The 6 teams vying for TI9 qualification

The EPICENTER Major is just around the corner and six teams are fighting to qualify for The International 2019.

Who is in the hunt?

Twelve teams will qualify directly to The International 2019 based on the amount of DPC points they have accrued across the 2018-2019 season.

Currently, of those twelve teams, eight have secured their spots at The International 2019 while four others—Keen Gaming, OG, TNC Predator, and EHOME—are in place to qualify; however, the results of the EPICENTER Major will decide this concretely.




Below is the breakdown of the top 20 teams; note that four teams—J.Storm, Chaos Esports Club, Mineski, and compLexity Gaming—are elminated from contention because they are not participating in Moscow; they can only reach TI9 through the Open Qualifiers.

Qualified

Unqualified

No EHOME, no Keen Gaming at EPICENTER

The two Chinese teams holding tentative spots at TI9 will both be absent in Moscow, and unable to directly secure their spot in Shanghai. While Keen Gaming has the most points of those four teams, EHOME has the least, which leaves them in a very unstable situation.

The Major will distribute points as follows:

• 1st place — 4950 points
  
• 2nd place — 3000 points
  
• 3rd place — 2100 points
  
• 4th place — 1350 points
  
• 5-6th place — 900 points
  
• 7-8th place — 450 points
  
• 9-12th place — 150 points
  
• 13-16th place — 75 points
  

Simply: for any of these six teams to qualify to TI9 via points, they will have do perform very well. This will require beating some fierce competition, as well as one another.

Alliance

Alliance is sitting at the top of the hopeful pack with 379 points. Having finished as the StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor #2 Runner-up, they are certainly feeling good about competing in a few days.

Disregarding other teams, Alliance—with 379 points—will need to finish in 7-8th place to knock off EHOME.

Gambit Esports

Gambit Esports had a strong showing by winning the Group Stage of the Epicenter M: CIS Qualifier. In fact, they have had many strong performances this year, but were never able to secure an actual LAN win, as they came second at both ESL One Katowice 2019 and StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor.

Disregarding other teams, Gambit Esports—with 228 points—will need to finish in 7-8th place to knock off EHOME.

Forward Gaming

It has been a rough year for North America. The closest they got to a premier LAN success was Evil Geniuses's recent second place finish in ESL One Birmingham 2019. Regardless, the rest of the region has been toiling to make some headway, and at the Epicenter M: North America Qualifier Forward Gaming showed some serious promise when they went 7-0 in the Group Stage to qualify.

Disregarding other teams, Forward Gaming—with 154.88 points—will need to finish in 5-6th place to knock off EHOME.

Pain Gaming

The South American squad paiN Gaming also impressed at the Epicenter M: South America Qualifier by going 6-1 to qualify directly to Moscow. paiN Gaming overall has been progressively playing better, and will certainly be hungry to show they should not be written off.

Disregarding other teams, paiN Gaming—with 150 points—will need to finish in 5-6th place to knock off EHOME.

Royal Never Give Up

As if seemingly out of nowhere, Royal Never Give Up has been playing a lot better in the last month. They stole their way into Moscow by defeating Vici Gaming at Epicenter M: China Qualifier, and (hopefully) look poised to make a at least decent run at the tournament.

Royal Never Give Up is ranked 29th. Disregarding other teams, Royal Never Give Up—with 63.65 points—will need to finish in 5-6th place to knock off EHOME.

Infamous

With the recent addition of Dominik 'Black^' Reitmeier, Infamous has been performing very well. They were the second qualified team in the Epicenter M: South America Qualifier, and, outside of paiN Gaming, no other SA squad comes close.

Infamous is ranked 31st. Disregarding other teams, Infamous—with 60.9 points—will need to finish in 5-6th place to knock off EHOME.





Will any of the teams in the EPICENTER Major perform well enough to qualify for TI9?

Photo Credit - ESL | ESL One Birmingham 2019

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