Manila Qualifiers - Bloodsport

With Valve decreasing the number of qualifying spots from 2 for each region to only 1, the qualifiers for the Manila Major will be nothing short of gruesome for the teams involved. Each region has grown immensely just over the past few months, with China back on track and SEA starting to make an impact, and there are many teams from each region at the verge of breaking into the top. To get there will require not only skill and perseverance from them, but also a bit of luck. With so many games to be played over such a short period of time, each team will have at least one game where they’re just a little bit off and that’s where they need lady luck to smile at them and not have that happen in that last game of a Bo3 where a loss can mean elimination.

While the teams suffer through this agony the real winner are us, the fans of Dota. Many of us don’t venture outside of the top LANs, and rarely see teams from outside of the very top play. This is an opportunity for us to peek into the 2nd tier of Dota and, just maybe, find the stars of tomorrow.

Americas

Games starts in:

The face of the Americas scene has changed, reshaped significantly by the void left in Evil Geniuses’ roster following Arteezy and Universe’s departure as well as the match fixing scandal that rocked the emerging South American scene. Most notably, Digital Chaos’ past lineup has been completely swept away: destabilized by the departures of charter members Aui_2000 and Bulba to EG. The first team to advance through Shanghai’s Americas qualifier, Team Archon, has also been dissolved. With the other only real relevant team (compLexity) directly invited to Manila and the expulsion of Elite Wolves from Valve events, the Americas qualifier is an entirely different beast this time around.

The initial favorites to come out on top are definitely the reformed Digital Chaos, who are now sporting two members from the first place squad from Shanghai, w33 and Misery, as well as fellow European imports Resolut1on and Saksa and American offlaner Moo. The other frontrunners are the retooled Shazam, who have swapped out Ritsu and Mason for TC and Fun. They have been nipping at the heels of compLexity in every Americas qualifier, falling just short of securing their place at both Epicenter and ESL Frankfurt. With compLexity out of the picture, however, the path to the Shanghai has been made significantly more realistic.

Behind DC and Shazam are a score of familiar faces that should not be taken so easily. Ixmike’s Team Freedom earned their spot in the upper crust by braving the open qualifiers to earn their spot at the Shanghai regionals, as well as taking home a Pro Dota cup away from Shazam. The old Leviathan boys are back with a new team, Animal Kingdom, featuring former Void Boy and Archon core player 747, TI5 coL’s carry Zyzz, and long time Hawaiian support jaH. Infamous returns, shedding mid player Ztok and bringing back old Unknown teammate Atun, and have shown promise after getting to the finals of BTS Americas #4. Elsewhere in South America, Not Today returns for another qualifier with Benjaz at the helm, this time with an all Peruvian squad. The final two teams, Enemy and EverNovaS, have yet to really prove themselves with tangible results, but contain many scene veterans like Flying Zebra and BananaSlamJamma on Enemy and FLUFF, wayto, and Demon on EverNovaS. We know largely know how Enemy stacks up against the field, but EverNovaS stands to be the big wildcard this qualifier, being very new but having tons of potential with Aussie transplant Slickz and DC’s former mid player Yawar.

In the world of NA Dota, as time has shown, anything can happen and this qualifier is no different. Will the favorites get their ticket to Manila, as Cloud9 and compLexity had done in the past? Or will we be once again see a miracle run like Team Unknown?

China

Games starts in:

Three days of madness are approaching us which will leave only one team left atop the broken and destroyed remains of their competitors. Valve has changed things up for the Manila Major leading to the qualifier being an even larger bloodbath than before. Newbee has championed over the Chinese scene since the shuffle after a horrendous showing in Shanghai but had their invite snatched away from them by LGD after a strong showing in Kiev at Starladder. Adding to the uncertainty of who will reign supreme, Icefrog delivered 6.87 to us which is almost more of an expansion pack than a simple patch to the game. There will be virtually no time to fully explore and discover the most effective ways to use new items and pick the heroes that will shine months from now. This chaos might even give some of the teams that normally would not have a chance a shot at overcoming the disparity between themselves and favourites.

