gunning it up for one of two slots to Seattle. Based on the constellation of talent involved in these matchups, it would not be wrong to say that this will be the “Qualifier of Death.”

As for the Southeast Asia Qualifier, it will be loaded with drama and aggression; expect all-out brawls between the teams. TNC Gaming is actually the new kid on the TI qualifier block. This would be the battleground where these young-blooded players will be tested to their limits against the likes of 5eva, Can’t Say Wips and of course, Mineski and Rave.

The Americas and China Qualifier will be interesting due to the fact that every team on the list can theoretically take games from each other.

Do we have someone to cheer on?

There are currently three Filipino teams in the Southeast Asia Qualifier. This includes Mineski, TNC Gaming and Rave; however, it is possible to see a fourth squad if a Filipino side gets the Open Qualifier for SEA.

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