UPDATE: Kuala Lumpur Major — Open Qualifiers #1 round-up

posted by Olucaron,

With so many rosters rising out of the traditional post-TI shuffle, competition for places at the first Major of the year is more fierce than ever. With that, the Open Qualifiers for The Kuala Lumpur Major in each region have already begun, with some big names making it to the next stage and some missing out. Here, we round up the action so far.

Moo’s new roster gets off to a good start

In North America, former compLexity Gaming offlaner David 'Moo' Hull made it safely through the first hurdle with J.Storm, dropping just one game as they sealed a spot at the The Kuala Lumpur Major: North America Qualifier. The roster includes Koreans Tae Won 'March' Park and Sang-Don 'FoREv' Lee in the support and offlane roles respectively, while Jonathan Bryle 'Bryle' Santos De Guia takes the midlane spot. The lineup is completed by Bosnian support player Milan 'MiLAN' Kozomara, formerly of Wind and Rain.

The other slot in the Qualifier went to a side named Skr skr, who mirrored MoA2’s run in only dropping one game throughout. Their roster comprises Americans Sunk1st and hqxzr in the carry and support roles, Chinese players bty and Han 'Mad' Cheng in the offlane and position 5 slots, and Canadian picslaeder in the midlane.

The two teams will now join the invited Evil Geniuses, Forward Gaming (Resolut1on’s new side), compLexity Gaming and beastcoast in the NA Qualifier, with two more teams set to complete the lineup after Open Qualifier #2.

jDL winners seal SA Major Qualifier slot

Gorillaz - Pride sealed one of the qualifying positions in South America, with an almost-flawless run that saw them make it through a field of over 100 entrants. Winners of the joinDOTA League America Season 13, their mainly-Peruvian roster comprises k1 in the carry role, Jean Pierre 'Chris Luck' Gonzales as midlaner, Alexis 'Greedy' Ventura in the offlane and both Alexis 'slad1n' Cepeda and Alex Davila 'Masoku' Matallana in support.

Also making it through were Astini777, a roster including Brazilian former paiN Gaming* support Heitor 'Duster' Pereira. Again only dropping one game, their lineup is completed by Argentinean midlaner Javier 'Tecla' Peña and Brazilians Henry 'murd0c' Almeira, John 'Dashka' Kether and Lucas 'Hyko' Oliveira in positions 2 to 4.

Awaiting them in the South America Qualifier are paiN-Gaming, Rasmus 'rASmus' Fillipsen’s new roster S.K.O.L — also featuring Danylo 'KINGRD' Nascimento, Otávio 'tavo' Gabriel, Omar 'w33haa' Aliwi and William 'hFnk3' Medeiros — Timado’s new side Infamous and all-Peruvian lineup Demolition Boys.

Big names miss out in Europe

Another former jDL winner missed out in this qualifier, as all-Swedish roster The Final Tribe fell in the final match of the Open Qualifier #1 to unknown quantities Madjor Atendari, a squad primarily made up of Bulgarian players. The winning roster was Ludwig as carry, Stoyan 'lil_pleb' Kostov in the midlane, offlaner Ivan Georgiev 'Vihren' Shtetinski and support Stanimir 'eNdota' Kirov, backed up by Russian nthh in the position 5 slot.

Meanwhile, syndereN’s new team HappyGuys lost in the round of 8 to Burden United, who then lost to Vega Squadron (EU), featuring TI participant and former Team Secret offlaner Maurice 'KheZu' Gutmann. Backed up by Greek players Omar 'Madara' Dabachach and Verros 'Maybe Next Time' Apostolos, Jordanian midlaner Anas 'MagE-' Hirzalla and Finnish support Peetu-Elmeri 'Peksu' Väätäinen, the side remained undefeated to claim their ticket to the next stage of qualifying.

They’ll now meet Team Liquid, Team Secret, Alliance and Ninjas in Pyjamas — the new roster from Peter 'ppd' Dager including Neta '33' Shapira and former Team Secret players Adrian 'Fata' Trinks and Marcus 'Ace' Hoelgaard.

LeBron making moves in CIS

With a perfect run to claim their spot, Nikola 'LeBronDota' Popovic and his Elements Pro Gaming lineup look strong early on. He is backed up by fellow Serbians Uros 'swiftending' Galic as carry and Dusko 'Boranija' Boranijasevic as midlaner, with Croatians Damir 'Mitch' Skaricic and Dino 'dnz' Šavuk making up the roster as offlane and support respectively.

The second team to seal their chance at Major qualification was Team Spirit. The multinational team features Artem 'fng' Barshack as captain and former Penta Sports player Leon 'nine' Kirilin as midlaner and Slovakian carry Oliver 'Skiter' Lepko, with Danish players Mikki 'Hestejoe-Rotten' Junget and Malthe 'Biver' Winther in the offlane rounding things out.

Awaiting them in the Qualifier are invited teams Virtus.pro, Winstrike, Odium and Espada.

Moonmeander’s Tigers roar in SEA

A comfortable route through the Open Qualifiers saw Tigers, the new roster featuring Canadian offlaner David 'Moonmeander' Tan, make it through at the first attempt. The lineup also features fellow Canadian Theeban '1437' Siva in support, Indonesian duo Muhammad 'inYourdreaM' Rizky and Kenny 'Xepher' Deo in midlane and position 4, and Malaysian carry Lai Jay 'Ah Jit' Son.

Alongside them are Lotac, the new roster featuring former TNC Predator carry Marc Polo Luis 'Raven' Fausto. They took down all-Indonesian roster EVOS Esports to book their ticket in the next stage, and their roster features midlaner Kee Chyuan 'ChYuan' Ng, offlaner Chong Xin 'Ohaiyo' Khoo and supports Nico 'Eyyou' Barcelon and Ng 'YamateH' Wei Poong.

In the SEA Qualifier they’ll meet the invited teams of Mineski, TNC Predator, Execration and Fnatic — with the latter having just announced the arrival of Anucha 'Jabz' Jirawong, Pyo 'MP' Noa and legendary troll Daryl Koh 'iceiceice' Pei Xiang.

UPDATE: Chinese qualifiers now known…

ORIGINAL: The only open qualifier in the first round still waiting to confirm its winners is China. In a highly competitive bracket that has seen LaNm’s DeathBringer Gaming, Ferrari_430’s Mr Game Boy and EHOME already fall short, we have our two final matches.

In the second, new org Royal Never Give Up will be looking to Du 'Monet' Peng to carry them through against Team EVER, while in the first match Team Aster will be hoping their stacked roster, featuring Lu 'Fenrir' Chao, Ye 'BoBoKa' Zhibiao and Liu 'Sylar' Jiajun, will prevail against Winning Gaming.

Notably, Invictus Gaming were absent from the Open Qualifier #1, especially having not been invited to the qualifier itself — those slots go to PSG.LGD, Vici Gaming, Newbee and Team Serenity.

EDIT: Both semi-finals ended in 2-1 victories, as Team Aster prevailed over Winning Gaming and Royal Never Give defeated Team EVER to claim their spots in the The Kuala Lumpur Major: China Qualifier.

Which teams will make the Major? Who will miss out from your region?

Header image © ESL | Patrick Strack