Aside from Newbee we also have EHOME who had the same opportunity as Wings to earn an invite at ESL One Manila but instead crumbled under the pressure and find themselves now in the precarious position of fighting through the qualifiers. While EHOME would normally be right behind Newbee as a favourite to win, their recent results, the new patch, and hungry youth squads for IG and CDEC might be enough to overtake them.

Lastly we have a cautionary tale that we see time and time again. VG consigned themselves to the open qualifier after making a roster change to bring Sylar onto the team. VG managed to prevail but it was not smooth sailing as they almost lost multiple times in the bo1 stage. VG will try to keep their momentum going into the main qualifiers to secure the only slot available but will face an uphill battle which honestly even given their star-studded roster they aren't expected to win. The Chinese qualifier would be difficult to call even on the old patch but given the current status and the large infusion of new players we could see anything happen before Manila.

Europe & CIS

Games starts in:

Since the inception of the Major system at the beginning of this year’s Dota2 season the European qualifiers have gained the well-earned reputation of being particularly cut-throat due to the high amount of competition within the European region. Steeled by their harrowing qualifier experiences, the survivors of the savagery went on to deliver two celebrated breakout performances at the majors with OG taking home Frankfurt and Liquid falling just short at Shanghai.

With Valve’s decision to extend invites to 12 teams for Manila the European region has now officially become a bloodbath. The entire elite of the CIS region has now been consigned to a struggle to the death for a single ticket to Manila with no clear favorite in sight.
The just concluded WePlay has given us no clear answers only more questions in regards to the pecking order in the CIS scene. Surprisingly the invited Na’Vi were one of the first to be eliminated, only Spirit, which has so far not lived up to the potential on their roster since the shuffle, did worse out of the attending CIS teams. While Vega raised more than one eyebrow by beating EG in the lower bracket, their record against MVP.Phoenix has been far from a confidence boost for the upcoming qualifier. But even against Virtus.Pro, Polarity and Power Rangers there is only chaos. These teams take maps or series off each other all the time, seemingly depending on who is more on form that day.

If you are still not convinced about the savage nature of the European qualifiers, there is even more making this the perhaps most stacked qualifier ever. Taking a look outside the CIS region we also have strong challengers all around. Perennial Greek dark horse Ad Finem will be looking to prove themselves after a disappointing WePlay performance. Fan-favorites No Diggity will also be looking to keep syndereN’s perfect score of Valve-event qualifiers alive and how strong the resurrected Kaipi will prove to be is anyone’s guess. The winner of this free-for-all is excruciatingly hard to predict and I will not even try to. All I can say is that everyone had better make sure to get out some snacks and drinks for Manila’s European Brawl because this one will surely go down to the wire.

South-East Asia

Games starts in:

For years now the South-East Asian region has been pretty much the laughing stock of the professional Dota 2 community. Except for Orange’s amazing run at TI3, the teams from the region have been a part of a quota rather than a legitimate invite to major events. Lately that has started to change though. Spearheaded by Fnatic and MVP.Phoenix, the SEA region has shown that it belongs in the elite tournaments around the world, earning the two teams a well deserved invite to the Manila major. Behind the two there is a void though, as the rest of the teams in the region haven’t been nearly as successful in international events, usually finishing dead last.

That doesn’t mean that the SEA qualifiers should be laughed at. Most of the teams in the qualifiers have taken games off the two top dogs in their scene, and can most likely do so again. This combined with the fact that the scene has some very stable teams like Signature.Trust, who has been together since early 2015, or The Mongolz, where a majority of the players have played together since 2013, bodes well for the future.

Moving past the bright future of the SEA scene, who’s to be looked out for now? Well Mineski is always a threat in the SEA scene, when looking past the two top teams, and should be able to go on a decent run again. The newly reborn Rave should also be interesting, with Jeyo returning to the SEA scene, and who could forget how hyped the team was after placing top 6 in DAC back in 2015? Taring could be somewhat of a dark horse team, featuring one of the old “Gods” of DotA: YamateH, but don’t get your hopes up too much as he has never been able to make a huge impact in Dota 2. These are just three of the teams in the SEA qualifier, but the others are not to be underestimated either, and we absolutely expect the battle for that one spot at the major to be no less bloody than in the other regions.

WritersDoctorHeckle, OmniEulogy, ShiaoPi, Julmust
EditorSn0_Man
GraphicsNixer