TI6 Qualifiers NA winners: DC to main event, compLexity clinch Wild Card spot

Digital Chaos eased into The International 6 main event with a 3:2 win over compLexity Gaming. TI6 Qualifiers NA winners, Digital Chaos and Evil Geniuses, will join six invited and six other qualified teams directly into the main event. compLexity Gaming will 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.

Digital Chaos is the second team to qualify for The International 6 main event from the Americas region, after defeating compLexity Gaming, 3:2, in the TI6 Qualifiers NA Grand Finals. compLexity Gaming have claimed the Wild Card spot for the region.

Digital Chaos managed to nick the main event spot through a rather narrow victory. Even so, their success was well-deserved. They expended more energy on laying the foundations for their players to shine and they put enough focus on denying coL space, cancelling out the emphasis of their most dangerous players and capitalizing on their mistakes.

Digital Chaos will join OG, Team Liquid, Newbee, MVP.Phoenix, Na’Vi, LGD Gaming, TnC Gaming (first winner of the SEA qualifiers), Evil Geniuses (first winner of the Americas qualifiers), Team Secret (first winner of the European qualifiers), Wings Gaming (first winner of the Chinese qualifiers), Fnatic (second winner from the SEA qualifiers), Alliance (second winner from the European qualifiers), and one more Chinese representative in The International 6 main event, between August 8th – August 13th, at the Key Arena in Seattle, Washington.

By reaching the Wild Card series, compLexity’s minimum expectation was achieved. They will make the trip to Seattle and join the ranks of other TI6 Wild Card contenders: XctN (from Southeast Asia), Escape Gaming (from Europe), and one more team from China (yet to be determined).

However, for compLexity Gaming, the pressure is not off quite yet. Not that they have seemed to play with any pressure on them throughout the qualifiers, anyway. For most of the qualifiers, coL have looked confident, consistent and composed. Had they not dropped a game to FDL during the Round Robin stage, they would have been the first team to qualify for the main event in the Americas region. They still have areas in which they can improve – just like all the other Wild Card contenders – and whoever does so the quickest stands the best chance of reaching the main event.

TI6 Qualifiers NA: Uneven and predictable

The Americas region was left without a direct invite to this year’s International. Subsequently, Valve only managed to find six teams to invite into the Regional Qualifiers, as opposed to eight per region for Europe, China and Southeast Asia. To make matters even worse, Not Today – who were initially among the Regional Qualifiers invitees for the Americas region – got their invite revoked, due to last minute roster changes. The NA region was left with only five invited teams (Digital Chaos, compLexity Gaming, FDL, Vultur Gaming, and Drinking Boys) and two qualified through the Open Qualifiers (Evil Geniuses and Void Boys).

The lack of balance among the TI6 Qualifiers NA contenders was crystal clear from the very beginning. As expected, Evil Geniuses, Digital Chaos and compLexity Gaming had solid performances and could have easily posed a threat in any of the other three geographical regions. The other contenders, however, were underwhelming.

The TI6 Qualifiers NA Round Robin stage was quick and rather uneventful, many of the encounters were heavily one-sided and were finished in 15-20 minutes. The playoffs continued to show quick and decisive victories. The lopsided qualifiers have incited a lot of criticism from the Dota 2 community. The fairness of the TI6 Qualifiers NA in comparison to other regions was questioned throughout all four days of the competition.

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 will advance to the main event and are 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 29th, the total TI6 prize-pool is already over $14 million – a $12.4 million contribution (over 777% increase).