Dota 2: Valve Announces Direct Invites to the 2014 International Tournament, Talks Qualifiers
Dota 2 fans rejoice! Valve have announced the list of invited teams for the upcoming International 2014.
The full list of invited teams is as follows:
Alliance
- Gustav ‘s4‘ Magnusson
- Henrik ‘AdmiralBulldog‘ Ahnberg
- Joakim ‘Akke‘ Akterhall
- Jerry ‘EGM‘ Lundkvist
- Jonothan ‘Loda‘ Berg
Cloud 9
- Johan ‘pieliedie’ Åström
- Pittner ‘bOne7’ Armand
- WehSing ‘SingSing’ Yuen
- Jacky ‘EternaLEnVy’ Mao
- Kurtis ‘Aui_2000’ Ling
Evil Geniuses
- Peter ‘ppd’ Dagger
- Clinton ‘Fear’ Loomis
- Saahil ‘Universe’ Arora
- Artour ‘Arteezy’ Babaev
- Ludwig ‘zai’ Wåhlberg
Fnatic
- Tal ‘Fly’ Aizik
- Johan ‘N0tail’ Sundstein
- Adrian ‘Era’ Kryeziu
- Kai ‘H4nn1’ Hanbueckers
- Kalle ‘Trixi’ Saarinen
Invictus Gaming
- Jiang ‘YYF’ Cen
- Hong Da ‘Faith’ Zeng
- Wong Hock ‘ChuaN’ Chuan
- Yinqi ‘Luo’ Luo
Natus Vincere
- Clement ‘Puppey’ Ivanov
- Danylo ‘Dendi’ Ishutin
- Kuro Salehi ‘KuroKy’ Takhasomi
- Oleksandr ‘XBOCT’ Dashkevich
- Hlib ‘Funn1k’ Lipatnikov
Newbee
- Zhang ‘xiao8‘ Ning
- Chen ‘Hao‘ Zhihao
- Zhang ‘Mu‘ Pan
- Jiao ‘Banana‘ Wang
- Zhao Hui ‘SanSheng‘ Wang
Team DK
- Zhi Lei ‘BurNIng’ Xu
- Zeng Rong ‘MMY!’ Lei
- Zhi Cheng ‘LaNm’ Zhang
- Yee Fung ‘Mushi’ Chai
- Daryl ‘iceiceice’ Koh Pei Xiang
Team Empire
- Airat ‘Silent’ Gaziev
- Ivan ‘VANSKOR’ Skorokhod
- Roman ‘Resolut1on’ Fominok
- Andrey ‘Mag’ Chipenko
- Andrey ‘ALWAYSWANNAFLY’ Bondarenko
Titan eSports
- Joel ‘XtiNcT’ Chan Zhan Leong
- Kang Yang ‘kYxY’ Lee
- Wai Pern ‘Net’ Lim
- Chong Xin ‘Ohaiyo’ Khoo
- Ng ‘YamateH’ Wei Poong
Vici Gaming
- Lu ‘Fenrir’ Chao
- Lin Sen ‘Fy’ Xu
- Bai ‘rOtk’ Fan
- Jun Hao ‘Super’ Xie
- Jia Jun ‘Sylar’ Liu
The Qualifiers
The qualifiers will take place over a four day period with ten teams per region battling for a coveted invitation. The games will initially take place in a round robin format with the top four teams from each region continuing on the the events beginning on day three.
Day three will focus on the top four qualifiers from the stack, with each team advancing to a double elimination bracket. The top two teams will advance to a winners bracket, while the bottom two will move to a losers bracket.
The fourth day will be a consolidation match followed by a best of five grand finals match in order to determine which team will be directly invited to participate in the International. The runner-up will receive an invite to Seattle to partake in a Play-In series while the winner will move on to participate in the actual tournament.
May 12th – 15th North American Qualifier Invites
- CNB e-Sports Club
- No Earthspirit
- North American Rejects
- Osiris Gaming
- Revenge eSports
- Sneaky Nyx Assassins
- Team eHug
- Team Liquid
- TOP5
- Union Gaming
May 16th – 19th South East Asia Qualifier Invites
- Arrow Gaming
- Execration
- First Departure
- Mineski Infinity
- MiTH.Trust
- MVP Phoenix
- Orange Esports
- Rex Regum Qeon
- Scythe Gaming
- Team Zephyr
May 20th – 23th Chinese Qualifier Invites
- CIS Game
- CNB.cn
- DT.NGC
- HyperGloryTeam
- LGD.CDEC
- LGD Gaming
- New Element
- Orenda
- Speed Gaming.cn
- TongFu
May 24th – 27th European Qualifier Invites
- Aware Gaming
- hehe united
- Monomaniacs
- Meet Your Makers
- NEXT.kz
- Power Rangers
- Relax
- RoX.KIS
- Team Dog
- Virtus.pro
The International will take place July 18-21 at the Key Arena at Seattle Center in Seattle, WA. The teams will be competing for a $1 million prize pool in addition to the coveted International pendant. Last year’s tournament was an incredible match that featured Alliance and Natus Vincere competing for the top spot. After an intense best of three round Alliance was victorious, defeating fan favorites Na’Vi and walking home with a total of $1.6 million. Only time will tell how this year’s event will play out, but one this is for sure: it’s bound to be exciting. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as the qualifying matches begin to unfold later this month.