posted by Brasozial,
Tal 'Fly' Aizik and Gustav 's4' Magnusson sporting new colours? And who is the new player on Natus Vincere? Here are some storylines you shouldn't miss at the China Dota 2 Supermajor.

#Bleedblue instead of #DreamOG



We’re barely coping with the end of the most iconic duo in Dota 2 history - Johan 'BigDaddyN0tail' Sundstein and Tal 'Fly' Aizik won't play together for a while. But we are still hyped for Fly to make his first appearance as a part of EG and save the North American squad.




Alongside with his former OG teammate Gustav 's4' Magnusson, he will play for EG for the first time at the China Dota 2 Supermajor. Since the team is not eligible for DPC points, a good result won't bring them a TI invite - they still have to go through open qualifiers. However, a strong performance could bring the momentum EG needs to end this season with the lifting of the Aegis.

NA's hope on a direct invite



EG is not the only team carrying the hopes of North American fans: OpTic Gaming could still manage to get a direct invite for TI8.

After winning the Starladder | ImbaTV Invitational #5 and finishing in second place at ESL One Birmingham 2018, OpTic were hauled up to 9th place in the DPC ranking, right behind VGJ.Thunder. Just 135 points are between them and the Chinese team, who are in 8th place.

[table_responsive]RankTeamPoints
Top Contributors
1. Virtus.pro 10,350 No[o]ne3,450 9pasha3,450 RAMZEs3,450 2. PSG.LGD 6,322.5 Somnus2,107.5 Ame2,107.5 Fy2,107.5 3. Team Liquid 6,086.25 KuroKy2,028.75 Matumbaman2,028.75 MinD_ContRoL2,028.75 4. Team Secret 4,800 Puppey1,600 MidOne1,600 YapzOr1,600 5. Mineski 3,150 ninjaboogie1,050 Mushi1,050 Moon1,050 6. Vici Gaming 2,835 Ori945 Eleven945 Fenrir945 7. Newbee 2,445 Kaka815 kpii815 Sccc815 8. VGJ.Thunder 1,935 ddc630 Sylar630 Fade630 9. OpTic Gaming 1,800 ppd600 Pajkatt600 CCnC600 [/table_responsive]

Getting the direct invite is not just a nice-to-have for captain Peter 'ppd' Dagerand his squad, since not just EG has to go through NA qualifiers. Forward Gaming look pretty strong with their newest addition Roman 'Resolut1on' Fominok and even have more DPC points than EG. They’ll be playing qualifiers too though, since adding Reso made them ineligible as well. North American qualifiers will be very stacked.

The miracle run to TI?



OpTic is not the only team which is able to still snag a last-minute invite to The International. In fact, two more teams theoretically stand a chance at reaching top 8, because the Supermajor brings more DPC points than any tournament before it.




TNC Predator is in 12th place right now with 495 points. Almost 1500 points are between them and VGJ.T. A Grand Finals spot would put them up to either 2025 or 3375 points - enough to surpass the Chinese team. Not only do they have to reach the last game of the tournament, but they would also need OpTic and VGJ.T to be eliminated before the top 4.

The same goes for The Final Tribe. The Swedish squad haven’t earned any DPC Points yet – but they still can make the Cinderella story to directly get invited for TI!

Can the new guy bring Na'Vi back?



Crowd's favorite Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin and his teammates at Natus Vincere will compete as well in Shanghai. The focus this time won't be on the favourite mid laner, but the newest addition on Position 4.



Russian youngster Fedor 'velheor' Rusihin replaced Nikola 'LeBronDota' Popovic before ESL One Birmingham 2018 started. The CIS squad then decided not to attend the Major in UK and bootcamped for a while - all fans are now hoping that this roster move was the right decision to make it through TI qualifiers.

From Saturday on, we can see the new support player in action at the Supermajor.


Photo credit: Perfect World_DOTA2 - Twitter

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