TI6 invites, qualifier teams announced: Six invitees, Na’Vi make the cut

Valve has released the TI6 invites list. Only six directly invited teams, eight qualified teams – two from each of the major geographical regions – and four Wild Card teams will travel to Seattle for this year’s most prestigious Dota 2 event, The International 6.

This year’s International brings about changes in the number of direct invites handed to the teams. Only six teams have received direct invites to The International 6: three from Europe (OG, Team Liquid and Na’Vi), two from China (Newbee and LGD Gaming) and one from Southeast Asia (MVP.Phoenix). Surprisingly, the Americas region was left without a direct invite this year.

Thirty-eight other teams from across four regions will battle it out in the Regional Qualifiers (June 25-28) for the remaining 10 spots in Seattle. The Americas region seems to be in the black books, with only six invited teams in the Regional Qualifiers, as opposed to eight per region for Europe, China and SEA.

The top two teams from each region will earn TI6 invites. Third-place finishers will also make the trip to Seattle for the Wild Card round, where they will fight to secure one of the final two spots in the tournament.

Teams hoping to receive invites to the Valve-sponsored events were required to finalize and register their rosters by March 27th. With this roster lock remaining in place until after The International 6 – the longest and most important one so far – many teams failed to keep their lineups unaltered and have thus forfeited their chances of receiving any type of TI6 invites.

Evil Geniuses, Team Secret, Polarity, Kaipi, Team Spirit, ProDotA Gaming, Infamous, TnC Gaming are some of the teams that have violated the roster lock requirements and were no longer eligible for TI6 invites. In compliance with Valve’s roster lock stipulations, teams that make changes to their registered rosters outside the transfer window are forced to take the long, quivering road to The International 6, through the brutal best-of-one Open Qualifiers.

The International 6 Open Qualifiers registration is now open for all four regions. Up to 1024 teams per region can compete for spots in the Regional Qualifiers. The Open Qualifiers will take place between June 21st-24th, followed by the Regional Qualifiers, set to begin on June 25th.

Six teams have received direct invites to The International 6:

OG (Europe), Team Liquid (Europe), Newbee (China), LGD Gaming (China), MVP.Phoenix (Southeast Asia), Natus Vincere (Europe-CIS).

Thirty-eight teams in the Regional Qualifiers: 30 invited, 8 from the Open Qualifiers

TI6 invites for the European Qualifiers (June 25-28):

Alliance, Power Rangers, Team Empire, Ad Finem, Vega Squadron, Flipsid3 Tactics, Virtus.Pro, No Diggity

TI6 invites for the Southeast Asian Qualifiers (June 25-28):

Fnatic, Rave, Mineski, Signature Trust, Warriors Gaming.Unity, Execration, Orange.Taring, The Mongolz

TI6 invites for the Americas Qualifiers (June 25-28):

Digital Chaos; Friendship, Dedication, Love; Complexity Gaming; Vultur Gaming; Drinking Boys

*Not Today were initially among the Regional Qualifiers invitees for the Americas region. However, their player Diego “Jericho” Rivera has left the team to replace Jimmy “DeMoN” Ho on Infamous Gaming. Not Today have thus been revoked their Regional Qualifiers invite and are now forced to go through the Open Qualifiers.

The Americas region has been left with only five invited teams in the Main Qualifiers.

TI6 invites for the Chinese Qualifiers (June 25-28):

Vici Gaming.Reborn, TongFu, CDEC, Wings Gaming, IG, CDEC.Youth, EHOME*, IG.Vitality

*On May 9th, eLeVeN decided to go inactive due to personal reasons and was moved to the substitute position. On June 17th, eLeVeN returned to the offlane position on EHOME’s main roster.

Team OG © Steffie Wunderl/ ESL

OG first defied the odds when they rose through the Lower Brackets, bested The International 5 champions, Evil Geniuses, and upset favorites Team Secret to rocket to the top and claim the championship title and the staggering 1.1 million dollars prize at the first Dota Major, in Frankfurt.

They followed up with a first place finish at DreamLeague Season 4 but slid into the 5th-8th place at the DotaPit Season 4 LAN. Stepping back up, they secured the fourth place at StarLadder iLeague Dota Invitational after being bested by Na’Vi, 2:1, in the Lower Brackets.

They took a remarkable third place at EPICENTER Moscow and then the championship title at DreamLeague Season 5 one week later, after they absolutely shellacked Na’Vi, 3:0.

In another ground-breaking moment, OG seized their second Valve championship title at the Manila Major, when they defeated Team Liquid, 3:1. Having played with the same, unaltered roster since August 28th, 2015, OG became the first team to claim titles in two Valve-sponsored events. The European squad has just clinched its third title in one month, today, after defeating Natus Vincere, 3:0, in the ESL One Frankfurt Grand Finals.

Kuroky, Team Liquid © DotaBlast

Team Liquid the seized second place at the Shanghai Major, after taking down Alliance, MVP.Phoenix and Evil Geniuses. Since the Shanghai Major, they were directly invited to participate in ESL One Manila and ESL One Frankfurt 2016, and they assumed EHOME’s place when the Chinese team’s invite to EPICENTER Moscow was revoked due to roster changes*.

*On May 9th, eLeVeN decided to go inactive due to personal reasons and was moved to the substitute position. On June 17th, eLeVeN returned to the offlane position on EHOME’s main roster.

