Boston Major Invites Announced! Execration make the cut!!!

Boston Major Invites Announced! Execration make the cut!!!
posted by Karma-,
Today Valve unveiled the 8 teams headed to the first Major of the 2016/17 season in Boston from December 3rd to 7th. Among them were TI6 champions and runner-up: cn Team Random* and world Planet Odd*. Some will be surprised to see the inclusion Execration as well.


The Teams

Wings Gaming: The champions of the International have so far competed in very few games since their victory in the summer, although this is many more than past TI-champs have done in their position. They have not slacked during the lull of major tournaments as shown by their unbeaten record over the past two weeks showcasing their skills in DPL S2.


Digital Chaos: Despite swapping popular offlaner us David 'Moo' Hull for equally talented ca David 'Moonmeander' Tan during the shuffle period the "NA" team's invite was a suprise to no-one. What will be exciting is seeing how their new roster squares up against the competition on "home" soil in the form of NA Beat and The Summit 6.


Evil Geniuses: Following the ever iconic us Clinton 'Fear' Loomis's retirement and ca Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev re-re-joining the squad EG will look to continue to build momentum off the back of victory at MDL in the run up to the Major. dk Andreas 'Cr1t-' Nielsen already looks like a seasoned part of the team and EG will surely look to secure their first Valve-tournament win following 3 3rd places last season.


Newbee: The TI4 champs have had a major roster overhaul since TI and it seems to have paid off, securing themselves a place in Boston. cn Song 'Sccc' Chun and cn Xu 'Moogy' Han have both impressed since their arrival and many eagerly await to see how they will develop.


MVP Phoenix: Yet to fully recover from the loss of key players from their TI6 squad, MVP have not been quite able to gel fluidly as a squad, but with more than a month until Boston hopefully they gain regain their dominant form.


EHOME: Another team who have opted to pick up two new players in the form of seasoned veteran cn Liu 'Sylar' Jiajun and TI5 runner-up cn Liu 'garder' Xinzhou EHOME have shone in their qualifying games for The Summit 6.



Execration: Following their victory at MGPL there has been little worth mentioning about the Fillipino squad. However given if they are able to replicate their performance from MPGL they could prove to be dark horses and cause some major upsets.


OG: Other than their respectable 3rd place at MDL and a single game in the FaceIt Invitational, the reformed OG have played no official games, with past Major results probably aiding them due to their lacklustre TI placing. There is no denying their individual talents however and in the run-up it will be exciting to see how they cope with losing so many key members.


Qualifiers
With their recent performances world Team NP look likely to secure the top spot from NA, with the second being decided between us compLexity Gaming and us Friendship, Dedication, Love*, with coL likely having an edge. China should prove easy for an overhauled cn PSG.LGD but second place could go to any one of the teams.

Europe will be exciting to watch for sure, but many will favour eu Team Secret following their win in the FaceIt Invitational. CIS squads ru Virtus.pro, ua Natus Vincere may snatch second from an underperforming eu Team Liquid who many expected to get invited.

SEA appears to be more cut and dry with it likely being a simple affair for Int Fnatic and world Team Faceless*. Although in the past this is the region that has delivered the most curveballs and it would be a great storyline for one of the underdogs to snatch a place away from the clear favourites.

Overall the Boston Major is shaping up to be an amazing continuation on the system Valve first implemented last year, and hopefully it will deliver in terms of quality games much like the past Majors.

Comments