Peter 'ppd' Dager has chimed in on a hot topic: do reigning champions Newbee deserve an invite? Well, according to the EG captain they do, who puts them alongside EG and VG as the teams that "really deserve" a TI invite. PPD also explains who else he would invite to the flagship event.
PPD believes reigning champions Newbee "definitely" deserve a TI5 inviteAn uninspiring year for Newbee
Newbee finished 2014 as the most lucrative team of the year, after finishing first in the two most lucrative tournaments of the year, The International 4 and WCA 2014. The $325,000 WCA 2014 took place in October, but since then Newbee's only major appearance was at DAC in February, where they finished 13-16th place. The Chinese New Year reshuffle did little to bolster the Newbee ranks, with
Chen 'Hao' Zhihao being tempted away by Vici Gaming to replace 
Dominik 'Black^' Reitmeier as their carry. With no other LAN appearance in 2015 by Newbee, the question of whether they deserve to be invited purely because they won the event last time around is a very curious one. Ever since TI2 the reigning champions have always received a direct invite to next installment, but never in the history of Dota 2 has a TI winning team fallen into such disrepair over the course of a competitive year.
It is trend that is slowly becoming more apparent as the years go by, perhaps proof of how much more competitive the scene is becoming. After winning the first TI, Navi returned the next year to place second behind iG. Likewise at TI3, iG were invited and placed in the top 6 having won the previous year. Alliance, who won TI3, only managed 11-12th place at Ti4, and now Newbee who won over $5 million at TI4 have major competition for a direct invite. However,
Peter 'ppd' Dager appeared adamant that the team really deserves a TI5 invite."People kind of give them shit because they are slumping, or because they haven't been doing the best in the second part of the year, but regardless of the fact they still won TI4," said PPD in his vlog. "After TI4 let's not forget they were still the best team, they won four tournaments after TI which is more than a majority of teams on this list (invite)."
PPD: "You have to invite the teams you think are the best, not who are the best"
The EG captain marked EG, VG and Newbee as "the three teams I think have worked hard enough this year and deserve an invite straight up just because of who they are and what they've done." As for the rest, he commented that the number of roster changes made the "whole system really complicated".
"Everyone just changes their rosters just before TI," said PPD. "People stress about roster stability and how important it is but then there is this giant shuffle mid-year and everything changes. You have to invite the teams you think are the best, not who are the best which is why this system is all f**ked up and these three teams (EG, VG, Newbee) are the top standouts."
PPD's remaining seven invites were Empire, Secret and Cloud9 from Europe, Rave and Team Malaysia from SEA, and iG and LGD Gaming from China. To listen to the arguements for each team you can watch the original video above.
Now to the big question: would you give Newbee a direct invite to TI5?
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