On April 24th, Team Liquid went undefeated into the ESL One Manila Grand Finals, but ended up dropping three games, along with the championship title, to Wings Gaming.

EPICENTER Moscow would be their shining moment. After two consecutive second place finishes at premier events, the European mix seized their first premier championship title when they edged out Newbee, 3:2, in a dramatic series.

Once again, the European team provided some standout performances and breathtaking matches at the Manila Major. After an almost perfect run through the Lower Brackets, Team Liquid was bested by OG in the Grand Finals, 3:1. Liquid ended up taking another second place position in a Dota 2 Major.

Today, Team Liquid have ended their run at ESL One Frankfurt in the semifinals. The European squad has been playing with the same roster since August 28th, 2015, right after The International 5.

Hao, Newbee © EPICENTER Moscow

For the Spring season, Meng “Xiao2lei” Lei and Zhang “le” Xuanhao moved to Newbee.Young, while Damien “kphoenii” Chok and Hu “Kaka” Liangzhi joined the team. Kaka had last played for EHOME and kphoenii is an Australian player who played for MVP.Phoenix and EHOME.King.

Newbee put an end to EHOME’s last hopes to participate in EPICENTER Moscow. The TI4 Championship team convincingly wiped out EHOME, 3:0, in the EPICENTER Moscow Chinese qualifiers to secure a spot in the closed qualifiers.

Their incredible performance in the qualifiers was reiterated recently, when they went through the entire Manila Major Chinese Qualifiers with an astounding 12:0 record.

Their streak continued through the EPICENTER Moscow LAN, where they set a new record of 29 consecutive wins until OG defeated them in the Upper Brackets. Eventually, the Chinese took an impressive second place finish in the event. Newbee went on to clinch the third place at the Manila Major.

LGD Gaming © StarLadder

LGD Gaming announced their new roster for the Manila Major and TI6 season in mid-March. On the heels of the public departure of Liu “Sylar” Jiajun and Fan “rOtk” Bai, Zhang “xiao8” Ning returned from being inactive. CDEC’s famed Sun “Agressif” Zheng and CDEC.Avenger player Xue “September” Zhichuan joined at the same time.

In the team’s first major LAN debut at StarLadder iLeague Dota Invitational, LGD showed some spectacular performances and seized the third place. They were the Chinese team to qualify for the ESL One Frankfurt 2016 LAN after overpowering ViCi Gaming.Reborn, 3:1, for the spot, but ended up withdrawing due to alleged health issues. The Chinese powerhouse placed 4th at the Manila Major, this month.

MVP.Phoenix © StarLadder

After two roster changes for the Korean organization, MVP.Phoenix qualified for the Shanghai Major and placed 4th in the main event, showing an incredible improvement in synergy and mechanics. Shortly after, the Korean team then went on to win the Dota Pit championship title.

Taking a surprising 7th-8th place at StarLadder i-League Invitational, the team still received recognition for their hard-work when they were invited to the WePlay LAN and received a direct invite to the Manila Major. WePlay LAN then witnessed a decisive victory by MVP.Phoenix over Vega Squadron, 3:1, bestowing the Korean squad with their second championship title and trophy in less than six weeks. MVP.Phoenix shared the 5th-6th place with Fnatic at the Manila Major, this month.

Na’Vi © StarLadder

After trying out and then finalizing their roster in February, with Viktor “GeneRaL” Nigrini, Na’Vi began to surge forward with positive results.

In the DotaPit Season 4 LAN, Na’Vi secured an impressive 3rd-4th placement after a long stint of struggles. Na’Vi ended their run at the DotaPit LAN finals having bested the Shanghai Major champions, Team Secret, and pushing the TI5 Championship team, Evil Geniuses, to a deciding third match.

At the SL iLeague Dota Invitational LAN, the Ukrainian team was on fire in front of their hometown audience. Spectacular performances led the squad to the grand finals against ViCi Gaming Reborn, where it took four incredibly intense, hair-raising matches for VG.Reborn to clinch the championship title.

A nod to their thrilling performances and renewed vigor, Na’Vi received a direct invite to the WePlay LAN – where they took a 5th-6th place finish, after topping their group phase.

The Ukrainian team was the crowd favorite at the Manila Major and didn’t disappoint. They landed a commendable 7th-8th place. Earlier today, Na’Vi clinched the second place at ESL One Frankfurt, after being defeated by OG in a clean 3:0 sweep.

The International

The International is the annual Dota 2 tournament hosted by Valve Corporation. The International made its debut in August 2011, with a total prize pool of $1.6 million.

Last year’s event, The International 5, took place between August 3rd-8th at the KeyArena – a multi-purpose arena in Seattle, Washington, with a maximum capacity of over 17,000. The Dota 2 community contributed with a staggering $16,829,613 to the $1.6 million base prize pool, making the total prize fund of almost $18,429,613 million the largest in esports history. The International titleholder is North-American team Evil Geniuses.

This year’s main event will take place at the KeyArena in Seattle, Washington, between August 8th-13th. All 16 participating teams – yet to be established – are expected to advance to the main event. All 16 of those teams are also expected to receive a share of the prize-pool.

The International 6 prize-pool has outpaced The International 5 one from the very beginning. In the first two hours, the Battle Pass sales have enhanced the prize-pool by close to $275,000 – a 38% increase compared to the TI5 sales in the same period of time. The prize-pool broke the $10 million mark on June 5th. As of June 19th, the total TI6 prize-pool is already over $12.3 million.