Can Dendi qualify for the Minor in his hometown?

posted by Brasozial,

Four South-East Asian teams made it into the closed qualifier for the StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor. While Tigers weren't able to secure their tickets for the Major qualifier, Dendi can at least try to fight for a slot at the upcoming Minor. The two teams that got invited are Lotac and BOOM Esports because they reached the top four of the Major qualifier by beating WarriorsGaming.Unity and PG.Barracx.

The other two teams that made it into the closed qualifier are Yoshimoto.Detonator and Tigers which means that Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin has achieved his first small success with his new team.

Where is Mushi?

The Ukrainian legend joined Tigers in January 2019 on loan after his old team Natus Vincere benched him at the start of the new season. However, his first appearance was in the Major qualifier where Tigers lost against Detonator in the open qualifier.

A long time rival to our players, now ally. Let’s welcome Danil "Dendi" Ishutin as the 5th member to join the Tigers family today! Bringing the team to a full roster. Fans of Tigers, we want to share this experience with you. Meet the new members of @tigers_dota . #roartigers pic.twitter.com/w75zbAg7yZ
— Tigers (@tigers_dota) 22. Januar 2019

The biggest surprise is that Tigers isn't playing with SEA veteran Chai 'Mushi' Yee Fung anymore. The Malaysian carry joined one week before Dendi, but he didn't play in the Minor qualifier. He got replaced by the Australian player Kim 'Velo' Taesung. To make this possible, Tigers decided to move David 'Moonmeander' Tan to position 1 to make space for Velo in the offlane.

Tigers winning the closed qualifier would give Dendi the chance to win a Minor on home soil. They already proved in the open qualifier against WG.U that the new constellation could be stronger than the one before.

It's surprising to not see TNC Predator competing at the Minor. The SEA stars attended the last two Majors, but didn't make it to the upcoming DreamLeague Major.

Afterwards Michael 'ninjaboogie' Ross left and got replaced by Nico 'Eyyou' Barcelon. However, it seems like the new squad wasn't ready to compete in their region: they lost against Team Amplfy in the round of 8 in the open qualifier.